Lothar Meyer's system of the elements

1864/1870 Fire and matter theory

A periodic system of the elements, obtained by arranging the known elements by increasing atomic weight; it revealed itself in families with the same valence and in a striking curve of atomic volume as a function of atomic weight.

In his 1864 textbook the German Julius Lothar Meyer, using Cannizzaro's atomic weights, arranged 28 elements in six families with valences 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, and left a gap between silicon and tin for an element not yet discovered. In the 1868 manuscript for the second edition the system was extended to 52 elements, and in the paper submitted in December 1869 and published in 1870 he gave a vertical table with subgroups clearly marked and the famous curve of atomic volume, which displayed periodicity graphically.

Meyer hesitated to predict new elements and did not claim priority, yet a long priority dispute with Mendeleev was nevertheless waged; in 1882 the Royal Society of London awarded the Davy Medal to both.

Why this date

exact: the first edition of Die modernen Theorien der Chemie und ihre Bedeutung für die chemische Statik (Breslau, 1864) with a table of 28 elements in six families; this first publication is the axis value. The handwritten table for the second edition is dated July 1868 and was printed only in 1895. The full system with the atomic volume curve: the paper Die Natur der chemischen Elemente als Function ihrer Atomgewichte, submitted in December 1869, appeared in Liebigs Annalen, Supplementband 7, 354-364, in March 1870.

What it grew from

Unified system of atomic weights (Cannizzaro, Karlsruhe)

prerequisite for · Confidence: high

Meyer read Cannizzaro's pamphlet on the way back from Karlsruhe, in his words the scales fell from his eyes, and built his 1864 textbook with its table of 28 elements on Cannizzaro's weights.

Link sources
- Benfey O. T. «Meyer, Julius Lothar», Dictionary of Scientific Biography (via Encyclopedia.com) (1974) Verified 20 Sep 2026
  Meyer had attended the 1860 Karlsruhe Congress, where he heard Cannizzaro and read his paper on the use of Avogadro's hypothesis and the law of Dulong and Petit in establishing atomic weights and formulas.
- Benfey O. T. «Meyer, Julius Lothar», Dictionary of Scientific Biography (via Encyclopedia.com) (1974) Verified 20 Sep 2026
  Meyer edited Cannizzaro's paper for Oslwald's Klassiker der Exacten Wissenschaften and describes in that work how 'the scales fell from my eyes and my doubts disappeared and were replaced by a feeling of quiet certainty.'
- Leicester H. M. «Cannizzaro, Stanislao», Dictionary of Scientific Biography (via Encyclopedia.com) (1971) Verified 20 Sep 2026
  His book Die modernen Theorien der Chemie, published in 1864, utilized Cannizzaro's ideas throughout and exerted a strong influence on the chemical world.
- Science History Institute, «Setting the Table» (2019) Verified 20 Sep 2026
  In 1864, Congress attendee Julius Lothar Meyer incorporated Cannizzaro's ideas into his textbook Die Modernen Theorien der Chemie.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.

Further reading
Not evidence: these carry no quotation and support nothing we wrote. They are books and scans to read next.
- Cannizzaro S. «Abriss eines Lehrganges der theoretischen Chemie», A. Miolati, L. Meyer, Ostwalds Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften 30, Leipzig: Engelmann (1891)

Node sources

Benfey O. T. «Meyer, Julius Lothar», Dictionary of Scientific Biography (via Encyclopedia.com) (1974) Verified 20 Sep 2026
He then appends a tabulation (see Figure 1) of twenty-eight elements, arranged according to increasing atomic weight, in six families that have valences of 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, and 2, respectively.
Benfey O. T. «Meyer, Julius Lothar», Dictionary of Scientific Biography (via Encyclopedia.com) (1974) Verified 20 Sep 2026
In Meyer's classic paper of 1870, he adopted Mendeleev's use of a vertical form for the periodic table, publishing a table (Figure 3) in which the relation of the A- and B-subgroups of the chemical families is for the first time clearly indicated. He also attached his graphical representation of the variation of atomic volume of the solid elements (volume divided by atomic weight) when plotted against atomic weight (Figure 4), for which he is most generally known.
Benfey O. T. «Meyer, Julius Lothar», Dictionary of Scientific Biography (via Encyclopedia.com) (1974) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Meyer's independent establishment of the central principles underlying the periodic table of the elements was demonstrated in 1893, when Adolf Remelé, his successor at Neustadt-Eberswalde, showed him a handwritten draft periodic table (Figure 2) designed by Meyer for the second edition of Moderne Theorien and given to Remelé in July 1868.
Britannica, «Lothar Meyer» (2024) Verified 20 Sep 2026
His book Die modernen Theorien der Chemie (1864; 'Modern Chemical Theory'), a lucid treatise on the fundamental principles of chemical science, contained a preliminary scheme for the arrangement of elements by atomic weight and discussed the relation between the atomic weights and the properties of the elements.
Linda Hall Library, «Scientist of the Day: Lothar Meyer» (2019) Verified 20 Sep 2026
when the Royal Society of London in 1882 presented their prestigious Davy Medal to the discoverer of the periodic table, it was awarded jointly to Mendeleev and Meyer.

"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.

Lothar Meyer's system of the elements

Why this date

What it grew from

Unified system of atomic weights (Cannizzaro, Karlsruhe)

Other links

Periodic law

Node sources