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Mary Elvira Weeks and Discovery of the Elements

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150 Years of the Periodic Table

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Abstract

Mary Elvira Weeks (1892–1975) was the author of the highly successful book, The Discovery of the Elements. She was born in Lyons, Wisconsin, and attended Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin (B.A. 1913), the University of Wisconsin (M.A. 1914), and the University of Kansas (Ph.D. 1927). In 1932, Weeks began publishing a series of more than twenty-one articles in the Journal of Chemical Education, and in 1933 she combined these articles in book form and published the first edition of The Discovery of the Elements. The book went through six further editions, ending with the 7th edition in 1968 which was co-authored with Henry M. Leicester. In 1944 Weeks moved to Wayne State University in Detroit to accept a post as a scientific researcher at the Kresge-Hooker Science Library. She retired in 1954 and stayed in Detroit until her death. In addition to these and other biographical details, the present paper contains an analysis of the changes made in the various editions of Discovery of the Elements, along with a study of how the book was received, as illustrated by excerpts from book reviews over the years. Much of the material in Discovery of the Elements is as enjoyable and informative today as it was when first published beginning in 1932.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Albert Franklin Gilman received his B.A. from Amherst College 1897, A.M. Amherst 1901, and his. Ph.D. from the University of Denver 1913, with the thesis Some Reactions of Oxycellulose. From 1897–1906, he taught science in Maine, New Hampshire, and Tennessee. He was Professor of Chemistry at Ripon College from 1906–1917. Gilman later taught at Huron College (SD), Illinois Wesleyan, Carroll College (WI), and the Central YMCA College of Arts and Sciences, Chicago. In 1908 he published A Laboratory Outline for Determinations in Quantitative Chemical Analysis, and in 1913 The Origin of the Republican Party.

  2. 2.

    Joseph Howard Mathews was one of the early researchers in colloid chemistry in the US. Mathews, who obtained his B.S. at the University of Wisconsin, joined the Wisconsin faculty after completing his Ph.D. under the physical chemist T. W. Richards at Harvard in 1908, with the thesis A Study of Compressibility and its Relation to Various Other Physical Properties of Certain Organic Compounds. Mathews was one of the original nine undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin who organized and founded Alpha Chi Sigma, the professional chemistry fraternity, in 1902. His gravestone contains visual references to the organization, showing his continued interest. Mathews collaborated with Wisconsin colleagues Farrington Daniels (1889–1972) and John Warren Williams (1898–1988) to publish Experimental Physical Chemistry in 1929. That book, through seven editions and with added authors from the Wisconsin chemistry faculty, was the market leader among physical chemistry laboratory textbooks until the 1970 s and was used by the author for her undergraduate physical chemistry laboratory work. Mathews was also an expert on scientific methods of crime detection. During his long career, he conducted research in this field and lectured on it at the University of Wisconsin and nationwide. He published his authoritative three-volume work Firearms Identification in 1962.

  3. 3.

    Hamilton Perkins Cady received his B.A. in 1897 from KU. He returned to Kansas in 1899 as an assistant professor and worked on his Ph.D. under Edward Curtis Franklin (1862-1937), a pioneer in the chemistry of ammonia and related compounds. Cady completed his Ph.D. in 1903 with the thesis Concentration Cells in Liquid Ammonia. In 1905, Cady discovered with fellow KU chemistry professor David F. McFarland that there was a significant amount of helium in a sample of Kansas natural gas. When they published their complete findings in November 1907 [28, 29], Cady commented that their work “assures the fact that helium is no longer a rare element, but a common element, existing in goodly quantity for uses that are yet to be found for it.” He served as chair of the KU Chemistry Department from 1920-1940.

  4. 4.

    Ray Q. Brewster was promoted to associate professor in 1921, and full professor in 1927, becoming chair of the Department of Chemistry in 1940, after Cady stepped down.

  5. 5.

    Hooker had emigrated to the U.S. in 1885 after getting his Ph.D. in Munich. He began his career as chief chemist with the Sugar Refining Company of Philadelphia. When he retired in 1915, Hooker spent a lot of his time enlarging his library. His objective was “the building of a world-famous library… [it] was known in 1935 as the most complete chemical library in the world” [49].

  6. 6.

    Sebastian Spering Kresge (1867-1966) established the Kresge Foundation in Detroit in 1924 with an initial gift of $1.6 million. He did this to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the S.S. Kresge Company, which began in 1899 as a single 5-and-10-cent store – a revolutionary merchandising idea at the time – and grew into a nationwide chain of stores. Many years later, the enterprise became known as Kmart Corp. Owing to the Foundation’s mission to benefit the city of Detroit, it was natural to approach them as a possible donor.

