John Newlands

John Alexander Reina Newlands (November 26, 1837 – July 29, 1898), commonly known by his first and last name as John Newlands, was a British chemist whose “law of octaves” noted a pattern in the atomic structure of elements with similar chemical properties, who attempted this within the 62 elements known at that time. He arranged them in an ascending order based on their atomic masses and observed that every 8th element had similar properties. On the basis of this observation, Newland’s law of octaves was formulated.

The law of octaves states that every eighth element has similar properties when the elements are arranged in the increasing order of their atomic masses. An illustration detailing the elements holding similar properties as per Newland’s law of octaves is provided above.