How did Mendeleec 's periodic table predict the properties of elements that had n't been found yet ?
This organization surpassed earlier attempts at classification by Alexandre - Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois , who published the telluric helix , an early , three - dimensional version of the periodic table of the elements in 1862 , John Newlands , who proposed the law of octaves ( a precursor to the periodic law ) in 1864 , and Lothar Meyer , who developed an early version of the periodic table with 28 elements organized by valence in 1864 .