Dmitri Mendeleev: A Mother’s Long Journey and

The story

Dmitri Mendeleev was born in 1834 in Tobolsk, Siberia, one of the youngest of many children. When he was a boy his father became blind and then died. His mother, Maria, ran a glass factory to support the family — but the factory burned down.

Maria believed in Dmitri’s mind. When he was about fifteen, she took him on a very long journey of thousands of kilometres, first to Moscow and then to Saint Petersburg, to find a university that would accept him. At last he got a place to study. Soon after, his mother became ill and died. Dmitri never forgot her sacrifice and later dedicated an important book to her.

Dmitri became a chemistry teacher. In his time, scientists knew about 63 elements — basic substances like oxygen, iron and gold — but they seemed like a messy list. Dmitri wrote each element and its properties on a card and arranged and rearranged them, a bit like a game of patience.

In 1869 he saw the pattern. When the elements were arranged by their weight, similar ones appeared again and again at regular intervals. He made a table — and boldly left gaps where he thought undiscovered elements must fit. He even predicted what they would be like!

Many chemists doubted him. But in the following years three new elements — now called gallium, scandium and germanium — were found, and they matched his predictions closely. Today, his Periodic Table hangs in almost every science classroom in the world, and element number 101 is named mendelevium in his honour.

Moral of the Story

Gratitude to those who sacrificed for us can give us the strength to do great things.

कहानी — दिमित्री मेंडेलीव: माँ की लंबी यात्रा और आवर्त सारणी

दिमित्री मेंडेलीव का जन्म सन् 1834 में साइबेरिया के तोबोल्स्क शहर में हुआ था। वे कई भाई-बहनों में सबसे छोटों में से एक थे। जब वे छोटे थे, उनके पिता की आँखों की रोशनी चली गई और फिर वे गुज़र गए। उनकी माँ मारिया ने परिवार चलाने के लिए काँच का एक कारख़ाना सँभाला — पर वह कारख़ाना जलकर राख हो गया।

मारिया को दिमित्री की बुद्धि पर पूरा भरोसा था। जब दिमित्री लगभग पंद्रह साल के थे, वे उन्हें लेकर हज़ारों किलोमीटर की लंबी यात्रा पर निकलीं, पहले मॉस्को और फिर सेंट पीटर्सबर्ग, ताकि कोई विश्वविद्यालय उन्हें दाख़िला दे दे। आख़िरकार उन्हें पढ़ने की जगह मिल गई। इसके कुछ ही समय बाद उनकी माँ बीमार होकर गुज़र गईं। दिमित्री माँ के इस त्याग को कभी नहीं भूले और बाद में उन्होंने अपनी एक महत्वपूर्ण किताब उन्हें समर्पित की।

दिमित्री रसायन के शिक्षक बने। उनके समय में वैज्ञानिक लगभग 63 तत्वों को जानते थे — ऑक्सीजन, लोहा और सोने जैसे मूल पदार्थ — पर वे एक बिखरी हुई सूची जैसे लगते थे। दिमित्री ने हर तत्व और उसके गुण एक-एक कार्ड पर लिखे और उन्हें बार-बार सजाया, कुछ-कुछ ताश के खेल की तरह।

सन् 1869 में उन्हें पैटर्न दिख गया। जब तत्वों को उनके वज़न के क्रम में रखा गया, तो मिलते-जुलते तत्व नियमित अंतर पर बार-बार आने लगे। उन्होंने एक सारणी बनाई — और हिम्मत करके उसमें ख़ाली जगहें छोड़ दीं, जहाँ उनके हिसाब से ऐसे तत्व आने चाहिए थे जो अभी खोजे नहीं गए थे। उन्होंने यह भी बता दिया कि वे तत्व कैसे होंगे!

कई रसायनशास्त्रियों ने उन पर शक किया। पर अगले कुछ सालों में तीन नए तत्व — जिन्हें आज गैलियम, स्कैंडियम और जर्मेनियम कहते हैं — खोजे गए, और वे उनके अनुमानों से काफ़ी मेल खाते थे। आज उनकी आवर्त सारणी दुनिया की लगभग हर विज्ञान कक्षा में लगी है, और तत्व संख्या 101 का नाम उनके सम्मान में "मेंडेलीवियम" रखा गया है।

🔬 The Big Discovery

What: The Periodic Table of the Elements, with predictions of missing elements
When: 1869
Why it matters: It organises all the building blocks of matter and helped scientists discover new ones.

Did you know?

Element 101 is called mendelevium after him.
He predicted the properties of gallium, scandium and germanium before they were found.
Today the Periodic Table has 118 elements.

What Children Can Learn

What an element is
How sorting and patterns help science
Respect for parents’ sacrifice

Key Values

Gratitude
Determination
Seeing patterns

Emotional & social lesson

Thanking the people who helped us keeps us humble and strong.

Key vocabulary

element: a basic substance that cannot be split into simpler substances by chemistry
pattern: something that repeats in a regular way
predict: to say what will happen before it happens

Think & Answer

Why did Mendeleev’s mother make a long journey?
Why did he leave gaps in his table?
How can you thank someone who has helped you?

Parent–child activity

Collect 15 household objects and sort them into groups by any pattern you choose — colour, size, material. Then try a different pattern. That is how scientists sort!

Parent / Teacher Discussion

The card-sorting story is well known and fits his methods; the famous "dream" version of the discovery is less certain. Mendeleev dedicated his 1887 study of solutions to his mother. Talk with children about people who have sacrificed for their education.

Mini quiz

1. What did Mendeleev create in 1869?

2. Why did he leave gaps in the table?

3. Which element is named after him?

Try a Learning Activity

Read the story → answer the questions → practise on the Science island and work towards a 🏅 Gold Medal.

Open Science

FAQ

What is the moral of “Dmitri Mendeleev: A Mother’s Long Journey and the Periodic Table”?