The Fascinating Story of the Periodic Table: The Full Story
The Karlsruhe Congress


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By 1860, around 60 elements were discovered. However, the situation was chaotic with respect to valence, molecular weights, equivalent weights, etc.
At the First International Congress held from 3 to 5 September 1860 at Karlsruhe, Germany, all these issues were addressed. Most of the renowned chemists - Mendeleev, Lothar Meyer, Newlands, Bunsen, Berzelius, Kekule - attended it.

At the Congress, Cannizzaro explained the use of Avogadro’s hypothesis for the atomic and molecular weight determination and distributed a pamphlet of atomic weights determined by him. It was now the right time to start looking at the patterns among the properties of elements.

The natural step that followed was to start ‘classifying’ the elements looking at the similarities and differences in the properties and also using atomic weights.

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