edited by:
JAMES 0. SCHRECK University of Northern Colorado Gmeley, CO 80639
C. MARVINLANG Universily of Wisconsin Stevens Point, WI 54481
A Simple Postage Stamp Periodic~Wle - ,
~ l . h a r r i ~ 6 Ferramlo, s~~. and R. Miralles centre de Professors d8Alcoi.Consellerla de Cultura, Educacio i Ciencia, Generalitat ~dlenciafla.a m ~ r e
.?&dm Spain
Since the publication in 1869 of Mendeleev's ideas ahout the periodic arrangement of the elements (Fig. 1, stamp #I), the periodic table has been one of the most widely used teaching tools in chemistry and chemical education. In recent years several notes or articles have been published in this Journal and other periodicals regarding the periodic (1-3). table. These deal with the orieins of the ~ e r i o d i table c the etymology of the elrmentfi(.l), the fonnat of the periodic table 15-%.and the instructional and ex~lnnatorvusenof the periodic table (IO-13).Recently, a proposed re;ision of the ~ e r i o d i ctable (6-9)has marked much controversy. The re;ision began about five sagowhen rhe ~ m e r i c a n ~ h e m i cal Society nnd the International Union of I'ureand Applied
Chemistry joined together to find names for groups of elements in the periodic tahle that could he accepted by chemists throughout the world. As evidenced by the number of published responses in the column "Letters to the Editor" in Chemical and Engineering News, consensus seems as far away as it was when the effort began. A variety of techniques have been used to enhance instruction of the periodic tatjle. A punle dealing with the periodic table has appeared (14). Painting a periodic table bn a classroom wall has been proposed and found to be instructive, colorful, and useful (15).Time-Life Books prepared a 24-page color layout uf each element in its natural state along w ~ t ha brief description of its properties (161.
Figure 1. Periodic Table of elemental squares for depicting an element's discoverer w natural source as shown on postage stamps 882
Journal of Chemical Education
O w tht, past decade. Instruments for Research and Indus. t r y rILRI has treated recinients of their annual calendars t o unique forms of the periodic table (17). For example, a threedimensional periodic cube and a Deriodic Dvramid have been presented. In themselves, each 6f thesetechniques stimulates learning about the periodic table. We have developed a unique way to stimulate student interest in the periodic table through the use of postage stamps. The use of postage stamps as an instructional actwity has been demonstrated in this mini-series, for example, in teaching concepts of introductory general chemistry (18) and in the posting of a chemical stamp display with a corresponding description of the person or event depicted on the stamp (19). Postage stamps have a general, universal appeal because the chemistry student can learn about the natural source of the element, its discoverer, and the scientific climate at the time of the discovery. We used postage stamps as an mstructional activity on the periodic table in the following manner. First, using the design of the periodic table shown in Pigure 1,the student collects and places stamps on each elemental square (see Table 1).The stamps depict the element's discoverer and/or a natural source of the element. For exam-
ple, Dmitri Mendeleev, who established the principle of periodic ~ r o ~ e r t i eofs the known elements. is ~ o r t r a v e don stamp -#i.This stamp acts as an overlay of'the periodic squares. Stamp # 2 features Joseph Priestley, the Englishman who discovered oxygen in 1774. The life of Priestley was brlefly discussed in an earlier article in thisseries (18). Johan Gadolin, a Finnish chemist, is shown on stamp #3. On a trip to Sweden in 1794, he was shown a new mineral that had been obtained a t the Ytterby quarry. Fascinated by the mineral, he tested i t and discovered that it contained an oxide that was very much different than the typical oxides common a t the time (silica, iron oxide, etc.). This rare oxide was later shown by others to be a mixture and found to contain over a dozen elements, now called the rare earth elements. One of the rare earth elements, gadolinium, is named in his honor. Stamp 4, from Spain, portrays the brothers, Juan and Fausto lhuyar, codiscoverers of wolfram (tungsten) in 1783. Juan Elhuyard studied medicine and chemistry for five years in Paris. Called back to Spain, he was sent with his brother, Fausto, to study geology, mineralogy, and metallurgy. Spain was preparing for war with
2
Table 2. Table 1.
