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The Brazilian contribution of Alcindo Flores Cabral to the periodic classification

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Abstract

This paper presents the contributions of Alcindo Flores Cabral (1907–1982), professor of Chemistry at the Faculdade de Agronomia Eliseu Maciel, nowadays part of the Universidade Federal de Pelotas, to chemistry teaching. It is a contribution almost unknown to the Brazilian chemical community, although recognized as valuable by several renowned chemists abroad, like W. Hückel, G. Charlot, F. Strong, E. Fessenden and others. Cabral’s innovative helical representation is presented in connection not only with contemporary representations, but also an incursion is made into the first helical systems proposed, those of Hinrichs and of Baumhauer. Some comments are made not only on Cabral’s Classificação Natural dos Elementos, published in 1946, but also about other texts he wrote for an efficient chemistry teaching.

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Notes

  1. Created in 1883 as Imperial Escola de Medicina Veterinária e de Agricultura (the second oldest of its kind in Brazil), renamed in 1890 as Liceu Riograndense de Agronomia e Veterinária, with the status of a course of higher learning, received in 1926 its name Escola de Agronomia e Veterinária Eliseu Maciel. Agriculture and Verterinary became independent courses in 1934. In 1945 it became a Federal institution, and was incorporated by the Federal University of Pelotas. The school was erected on lands donated by the family of Eliseu Antunes Maciel (1810–1881) (cf. Magalhães 1996).

  2. This course was created in 1910 as part of the Agricultural College of the Engineering School of Porto Alegre.

  3. The Southern Agricultural Institute was founded in 1943, and incorporated experimental stations in Ponta Grossa (Paraná) and Curitiba.

  4. By coincidence, van’t Hoff developed his asymmetric carbon theory as a professor at the Veterinary School in Utrecht.

  5. More than 700 drawings of graphic representations of the periodic sysztem can be found in Mazur (1974). Hundreds of different formats of the periodic table can be found in the internet. Following addresses contain links to several related sites: http://chemlab.pc.maricopa.edu/periodi/periodic.htm, and periodical tables of historic interest, at http://chemistrycoach.com/periodic_tables.html. To have an idea about the number of publications on alternative periodic tables, searching the Journal of Chemical Education we found 40 papers from 1923 to 1956 (Cabral’s publication).

  6. For an excellent discussion about the multiple ways to represent the periodic law and its epistemological and didactic consequences see Mishra and Nguyen-Jahiel (1997).

  7. One of the authors (JHM) studied Chemistry at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre from 1964 to 1968, and during this periodic none of his teachers mentioned Cabral’s publications.

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Acknowledgments

The authors express their appreciation to Heleno M. Cabral and Prof. Maria de Fátima Butierres (CCQFA/UFPEL) for providing much of the consulted literature, and to FAPERGS and CNPq (National Research Council) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Associação Scientiae Studia, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Juergen Heinrich Maar

  2. Centro de Ciências Químicas, Farmacêuticas e de Alimentos, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Campus Capão do Leão, CP 354, Pelotas, RS, 96010-900, Brazil

    Eder João Lenardão

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  1. Juergen Heinrich Maar
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  2. Eder João Lenardão
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Correspondence to Juergen Heinrich Maar.

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This paper was published originally in Portuguese in Scientiae Studia, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 773–798, 2012, here reproduced in English with the kind permission of the editors of Scientiae Studia.

Juergen Heinrich Maar retired from Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil.

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Maar, J.H., Lenardão, E.J. The Brazilian contribution of Alcindo Flores Cabral to the periodic classification. Found Chem 17, 5–22 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-015-9223-2

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