The timeline for elements

  • 100

    Discovery of Silver (Ag)

    Discovery of Silver (Ag)
    Known since ancient times
  • 100

    Discovery of Tin (Sn)

    Discovery of Tin (Sn)
    Known since ancient times
  • 400

    Alchemy in Greco-Roman Egypt

    Alchemy in Greco-Roman Egypt
    The first references to true alchemy, with its idea of transmutation seems to be from the third and fourth century A.D. Greco-Roman Egypt.
  • Sep 14, 1144

    Alchemy in Medieval Europe

    Alchemy in Medieval Europe
  • Discovery of the Element Phosphorus

    Discovery of the Element Phosphorus
    Hening Brnad, German alchemist
  • Period: to

    Discovery of 60 Elements

  • Definiton of Element

    Definiton of Element
    1661 Boyle defined an element as a substance that cannot be broken down into a simpler substance by a chemical reaction
  • Discovery of Cobolt

    Discovery of Cobolt
    Cobalt was discovered by Georg Brandt, a Swedish chemist, in 1739.
  • Discovery of Nickel

    Nickel was discovered by the Swedish chemist Axel Fredrik Cronstedt in the mineral niccolite (NiAs) in 1751.
  • Discovery of Magnesium

    Magnesium was discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy at 1755 in England
  • Discovery of Hydrogen

    Henry Cavendish
  • Discovery of Fluorine

    Discovery of Fluorine
    Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovered fluorine and Henri Moissan (1866)found a way to isolate it, 15 years after it’s initial discovery.
  • Discovery of Nitrogen

    Discovery of Nitrogen
    Daniel Rutherford discovered nitrogen in 1772 and called it noxious gas or fixed air
  • Discovery of Oxygen

    Discovery of Oxygen
    Oxygen was discovered in 1774 by Joseph Priestley in England. Joseph Priestley and Carl Wilhelm Scheele both independently discovered oxygen, but Priestly is usually given credit for the discovery as he published earlier.
  • Discovery of Chlorin

    Discovery of Chlorin
    Carl William Scheele at 1774 in Sweden
  • Discovery of Molybdenum (Mo)

    Discovery of Molybdenum (Mo)
    Carl Welhelm Scheele
  • Discovery of Chromium

    Chromium was discovered in 1780 by French chemist Nicolas Louis Vauquelin in Paris.
  • Discovery of Yttrium

    Johan Gadolin
  • Discovery of Zirconium (Zr)

    Martin Heinrich Klaproth
  • Recognition of carbon as element

    Antoine Lavoisier's pioneering chemistry textbook Traité Élémentaire de Chimie, published in Paris in 1789, lists carbon as an "oxidizable and acidifiable nonmetallic element" Carbon is known since ancient times.
  • Discovery of Strontium

    Adair Crawford
  • Discovery of Titanium

    Titanium was discovered by William Gregor at 1791 in England.
  • Discovery of Beryllium

    Beryllium was discovered by Nicholas Louis Vauquelin in 1797
  • Discovery of Vanadium

    Vanadium was discovered in 1801 by the Spanish scientist Andres Manuel del Rio.
  • Discovery of Niobium (Nb)

    Charles Hatchett
  • Discovery of Tantalum

    Anders Gustaf Ekenberg
  • Discovery of Rhodium (Rh)

    William Hyde Wollaston
  • Discovery of Palladium (Pd)

    William Hyde Wollaston
  • Discovery of Sodium

    Discovery of Sodium
    The discovery of sodium is attributed to a British scientist named Humphry Davy in 1806
  • Discovery of Potassium

    Discovery of Potassium
    Potassium was discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy at 1807 in England
  • Discovery of Boron

    Discovery of Boron
    Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis Jacques Thénard (30 June 1808)
  • Discovery of Calcium

    Discovery of Calcium
    Calcium was discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy at 1808 in England
  • Discovery of Lithium

    Lithium was discovered by Johan Arfvedson in 1817 in Stockholm, Sweden
  • Discovery of Selenium

    Jöns Jacob Berzelius 1817
  • Discovery of Cadmium (Cd)

    Friedrich Strohmeyer
  • Discovery of the Element Silicon

    Jons Jacob Berzelius 1824 (Sweden)
  • Discovery of Aluminium

    Aluminium was discovered by Hans Christian Oersted at 1825 in Denmark.
  • Discovery of Bromine

    Antoine-Jérôme Balard 1826
  • Discovery of Ruthenium (Re)

    Discovery of Ruthenium (Re)
    Karl Karlovich Klaus
  • Discovery of Rubidium

    Discovery of Rubidium
    Robert Bunsen
    Gustav Kirchhof
  • Discovery of Indium (In)

    Discovery of Indium (In)
    Ferdinand Reich
    Hieronymus Theodor Richter
  • Discovery of Helium

    Pierre Janssen was a French astronomer who discovered helium in 1868
  • Publish first periodic table - Dimitri Mendeleev

    Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist, was the first scientist to make a periodic table much like the one we use today
  • Discovery of Gallium

    Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran 1875
  • Discovery of Scandium

    Scandium was discovered by Lars F. Nilson in 1879, in Uppsala, Sweden
  • Discovery of Germanium

    Discovery of Germanium
    Clemens Winkler 1886
  • Discovery of Argon

    Discovery of Argon
    Argon was discovered by Sir William Ramsay, Lord Rayleigh at 1894 in Scotland
  • Discovery of Neon

    Discovery of Neon
    Neon was discovered in 1898 by William Ramsay and Morris Travers at University College London
  • Discovery of Krypton

    Sir William Ramsay
    Morris M. Travers 1898
  • Discovery of Technetium

    Discovery of Technetium
    Carlo Perrier
    Emilio Segrè
  • Discovery of Neptunium

    Discovery of Neptunium
    In 1940, Glenn Seaborg artificially produced heavy mass elements such as neptunium. These new elements were part of a new block of the periodic table called ‘actinides’.
  • Alchemy in the Islamic world

    Alchemy in the Islamic world
    Jābir ibn Hayyān (known as "Geber" in Europe) introduced a new approach to alchemy, based on scientific methodology and controlled experimentation in the laboratory, which is considered the start of chemstry.