Roy Alexander
I am primarily a museum exhibit designer, and in a design office where I worked I saw a drawing list that included the words "3D periodic Table". By the time I located the drawing, and found it to be a standard flat table with raised letters, I was hooked on the 3D concept. I had recently been having discussions concerning reality, and had concluded that all real things must have at least three dimensions, and I was convinced that the periodic table was real - what reflected reality more?. (...or more of reality!)
Subsequent study of the Periodic Law and the history of the periodic table revealed that my basic rationale for developing the Alexander Arrangement of the Elements was only one of the many good reasons for producing it for the public to share.
My hard fought U.S. patent (#3581409) covered the area in the main body that descends from one row to meet the one below (spiral? multi helix?) at the end of one period and the start of another, eliminating the 12+ breaks in the continuity without disturbing the other accepted relationships. It brings the transition elements into the organization rather than being awkwardly orphaned, as flat charts make necessary. This, and the more modern way of thinking about Hydrogen - as being in more families than one - shows the pre-eminence of the 3D form.
Hoping to provide a more correct chart for students - especially beginners - I designed three versions. One was large enough to be used for classroom display - with data in the boxes - and other models for study and interactive use, with only numbers in the boxes, other element data to be completed in class and then formed into 3D. A third desktop reference model, appropriately called the DeskTopper® followed.
A large part of my time and resources is dedicated to the promotion and improvement of periodic tables of the chemical elements and auxiliary material with the goal of introduction of them into classrooms, laboratories, chemistry textbooks, and reference material, universally replacing the conventional flat form.
After a decade of promoting only the AAE online, I recognize that the iconic flat table will not be discarded quickly, and we now offer the best quality periodic table materials of all types and manufacture here on AllPeriodicTables.com. Also, a current effort is under way to combine the logic of the AAE with the beauty of Theo Gray's element photos - the best of both.
Order an Alexander Arrangement of the Elements
Roy Alexander of AlexanderDESIGN, on the invention of a periodic table
Gray's Illustrated Element Playing Cards Scerri's Books
©2008 AlexanderDESIGN
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last update 05/11/07