Edward G. Mazurs

Edward G. Mazurs (1894–1983) was a chemist who wrote a history of the periodic system of the chemical elements which is still considered a "classic book on the history of the periodic table".[1] Originally self-published as Types of graphic representation of the periodic system of chemical elements (1957), it was reviewed by the ACS in 1958 as "the most complete survey of the range of human imagination in representing graphically the Mendeleev periodic law."[2]

A revised "centenary" edition covering a full 100 years of periodic tables was republished under the title Graphic Representations of the Periodic System During One Hundred Years in 1974. Mazurs provided a comprehensive analysis and classification of periodic tables, listing and classifying over 700 periodic tables.[3] He recommended Charles Janet's left-step system and suggested that it could be expanded into three dimensions.[4]

Life and career

Mazurs was born in Latvia, then under Czarist rule. He earned a master's degree at the University of Riga (later the University of Latvia, teaching there after independence as a professor of chemistry, from 1919 to 1940.[5]

Mazurs fled with his wife and son when Latvia was reoccupied by the Soviet Union in 1944 and spent years as a refugee, some of it in a refugee camp in Regensberg, Germany. He immigrated to America in 1949. After working at Argo Corn Products, he eventually obtained a professorship at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.[6]

Publications

Sample illustration: Periodic table in the style of a space lemniscate by William Crookes

In a self-published book, Types of Graphic Representation of the Periodic System of the Elements (1957) he listed some 700 images published since 1862, classified under 146 heads.[7] He brought out a greatly expanded version in 1974: Graphic Representations of the Periodic System during One Hundred Years.[8][9][10]

Mazurs' books are difficult to use because the references are divided into 146 corresponding sections, and the index refers to the types and not to pages.[11] Nevertheless, his references are the most comprehensive and accurate ever compiled for the period covered. He cited authors writing in at least 24 languages and from fifty countries.[12]

Working before the age of the photocopier, he copied his illustrations by hand and generally brought them up to date by adding elements missing from the original works, and sometimes he changed them radically. In this respect his work was unsatisfactory. He gave 67 references to the modern standard medium long table, but paid it little attention, attributing its origin to Dmitri Mendeleev, who gave only a fragmentary description of it because he disliked interrupted series. Mazurs preferred tables based on electronic structure, notably that of Charles Janet and his own modification of it.[13]

Papers

His notes and papers are held in the library of the Science History Institute, 315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106, where they occupy 4 linear feet, and include lantern slides and transparencies of periodic tables which appear in his books.[5]

