Ancient Web: An Eighth Grader’s 1996 Periodic Table Kept Growing

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

In February 1996, eighth grader Yinon Bentor needed a science-fair project. He made a periodic table for the Web—and, unlike most school assignments, kept improving it after the fair ended.

Explore Chemical Elements.com.

The site history gives an unusually precise account of its birth. Bentor began building the table early in February 1996, submitted it on February 28, and won first place in the computer science and mathematics category at his school fair. A regional science fair awarded it a special Navy/Marines achievement prize the following month.

The original project was called The Periodic Table of the Elements on the Internet. Bentor recalls using the Webber HTML editor, numerous graphics programs, school science textbooks, software encyclopedias, and other reference material. It moved between servers while gaining a new name and domain.

More than a grid of symbols

The main table offers different views according to the information a visitor wants. Options include atomic number, atomic mass, electron configuration, neutron count, melting and boiling points, discovery date, and crystal structure. Colored group links separate alkali metals, noble gases, halogens, transition metals, and other families.

A visitor can begin with a familiar symbol and follow it to an individual element's properties. The arrangement reflects the early educational Web's optimism that a collection of connected HTML documents could make a large subject approachable without a dedicated software application.

Bentor's about page reports the site's growth from roughly 50 visitors per day to as many as 7,000. Those are historical figures supplied by the author, not independently audited traffic. He also explains the decision to add advertising to help cover domain hosting costs and reward the work of maintaining the project.

The copyright range currently displayed runs from 1996 to 2014. That does not mean the chemical data were frozen or that later scientific discoveries were necessarily incorporated; serious work should compare the information with an authoritative current periodic table.

The strongest reason to remember this site is its documented origin. A classroom assignment escaped the classroom, acquired readers, and became a long-lived personal reference.

Explore the table and read Bentor's account of making it.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.