  7. 7.

    Hermes Trismegistus was associated with the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. He was the purported author of the Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of philosophical works probably written in the second century CE. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it inspired the development of alchemy, which became known as the “Hermetic Science.”

  8. 8.

    Tenney Lombard Davis (1890-1949) was an outstanding organic chemist who spent his career at MIT. He was an authority on the chemistry of explosives (he acted as the director of research for the National Fireworks Company of Boston), including the early history of pyrotechnics [67]. Although he wrote on many historical topics, the area for which he is chiefly known is Chinese alchemy, carried out with a series of Chinese collaborators.

  9. 9.

    Frederick Otto Koenig (1902-1974) spent 37 years doing research in thermodynamics and teaching at Stanford University. After he retired, he published articles on the history of science, especially the history of the second law of thermodynamics [69].

  10. 10.

    Hillier Krieghbaum (1902-1993) “was a man who stood at the forefront of journalism education during its formative years, regarding it not just as a training ground for future reporters and editors but as a means of bettering the profession and the individuals who inhabit it” [71]. He worked as a science writer for United Press at their Washington DC bureau in the mid-1930s and remained interested in science for the rest of his career. He was an assistant professor of journalism in 1938 at Kansas State College (later University) in Manhattan. He would eventually join the journalism department at New York University (1948-1973).

  11. 11.

    Linus Carl Pauling (1901-1994) received his Ph.D. degree in 1925 from the California Institute of Technology. He was on the faculty of CalTech from 1925-1964. He is the only person ever to win two unshared Nobel Prizes—for Chemistry (1954) and Peace (1962). Pauling was a pioneer in structural chemistry, quantum chemistry, and molecular biology. He introduced several indispensable scientific concepts including valence bond theory, the α-helix and β-sheet structures of proteins, and a new quantitative scale for electronegativity [74,75,76].

  12. 12.

    William Hodson Brock (1936- ) is a historian of chemistry and has concentrated on four main areas: the history of chemistry, the social history of Victorian science and mathematics, the development of scientific education, and the development of scientific periodicals [78].

  13. 13.

    Clemens Alexander Winkler (1838-1904) [79] studied at the Freiburg School of Mines and early on developed new techniques for analyzing glass. In 1885 he discovered the element germanium, which proved to be the third of Mendeleev’s predicted elements, eka-silicon.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Greg Girolami and Carmen Giunta, the co-organizers of the symposium that led to this book, for all their support and encouragement. I thank an anonymous reviewer for many helpful comments. I thank Carol Bray, now retired from the University of Kansas, for her wonderful article on Mary Elvira Weeks and her helpful discussions. I’d also like to thank Susan Teague, Business Manager, Dept. of Chemistry, University of Kansas, Alison Stankrauff, University Archivist, Wayne State University, and Mrs. Marsha Weeks for all their help in providing access to material and images. Images from all editions of Discovery of the Elements were reprinted with permission from (Weeks, ME (1933–1968) Discovery of the Elements. Journal of Chemical Education, Easton, PA). Copyright (1933–1968) Division of Chemical Education, Inc. of the American Chemical Society.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Vera V. Mainz

Authors
  1. Vera V. Mainz
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY, USA

    Carmen J. Giunta

  2. School of Chemical Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Vera V. Mainz

  3. School of Chemical Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Gregory S. Girolami

Appendices

Appendix 1: Publications of Mary Elvira Weeks

Books

Browne CA, Weeks ME (1952) A History of the American Chemical Society: Seventy-Five Eventful Years. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC

Weeks ME (1933) Discovery of the Elements; Collected Reprints of a Series of Articles Published in the Journal of Chemical Education. Journal of Chemical Education, Easton, PA

Weeks ME (1934) A Laboratory Manual of Qualitative Analysis. Edwards Brothers, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI, 1934. https://lccn.loc.gov/34010341. Accessed 13 Apr 2020

Weeks ME (1934) Discovery of the Elements. 2nd Edn. Journal of Chemical Education, Easton, PA

Weeks ME (1935) Discovery of the Elements. 3rd Edn. Journal of Chemical Education, Easton, PA

Weeks ME (1939) Discovery of the Elements. 4th Edn. Journal of Chemical Education, Easton, PA

Weeks ME (1945) Discovery of the Elements. 5th Edn. Journal of Chemical Education, Easton, PA

Weeks ME (1956) Discovery of the Elements: With a Chapter on Elements Discovered by Atomic Bombardment. 6th Edn. Journal of Chemical Education, Easton, PA

Weeks ME, Leicester HM (1968) Discovery of the Elements: Completely Rev. and New Material Added by Henry M. Leicester. Illus. Collected by F. B. Dains. 7th Edn. Journal of Chemical Education, Easton, PA.

