A necessary prerequisite to the construction of the periodic table was the discovery of the individual elements. Although elements such as gold, silver, tin, copper, lead and mercury have been known since antiquity, the first scientific discovery of an element occurred in 1649 when Hennig Brand discovered phosphorous. During the next 200 years, a vast body of knowledge concerning the properties of elements and their compounds was acquired by chemists By 1869, a total of 63 elements had been …showed first 75 words of 1841 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1841 total…pairs. The Modern Periodic Table The last major changes to the periodic table resulted from Glenn Seaborg's work in the middle of the 20th Century. Starting with his discovery of plutonium in 1940, he discovered all the transuranic elements from 94 to 102. He reconfigured the periodic table by placing the actinide series below the lanthanide series. In 1951, Seaborg was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work. Element 106 has been named seaborgium (Sg) in his honor.