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NCERT gives Newlands two paragraphs, and exam questions usually ask the same thing: what was the law of octaves and why did it fail? The real story is more useful than that. Newlands saw periodicity before most chemists, was laughed at for it, and argued for his priority for years. This post covers what he did, works through his numbering, and shows where it broke.
Who was John Newlands?
According to the introduction to his papers at Classic Chemistry, John Alexander Reina Newlands (1837 to 1898) was born in Southwark, London. He briefly attended the Royal College of Chemistry, worked as a private analytical chemist and chemistry teacher, and for many years was chief chemist at a sugar refinery. In 1860, a footnote adds, he served as a volunteer in Garibaldi's army in Italy.
How did the law of octaves develop?
His papers, all reprinted on the same page, show the idea growing over three years.
February 1863. In a letter to Chemical News he listed relations between the "equivalents" (combining weights) of similar elements, including triads like those of Johann Döbereiner.
August 1864. He numbered the elements in order of their equivalents, hydrogen 1, lithium 2 and so on, and noticed that "the eighth element starting from a given one is a kind of repetition of the first, like the eighth note of an octave in music."
August 1865. He published a full table and wrote: "This peculiar relationship I propose to provisionally term the 'Law of Octaves.'"
Worked example: counting in Newlands' numbers
In his 1865 table:
Alkali metals. Li is 2, Na is 9, K is 16. Differences: 9 − 2 = 7 and 16 − 9 = 7.
Halogens. F is 8, Cl is 15. Difference 7.
Oxygen family. O is 7, S is 14. Difference 7.
Newlands counted a difference of 7, so the eighth element repeats. In today's numbering Li is 3, Na is 11 and K is 19, a difference of 8. The extra place in each step is a noble gas: in the IUPAC table, argon is element 18, between chlorine (17) and potassium (19). The noble gases were missing from his table, and hydrogen sat at the top of the fluorine row.
Where did the octaves break?
The NCERT Class 11 chapter Classification of Elements says the law "seemed to be true only for elements up to calcium". The 1865 table shows why. Its first row reads H, F, Cl, then "Co & Ni", then Br, Pd, I and "Pt & Ir". Cobalt and nickel are not halogens. He gave two elements the same number when their equivalents were equal, which forced unlike elements into the same row, and he left no gaps for elements not yet found.
Both problems were raised when he read the paper to the Chemical Society on 1 March 1866. The Chemical News report records that Dr Gladstone objected that the scheme assumed no elements remained to be discovered, and that Professor G. C. Foster "humorously inquired" whether he had tried arranging the elements by their initial letters. The Classic Chemistry introduction adds that the Society did not publish the paper.
How was he recognised?
When the Royal Society gave its Davy Medal to Mendeleev and Lothar Meyer, Newlands wrote to Chemical News within a month, in 1882, to assert his priority. NCERT notes that he was himself awarded the Davy Medal by the Royal Society in 1887. Read our post on Mendeleev's periodic table to see how leaving gaps turned the same pattern into a working table.
The JEE (Main) 2026 syllabus begins its periodicity unit with the modern periodic law, so the history is background there. NCERT Class 11 covers it in section 3.2. Check the current syllabus for your exam.
Which mistakes does this help you avoid?
Saying each set held eight elements. Each column of his table held seven, and the eighth element began a repeat.
Calling it the same as Mendeleev's law. Both ordered elements by atomic weight, but Mendeleev left gaps and predicted new elements.
Forgetting the limit. "Up to calcium" is the phrase examiners look for.
What can a student take from Newlands' way of working?
Number things and look at differences. The pattern only appeared once he gave each element a position.
Do not force data into a template. Making every row fit the octave is what made the table wrong in places.
Keep good ideas on record. His priority claim rested on dated letters in a journal.
If you understand the history but not why periodicity happens, the Fermi Concept Library covers every concept in chemistry, including electron configuration, with its own lesson.
Try it now: write the first twenty elements in order, then mark every element whose properties repeat those of the element eight places earlier.
