The History of the Periodic Table 

It started when the Ancient Greeks visualized the atom and the Four Elements: fire, earth, water and air. They thought that the atoms
of fire were jagged and that is why it is painful to touch fire. They thought that the atoms of water were little spheres that easily slipped
passed one another. They thought that the particles making up earth was cubic and that is why earth stayed together. This theory
created beliefs that matter can be changed, but why couldn't iron be changed to gold? For centuries, "alchemists" tried in vain
to change common metals to gold. Much later, a scientist named Dmitrii Mendeleev started his work on creating the periodic
table for a textbook that he was writing. Legend says that he was inspired in a dream to creat the order of the elements
by their atomic number and weight. He played "chemical solitare" and made the 63 elements at that time into the first periodic table.