Places of the Periodic Table

Key to map records

• The first two fields, title and keywords, describe the person, place, element, or event associated with a given location. For example, who was born or buried there, and what element or aspect of the periodic table they discovered.
• Location contains, as available, the name and address of the location, including elements in the language of the location as well as in English.
• The element # field contains the atomic number of the element or elements associated with a location, or other designations for developments of the periodic table. Most of these designations contain the word periodicity, with or without a < or > sign. Periodicity designates a discoverer of the periodic law; <periodicity signifies an important development before the discovery of chemical periodicity, in many cases a pre-requisite of its discovery; >periodicity signifies a change in or to the periodic table after the discovery of chemical periodicity. Two later developments have signs of their own: Z signifies atomic number and isotopes the isotope concept.
• latitude and longitude give the location of the site in decimal degrees. Positive latitudes are north of the equator and negative ones south of it. Positive longitudes are east of the prime meridian (Greenwich, England, UK) and negative ones west of it.
• The next two fields, info (link) and more info contain links to further information about the person, place, or discovery.
• The continent field lists the continent of the location.
• Type of site attempts to categorize what the location was at the time of the event that happened there.
  • Lab is a laboratory, broadly considered. A + indicates that the building is still a laboratory, = indicates that the building is still standing, and – that the historical building is no longer there.
  • Mineral designates a source of a mineral, usually a mine, sometimes a spring. Again, + indicates that it is a working mine, – that traces of the mining activity are no longer evident.
  • Residence designates a dwelling of the associated person.
  • Exhibit designates a museum or other exhibit, often of historical minerals or apparatus.
  • University designates a university if the location could not be traced to a specific lab.
  • Marker designates a plaque, statue, or other monument (tombstone). While many places besides these sites also have markers, in these sites the marker is the reason for including the site.
  • Municipality, nation, and landmass designate locations larger than particular buildings or institutes after which elements were named.
• Rediscovery? refers to Rediscovery of the Elements, a project of James and Virginia Marshall of the University of North Texas. In the course of more than a decade, the Marshalls visited, photographed, and wrote about places associated with the discoveries of chemical elements. Most of the sites on this map come from a list of sites provided by Jim Marshall. (Sadly, Virginia ("Jenny") passed away in 2014.) Sites listed in the Rediscovery of the Elements project are marked with a check mark, ✓.