100 YEARS AGO

The value and possibilities of wireless telegraphy as a journalistic adjunct are described in Saturday's Times by the special correspondent who established a wireless telegraph system at the theatre of war operations in the Far East with such success that both the belligerents regarded the enterprise as dangerous to their interests. The Japanese Government placed such limitations upon the free movements of the Haimun — the vessel chartered by the Times for its wireless telegraph service — that this means of communication was discontinued of necessity; and there seems little doubt that in future the use of all systems of wireless communication will be controlled by international law.

From Nature 1 September 1904.

50 YEARS AGO

A New Periodic Table of the Elements Based on the Structure of the Atom. To demonstrate the periodicity in the properties of the chemical elements, Lothar Meyer chose the most direct representation: he plotted the elements in the order of their atomic weights on the abscissa, and the values of the property in question on the ordinate. At the same time, Mendeléef published the Periodic Law in the form of tables... During the following decades innumerable attempts were made to improve on Meyer and Mendeléef. All sorts of representations, trees with branches, concentric circles, spirals, figure-eights, and various three-dimensioned curves were tried;...behind all this was the hope to get nearer to the mystery of the periodic system if a more perfect arrangement could be found. But the scientific result of all these attempts was nil... It is somewhat astonishing to see that quite recently “A New Periodic Table of the Elements” has been published which is a revival of the old discarded attempts. The curves, for example, which represent the specific gravity of the elements, are based on one of the well-tried spirals and can, naturally, not avoid the old drawbacks... The author recommends even a cone-shaped periodic chart, another repetition of previous suggestions; whoever takes the trouble to follow the advice to cut the drawing out and to gum it together as a cone, will scarcely get any insight into the sequence of chemical elements which the usual tables do not give.

From Nature 4 September 1954.