Julius Lothar Meyer
In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev published a periodic table of all known elements (he predicted several new elements to complete the table, and corrected some atomic weights). A few months later, Meyer published a revised and expanded version of his 1864 table independently, which was similar to that published by Mendeleev (Meyer had been sent a copy of Mendeleev's table earlier; Mendeleev had sent it to many well-known chemists of his day) and a paper showing graphically the periodicity of the elements as a function of atomic weight. Meyer, as well as other chemists, was doubtful about Mendeleev's periodic law, and he criticized Mendeleev for "changing existing elements' atomic weights, only regarding possibility of periodical law in its structure". However, Mendeleev's work received significant support, when the new elements were found as predicted and atomic weights accordingly.
Periodic table
Following the discovery, in 1911, by Ernest Rutherford of the atomic nucleus, it was proposed that the integer count of the nuclear charge is identical to the sequential place of each element in the periodic table. In 1913, Henry Moseley using X-ray spectroscopy confirmed this proposal experimentally. Moseley determined the value of the nuclear charge of each element and showed that Mendeleev's ordering actually places the elements in sequential order by nuclear charge. Nuclear charge is identical to proton count and determines the value of the atomic number ("Z") of each element. Using atomic number gives a definitive, integer-based sequence for the elements. Moseley predicted, in 1913, that the only elements still missing between aluminium ("Z" = 13) and gold ("Z" = 79) were "Z" = 43, 61, 72, and 75, all of which were later discovered. The atomic number is the absolute definition of an element and gives a factual basis for the ordering of the periodic table. The periodic table is used to predict the properties of new synthetic elements before they are produced and studied.