Stamps of Flgure 1
Stamp
Issuing Country
Year of Issue
Scott Catalog Number
1 2 3
RUSSIB United States Finland Spain Yugoslavia Sweden
1957 1983 1960 1983 1960 1942
1906 2038 370 2338 1500 335
4 5 6
Stamps of Figure 2
Stamo
lssuim Countw
Year of Issue
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 6
France France France France Turkey Pakistan Turkey R.S.A.
1963 1943 1958 1957 1979 1969 1981 1973
Scan Catalw Number
Figure 2. Descriptive layout for a specific element, for exempie, chromium. An interestingarticle abom the etymology of Welements has been discussed in ref 4, and a series of articles about the history of elements can be found in Miller. F. A. Philafelia Chimica 1983, 5. 80: 1883, 5, 1 1 4 1984, 6, 16: 1984, 6, 12: 1984, 6,9. The data far the physical constants shown here are from Handbook of Chemistry andPhysics, 6th ed.: Chemical Rubber Company.
Volume 64
Number 8
~ugust1987
663
Eng!and, and the minister of the Spanish navy wanted to use their knowledge of metallurgy to treat iron and steel in the manufacture of cannon. Later, on a trip to Sweden, Juanmet Carl Scheele and together they searched for a new element. Upon his return to G a i n , he continued the experiments that he began with Scheele and succeeded in isolating tungsten. A natural source of zinc is sphalerite. This ore, pictured on stamp #5, consists of zinc sulfide. Finally, stamp #6 portrays Carl Wilhelm Scheele, the Swedish apothecary who discovered, among other substances, chlorine. Interestingly, he observed the nature of oxygen two years before Priestly's discovery. Second, the student chooses a specific element and then develops the history of that element through the use of ~ o s t a e estamns much in the same wav that is shown for chro&ium in ~ i ~ u2r (see e Table 2). chromium is a bluishwhite. hard, and brittle metal. Its name is derived from the Greek work chroma, which means "color", because of the many different colors exhibited by chromium-containing compounds. These compounds are valued as pigments for their vivid green, yellow, red, and orange colors. For example, the ruby takes its color from chromium. The physical properties (atomic number, atomic weight, density, melting point, and boilingpoint) are given on the upper right portion of Figure 2. The Frenchman, L. N. Vauquelin, discovered chromium in 1797 (Fig. 2, stamp #I). Louis Vauguelin was the son of a peasant, who, with the help of his village priest, went to Paris to study. He also isolated asparagine from asparagus in 1806 and served for a time in the Frenchlegislature. Contemporaries of Vauquelin, and chemists in their own right, were Antoine Lavoisier (stamp #2), Claude Berthollet (stamp #3), and Louis Thenard (stamp #4). Lavoisier's fundamental work on combustion and the separation of hydrogen gas from water by a unique reduction experiment carried out in a heated gun barrel, earned him a leading position among early chemists. Berthollet, unlike Lavoisier, did not believe that oxygen is the characteristic constituent of acids. He was the first to propose chlorine as a bleaching itgent and did work that foreshadowed the Law of Mass Action. Thenard was the son of a poor peasant who strueeled hard to obtain an education for his son. While a s t u d z a t Paris, he was befriended by Vauquelin, who had not foreotten his own earlv Iife. Thenard discovered hvdrogen peroxide and published an important four-volume text on chemistry. Chromium does not occur free in nature. The chief ore is chromite, FeCr20a,shown on stamp #5 from Turkey. The major chromium-producing countries are Turkey (stamp #7), the Republic of South Africa (stamp #a), Russia, the Phillipines, Southern Rhodesia, Yugoslavia, and New Caledonia. The world production of chromium is 2.33 million tons. Practically all the chromium used in the US. is imported. Chromium does not tarnish, is very resistant to corrosion, and takes a high polish. Its principal uses are in alloys, particularly steel, and in chrome plating (the electrolytic deposition of a layer of chromium onto another metal) (20). For the manufacture of stainless steel (stamp #6), which is mainly iron, chromium, and nickel, an alloy of iron and chromium (ferrochrome) is produced from chromite by reduction with carbon or silicon in an electric furnace, as shown in the equation
The chromium obtained is used directly in steelmaking. Chrome plating produces a shiny, attractive surface with high resistance to wear and corrosion. Because the chromium laver itself alwavs has Dinholes which would allow corrosion tb occur, an object is first plated with copper, providing resistance, and subseauentlv with chromium. The chromium surface is finally piotectkd by a thin layer of oxide. Last, the posters are shared and discussed in the class684
Journal of Chemical Education
Table 3.