Theses

Weeks ME (1914) The Effect of Various Negative Catalyzers on the Atmospheric Oxidation of Sodium Sulphite in Ultraviolet Light. Master’s Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Weeks ME (1927) The Role of Hydrogen Ion Concentration in the Precipitation of Calcium and Magnesium Carbonates. PhD Dissertation, University of Kansas

Papers — Chemistry

Cady HP, Kemmerer G, Weeks ME (1929) Role of Hydrogen-ion Concentration in the Precipitation of Calcium and Magnesium Carbonates. J Phys Chem 33:1769–1780

Caldwell JM, Weeks ME (1934) Victoria Blue BX as an Internal Indicator in Ceriometry. Trans Kansas Acad Sci 37:117–118

Mathews JH, Weeks ME (1917) Effect of Various Substances on the Photochemical Oxidation of Solutions of Sodium Sulfite. J Am Chem Soc 39:635–646

Weeks ME (1931) p-Phenetidine and p-Anisidine as Oxidation Indicators. Trans Kansas Acad Sci 34:158–163

Weeks ME (1932) Bio-o-Anisidine as Internal Indicator in the Dichromate Method for Iron. Indus Eng Chem Anal Edn 4:127–128

Papers — History of Chemistry

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. Foreword. J Chem Educ 9(1):3

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. I. Elements Known to the Ancient World. J Chem Educ 9(1):4–10

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. II. Elements Known to the Alchemists. J Chem Educ 9(1):11–21

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. III. Some Eighteenth-Century Metals. J Chem Educ 9(1):22–30

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. IV. Three Important Gases. J Chem Educ 9(2):215–235

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. V. Chromium, Molybdenum, Tungsten and Uranium. J Chem Educ 9(3):459–473

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. VI. Tellurium and Selenium. J Chem Educ 9(3):474–485

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. VII. Columbium, Tantalum, and Vanadium. J Chem Educ 9(5):863–884

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. VIII. The Platinum Metals. J Chem Educ 9(6):1017–1034

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. IX. Three Alkali Metals: Potassium, Sodium, and Lithium. J Chem Educ 9(6):1035–1045

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. X. The Alkaline Earth Metals and Magnesium and Cadmium. J Chem Educ 9(6):1046–1057

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. XI. Some Elements Isolated with the Aid of Potassium and Sodium: Zirconium, Titanium, Cerium, and Thorium. J Chem Educ 9(7):1231–1243

Weeks ME (1932) Paracelsus and the Discovery of Hydrogen. J Chem Educ 9(7):1296–1296

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. XII. Other Elements Isolated with the Aid of Potassium and Sodium: Beryllium, Boron, Silicon, and Aluminum. J Chem Educ 9(8):1386–1412

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. XIII. Some Spectroscopic Discoveries. J Chem Educ 9(8):1413–1434

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. XIV. The Periodic System of the Elements. J Chem Educ 9(9):1593–1604

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. XV. Some Elements Predicted by Mendeleeff. J Chem Educ 9(9):1605–1619

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. Vanadium (The Author Replies). J Chem Educ 9(9):1658–1659

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. XVI. The Rare Earth Elements. J Chem Educ 9(10):1751–1773

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. XVII. The Halogen Family. J Chem Educ 9(11):1915–1939

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. XVIII. The Inert Gases. J Chem Educ 9(12):2065–2078

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. XIII. Supplementary Note on the Discovery of Thallium. J Chem Educ 9(12):2078–2078

Weeks ME (1932) The Discovery of the Elements. III. A Correction. J Chem Educ 9(12):2127

Weeks ME (1933) The Discovery of the Elements. XIX. The Radioactive Elements. J Chem Educ 10(2):79–90

Weeks ME (1933) The Discovery of the Elements. XX. Recently Discovered Elements. J Chem Educ 10(3):161–170

Weeks ME (1933) The Discovery of the Elements. Chronology. J Chem Educ 10(4):223–227

Weeks ME (1933) The Discovery of the Elements. XXI. Supplementary Note on the Discovery of Phosphorus. J Chem Educ 10(5):302–306

Weeks ME (1933) Credit Where Due. J Chem Educ 10(8):510–510

Weeks ME (1934) Daniel Rutherford and the Discovery of Nitrogen. J Chem Educ 11(2):101–107.

