During a clear out of the of the Chemistry Department’s storage area at St Andrews University, a very old and tattered rolled up wall chart was discovered. It turned out to be one of the earliest examples of a teaching periodic table of the elements, dated to between 1879 and 1886. This is consistent with a receipt recording the purchase of an 1885 table by Thomas Purdie, then Professor of Chemistry, from the German catalogue of C Gerhardt of Bonn for the sum of 3 Marks in October 1888.
For more on this story go to: https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/fife/809691/remarkable-discovery-in-st-andrews-of-what-could-be-worlds-oldest-periodic-table/