Discoverers of Some Chemical Elements Issuing Country
Element Aluminum Argon
F. Wohler W. Ramsay J. Rayleigh Beryllium L. N. Vauguelin Cesium G. Kimhoff R. Bunsen Chlorine C. Scheele Fluorine H. MOiSSan Hafnium G. Hevesy Neodymium C. v. Welsbach J. Priestly Oxygen Protactinium F. Saddy 0. Hahn L. Meitner J. Cranston Radium P. 8 M. Curie Selenium J. Berzelius Tungsten J. 8 F. Elhuyar A. M. del Ria Vanadium N. Selstrom
Table 4.
Year of issue
Scott Catalog Number
West Germany Sweden Sweden France East Germany
-
Sweden Sweden Sweden Austria United States Sweden East Germany Austria France Sweden Spain Mexico
-
Natural Sources of Chemical Elements
Element
Natural Source
Aluminum Antimony Arsenic Barium Beryllium Boron Bromine Calcium Carbon Chlorine Chromium Cobalt Copper Fluorine Gold iodine Iron Magnesium Manganese Molybdenum Nickel Niobium Phosphorus Silicon Silver Sodium Sulfur Tantalum Tin Tungsten Uranium Vanadium Zinc Zirconium
Bauxite Stibnite Arsenapyrite Barite Beryl Caiemanite Sea Salts Gypsum Diamond Halite Chromite Erythrite Malachite Fluorite Native sea Salts Magnetite Dolomite RhodochroJite Wuitenite NiCCOlite Tsntalite Phosphates Quartz Proustile Halite Native Tantaiite Cassiterite Wolframite Uraninite Vanadinite Sphalerite Zircon
Issuing Country
Year of Issue
Scon Catalog Number
Greece Turkey Portugal Greece Mozambique Turkey France
Greece Botswana East Germany Turkey East Germany Zambia Mozambique Zaire France Mozambiq~e Yugoslavia United States Yugoslavia Botswana Mazambiaue Nauru Zaire East Germany East Germany TurXey Mozambique Zaire Portugal Zaire Zambia Yugoslavia Mozambique ~
~
~
~
1982 1980 1971
267 1500 501
room hg e ~ r hstudent thereby increaiing their le\,el of understandinr of the oeriodic table. Readers interested in weparing a postal stamp periodic table on elements have a variety of stamps to choose from that depict discoverers of the chemical elements and natural sources of the elements. Suggested examples of stamps are given in Table 3 and 4.
10. Weterman,E. L. J . Chem Edue. 1919.56.470. ,I. Firrehing,F. H. J.Chem. Educ. 1981,,58,478. , P.:Sienko, M. 3 . J C h m ~ E d u c1983.60.691. . 12. ~ d w s r d sP. 1P. Rayless, P. L.rl Chem.Educ. 1983.60, 546. 14. 8oxer.R. A m w Lab. 1984, (June),118. 15. Hohe,P. J. J. Chem. Educ. 1982.59.243. 16. Lapp, R. E. Mottar; Time: New York, 1983; pp 126-149. 17. Instruments for Research and industry, 108 Franklin Avenue, Box 159. Cheltenham. PA 19012. L8. Schreck,J. 0.J. Chem.Edur. 1986.63.283. 19. Chenier. P. J. J. Chem. Edue. 1986.63.498. 20. Bailer, J. C., Jr., .t d Chemistry, 2nd 4.:Academic Orlando, FL, 1984: p 1018.
Volume 64
Number 8
August 1987
685