Weeks ME (1934) Daniel Rutherford and the Discovery of Nitrogen. Correction. J Chem Educ 11(5):314

Weeks ME (1934) The Scientific Contributions of the de Elhuyar Brothers. J Chem Educ 11(7):413–419

Weeks ME (1934) The Author of “The Chemical Analysis of Bismuth. J Chem Educ 11(7):428

Weeks ME (1935) Frank Burnett Dains. Indus Eng Chem News Edn 13:118

Weeks ME (1935) The Discovery of Tellurium. J Chem Educ 12(9):403–409

Weeks ME (1935) The Scientific Contributions of Don Andres Manuel del Rio. J Chem Educ 12(4):161–166

Weeks ME (1936) Some Scientific Friends of Sir Walter Scott. J Chem Educ 13(11):503–507

Weeks ME (1936) M. and Mme. Joliot-Curie, Nobel Laureates, Chemistry, 1935. Homage from the Women Chemists of the United States Assembled at the Kansas City Meeting of the American Chemical Society, April 14, 1936. Publisher not identified, Place of publication not identified.

Weeks ME, Dains FB (1937) Mrs. A. H. Lincoln Phelps and her Services to Chemical Education. J Chem Educ 14(2):53–57

Weeks ME, Larson ME (1937) J. A. Arfwedson and his Services to Chemistry. J Chem Educ 14(9):403–407

Weeks ME (1938) The Chemical Contributions of Charles Hatchett. J Chem Educ 15(4):153–158.

Weeks ME (1938) Nils Gabriel Sefström—The Sesquicentennial of His Birth. Isis 29:49–57

Weeks ME, Amberg LO (1940) M.-E. Chevreul. The Fiftieth Anniversary of His Death. J Am Pharm Assoc (1912–1977) 29:89–96

Weeks ME (1943) An Exhibit of Chemical Substances Mentioned in the Bible. J Chem Educ 20(2):63–76

Weeks ME (1943) Max Speter (1883–1942). Isis 24:240–244

Weeks ME (1944) Don José Celestino Mutis, 1732–1808. J Chem Educ 21(2):55–56.

Weeks ME (1958) The Chemical Contributions of William Allen. J Chem Educ 35(2):70–73

Book Reviews

Weeks ME (1936) Antoine Lavoisier. The Father of Modern Chemistry by Douglas McKie. Isis 26:180–183

Weeks ME (1938) Historia de la física by Paul F. Schurmann. Isis 29:172–176

Weeks ME (1938) A Hundred Years of Chemistry by Alexander Findlay. Isis 29:176–179

Weeks ME (1957) Tobern Bergman as Pioneer in the Domain of Mineral Waters by Uno Boklund. J Chem Educ 34(10):A496–A497

Weeks ME (1957) Tobern Bergman: A Bibliography of His Works by Birgitta Mostrom. J Chem Educ 34(10):A500

Appendix 2: Quotes from Doris Brewster Swift—Life on Mississippi Street

In Life on Mississippi Street, Ms. Swift gives a diary entry made at the time, shown in italics. She then adds, with text not in italics, further comments, either to put the entry in context or adding other material. The volume is referenced in brackets at the end of the quote, followed by the page number. These are all the entries that mention Weeks in her three-volume work, as far as the author can determine.

October 31, Saturday [1925]. Harry and Charles dressed up to go frighten people. Charles said he was a goat, not a real goat, but a boy goat (ghost). Charles wanted us to be sure to lock both doors so no one would come into steal his pop corn which Miss Weeks gave him. At this time they would have knocked on doors, said “boo!”, then waited for the people to guess who they were. It was rare for any one to give the children a treat. Miss Weeks was a Chemistry Professor who lived in the little house on the corner next to 18th Street—across from our former house at 1737 [33], p 24.

March 4, Sunday [1928]. After Sunday School and church we go to Week’s for dinner. Listen to a good radio program in eve. While Doris goes to Durbin’s. Doris wants to live at Durbin’s. Elvira Weeks was a Chemistry professor, who lived with her Mother in the small cottage on the southeast corner of our block. They attended the Baptist Church and we frequently took them with us after we moved back to town. [33], p 124.

June 14, Thursday [1928]. Ray and I go down in the evening to hear the Republican convention over Miss Weeks’ radio. Count nominating votes for Hoover. . . . In 1928 it was a new thing to have the party conventions broadcast nation-wide [33], p 134.