Periodic tables

Year Creator(s) Figure numbers & types (1957 edition)
1790Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Antoine Lavoisier, Claude Louis Berthollet, Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy3 Table
1830Jean-Baptiste Dumas4 Table
1830Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner5 Table
1840Leopold Gmelin6 V-shape
1860Julius Lothar Meyer7 Table
1863Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois8 Table
1863Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois & John Alexander Reina Newlands10 Table; 21 Tables of the Laws of Octaves
1864William Odling11 Table
1865John Alexander Reina Newlands9 Table; 22 1C1-1
1867/1869Gustavus Detlef Hinrichs12 Table
1868/1895Julius Lothar Meyer13 Table
1869Dmitri Mendeleev14, 15, 16, 17 Table ; 42 IIC1-1; 53 IIC2-3; 54 IIC2-4; 62 IIC1-1A; 79 IIIC3-5
1870Dmitri Mendeleev18, 20, Table; 24, 1C2-1
1870Heinrich Adolph Baumhauer29 1B2-4
1871Dmitri Mendeleev19 Table; 47 IIC2-1
1882Thomas Bayley82 IIIC3-6
1883Heinrich Friedrich Gretschel 1830-1892 & Georg Bornemann, 1855-30 1C2-4
1884Ernst Huth32 1B2-5
1885Karl Arnold 1853-192933 1C2-5
1886James Emerson Reynolds 1844-192044 IICI-2
1886Thomas Carnelley 1854-189059 IIC2-7
1887Flavian Mikhailovich Flavitskii 1848–191741 IIBI-1
1889Victor von Richter26 1C2-2
1892William T. Preyer27 1C2-2B
1892Henry Bassett, Sr.34 1A3-1; 68 IIIC3-1
1898William Crookes43 IIAI-2
1900George F. Horsley57 IIC2-5B
1900Karl Schirmeisen69 IIIA3-2
1905Frank Austin Gooch & Claude Frederic Walker70 IIIA3-2A
1905Alfred Werner75 IIIC3-3
1906George Woodiwiss50 IIC2-2
1910J. F. Tocher52 IIB2-3
1911Benjamin Kendall Emerson45 IIA2-1; 46 IIB2-1
1911Eduard von Stackelberg51 IIA2-3
1911Antonius van den Broek56 IIC2-5A
1911Curt Schmidt80 IIIC3-5A
1913Johannes Robert Rydberg63 IIIB2-1
1914Arthur Alphonzo Blanchard & Frank Bertram Wade28 1C2-3
1914Frederick Soddy48 IIA2-2
1915Alois Bilecki64 IIIA2-2
1916William Draper Harkins & R. E. Hall31 1A2-5
1916Hugo Stintzing65 IIIA3-1; 66 IIIB3-1
1918J. G. Vogel38 1A3-2
1918Curt Schmidt55 IIC2-5
1920George Schaltenbrand85 IIIA4-1
1922Eugenio Saz72 IIIC3-2
1925Andreas von Antropoff60 IIC2-7A
1926Andreas von Antropoff83 IIIC3-6A
1926C. J. Monroe & W. D. Turner86 IIIB4-1
1926Luigi Rolla & Giorgio Piccardi91 IIIC4-2A
1927John David Main Smith23 1C1-2
1927Charles Janet76 IIIC3-4
1928Charles Janet67 IIIB3-1C; 71 IIIB3-2; 74 IIIB3-2; 87 IIIB4-1A
1928O. J. Stewart25 1B2-2
1930Roy Gardner & Arrigo Mazzucchelli92 IIIC4-2B
1931C. H. Douglas Clark (Cecil Henry)90 IIIC4-2
1932F. M. Shemyakin36 1C3-1
1935Nicholas Opolonick61 IIIB1-1
1936Egon Wiberg 1901-197658 IIC2-6
1937Emil V. Zmaczynski84 IIIC3-6B
1938Robert A. Steinberg95 IIIC4-3
1941L. Sibaiya94 IIIB4-3
1942Friedrich Kipp49 IIB2-2
1943G. Haenzel93 IIIA4-3
1948George A. Scherer73 IIIA3-3
1948David T. Gibson88 IIIC4-1
1949G. M. Murashov40 1C3-2A
1950Frank O. Green & Bernard G. Jackson35 1B3-1
1951I. Aucken81 IIIA3-6
1953Gil Chaverri Rodríguez89 IIIC4-1C
1954A.I. Mashentsev37 1C3-1A
1955Edward G. Mazurs77 IIIC3-4C; 78 IIIC3-4B
1956Edward G. Mazurs39 1C3-2
  • Finding Aid to Edward G. Mazurs Collection of Periodic Systems Images. Science History Institute. Click on 'Finding Aid' to go to full finding aid.
  • Edward G. Mazurs Collection of Periodic Systems Images. Science History Institute Digital Collections. (87 high-resolution scans of models of the periodic table used by Edward G. Mazurs in Types of Graphic Representation of the Periodic System of Chemical Elements (1957).

References

  1. Scerri, Eric R. (2007). The periodic table : its story and its significance. New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press. p. 122. ISBN 9780195305739. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  2. Foster, Laurence S. (August 1958). "Types of graphic representation of the periodic system of chemical elements (Mazurs, Edward G. G.)". Journal of Chemical Education. 35 (8): 415. doi:10.1021/ed035p415.
  3. Jensen, William B. (1986). "CLASSIFICATION, SYMMETRY AND THE PERIODIC TABLE" (PDF). Comp. & Maths. With Appls. 12B (I/2). Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  4. Katz, Gary (August 18, 2007). "Post Mendeleevian Evolution of the Periodic Table" (PDF). Periodic Round Table.
  5. Finding Aid to Edward G. Mazurs Collection of Periodic Systems Images. Science History Institute. Click on 'Finding Aid' to go to full finding aid.
  6. Katz, Gary (2001). "The Periodic Table: An eight Period Table for the 21st Century". The Chemical Educator. 6 (6): 324–332.
  7. Mazurs, Edward G. (1957). Types of Graphic Representation of the Periodic System of Chemical Elements. The Author. p. 158.
  8. Mazurs, Edward G. (1974). Graphic Representations of the Periodic System during One Hundred Years. University of Alabama Press. p. 251. ISBN 978-0-8173-3200-6.
  9. Black, David V. (January 3, 2010). "Periodic Tables and Strange Attractors". The Elements Unearthed.
  10. Hargittai, István (2014). Symmetry: Unifying Human Understanding. Elsevier. pp. 492–499. ISBN 9781483149523.
  11. Hargittai, Balazs; Hargittai, Istvan (April 20, 2015). Culture of Chemistry: The Best Articles on the Human Side of 20th-Century Chemistry from the Archives of the Chemical Intelligencer. Springer. p. 188. ISBN 9781489975645. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  12. Katz, G. (2001). "The Periodic Table: An Eight-Period Table For The 21st Century" (PDF). Chem. Educator (6): 324–332. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  13. "1969 Mazurs Periodic System of Chemical Elements". The INTERNET Database of Periodic Tables. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
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