Article ID: CBB877714634

The Periodic Tableau: Form and Colours in the First 100 Years (2019)

unapi

While symbolic colour use has always played a conspicuous role in science research and education, the use of colour in historic diagrams remains a lacuna in the history of science. Investigating the colour use in diagrams often means uncovering a whole cosmology that is not otherwise explicit in the diagram itself. The periodic table is a salient and iconic example of non-mimetic colour use in science. Andreas von Antropoff's (1924) rectangular table of recurrent rainbow colours is famous, as are Alcindo Flores Cabral's (1949) application of colour in his round snail form, using the RGB scheme, and Mazurs's (1967) pine tree system, consisting of warm and cold colours that he attributed to specific groups of elements—an attribution that we can relate back to humoralism and alchemy. From the first periodic tables in the 19th century, individual researchers have used different colour regimes. While standardization may play an obvious role in chemistry and its diagrams, all the more impressive is the anarchistic use of colour in the various diagrams which continue to be created. This article focuses on periodic tables in chemical journals and text books, and explores and compares the development of colour codes found in the few existing polychrome diagrams from the 1920s to the 1970s.

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Authors & Contributors
Kragh, Helge S.
Scerri, Eric R.
Orna, Mary Virginia
Maar, Juergen Heinrich
Maar, Alexander
Zambon, Alfio
Concepts
Chemistry
Periodic system of the elements; periodic table
Chemical elements
Classification
Discovery in science
Biographical studies
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
21st century
18th century
Places
Russia
United States
Portugal
Austria
Great Britain
Brazil
Institutions
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
American Chemical Society
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