October 2, Sunday [1938]. Ray has a bad cold so stays in bed. All the neighborhood goes to a cabin on Uncle Jimmy’s old place for a picnic. Lane’s—4, McBeth’s—5, Allen’s—5, Elbel’s—4, Lindstrom’s—5, Maddox’—3, Storer’s—6, Brewster’s—4, Six’—4, and Miss Weeks’—1. A total of forty-one people made the trip to the wooded location for the picnic Mother had organized [34], p 265 [Note from the author: a picture showing “most” of the neighborhood women who were at the picnic does not include Weeks. She appears in very few group shots of organizations where she might be expected to appear, given her status in the organization and the fact that she was in attendance.]

March 2, Sunday [1941]. Doris stays in bed again today. In the evening Ray and I go down to Miss Weeks’ house to meet Dr. Steinberger, a German refugee who is living with Miss Weeks. Dr. Steinberger was a Jew who had escaped Hitler’s persecution. She was an object of idle curiosity, but I was busy with my own life and ignored her. The folks learned her background when they spent the evening at the home of Miss Weeks. Eventually, Mother thought Dr. Steinberger was tiresomely repetitious, for every time they would be together she insisted that something had to be done to help her people. The neighbors reaction was, Do what? And how? She could provide no answers [34], p 395.

July 3, Saturday [1943]. Get Dr.’s permit for Nita to go to camp. Girls carry out Helleberg’s magazines. Mrs. Storer, Miss Weeks and I go to Helleberg’s to help them get straightened around. Another rental house had been located for them in Lawrence. Mother and the other women helped them get settled along with some members of the sociology department [35], p 186.

February 19, Saturday [1944]. Nita stays out all night at Elbel’s so she could go to Kansas City with them on an early bus. She is worn out when she gets back. Buys a red and also a white sweater. Ray and I attended a dinner as a farewell for Miss Weeks. It is held at the Hearth. Miss Elvira Weeks had received her doctorate in chemistry from K.U. in 1927 and she had been an instructor since 1921 and lived in a neat bungalow on the south corner of our block since before I was born. My cousin, Jay Junior Stewart, was able to provide the following information.

Miss Weeks was one of my teachers. She taught quantitative analysis, which was a hard laboratory course. I’m not sure that she taught anything else unless it might have been a class in the history of chemistry, which was really her strength. She was sweet but “mousy” and was dull when lecturing, talking in a monotone and looking either at the floor or at the ceiling (occasionally) but never in between at the level of the class. She left eventually for a position with a library in Detroit or Toledo. She was best known (and had an international reputation) for her “History of the Discovery of the Elements.” This was a most thorough book which was translated into a number of other languages. I understood that she did much of the translating, even learning Japanese to do it [35], p 236.

March 12, Sunday [1944]. Mother had another heart spell about 6 in the morning. I fix chicken loaf to take to Miss Daum’s for farewell party for Miss Weeks. Norman (Storer) is sick with a high temperature. We had a good time at Miss Daum’s. Miss Daum, the city librarian and Miss Weeks lived on diagonal corners of 18th and Mississippi Streets and had been friends for years [35], p 242.

Appendix 3: Reviews of Discovery of the Elements

Davis TL (1933) The Discovery of the Elements by Mary Elvira Weeks. J Chem Educ 10:710

Davis TL (1939) The Discovery of the Elements by Mary Elvira Weeks. J Chem Educ 16:550

Krieghbaum H Book Review—Discovery of the Elements, 4th Edn; Important Chapters are Added to Romance of Chemical Research. Kansas City Times, Kansas City, MO, Jan. 11, 1940.

Koenig FO (1940) Discovery of the Elements by Mary Elvira Weeks. Isis 32:386–389

Davis TL (1945) The Discovery of the Elements by Mary Elvira Weeks. J Chem Educ 22:416

Browne CA (1945) Discovery of the Elements by Mary Elvira Weeks. Scientific Monthly 61:326–327

Pauling L (1957) Book Review—Discovery of the Elements 6th Edn. J Chem Educ 34:51

Ihde AJ (1958) Discovery of the Elements by Mary Elvira Weeks. Isis 49:86–87

Kauffman GB (1968) Discovery of the Elements by Mary Elvira Weeks, Henry M. Leicester and F. B. Dains. Science 162(3849):110–111

Brock WH (1969) Discovery of the Elements by Mary Elvira Weeks. Isis 60:113–114

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Mainz, V.V. (2021). Mary Elvira Weeks and Discovery of the Elements. In: Giunta, C.J., Mainz, V.V., Girolami, G.S. (eds) 150 Years of the Periodic Table. Perspectives on the History of Chemistry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67910-1_14

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