While symbolic colour use has always played a conspicuous role in science research and education, the use of colour in historic diagrams remains a lacuna in the history of science. Investigating the colour use in diagrams often means uncovering a whole cosmology that is not otherwise explicit in the diagram itself. The periodic table is a salient and iconic example of non‐mimetic colour use in science. Andreas von Antropoff's (1924) rectangular table of recurrent rainbow colours is famous, as are Alcindo Flores Cabral's (1949) application of colour in his round snail form, using the RGB scheme, and Mazurs's (1967) pine tree system, consisting of warm and cold colours that he attributed to specific groups of elements—an attribution that we can relate back to humoralism and alchemy. From the first periodic tables in the 19th century, individual researchers have used different colour regimes. While standardization may play an obvious role in chemistry and its diagrams, all the more impressive is the anarchistic use of colour in the various diagrams which continue to be created. This article focuses on periodic tables in chemical journals and text books, and explores and compares the development of colour codes found in the few existing polychrome diagrams from the 1920s to the 1970s.

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元素周期表：前100年的形式和颜色

尽管象征性的色彩使用在科学研究和教育中一直起着举足轻重的作用，但历史图表中色彩的使用仍然是科学史上的空白。研究图表中的颜色使用通常意味着发现整个宇宙学，而该宇宙学在图表本身中是不明确的。元素周期表是科学中非模拟颜色使用的显着和标志性示例。安德烈亚斯·冯·安特洛托夫（Andreas von Antropoff）（1924）的矩形彩虹反复出现的表格是著名的，阿尔辛多·弗洛雷斯·卡布拉尔（Alcindo Flores Cabral）（1949）使用RGB方案以圆蜗牛的形式应用颜色，以及马祖斯（1967）的松树系统，包括温暖和他将冷色归因于特定的元素组-我们可以将其归因于幽默和炼金术。从19世纪的第一批元素周期表开始，个别研究人员使用了不同的颜色方案。尽管标准化在化学及其图表中可能扮演着明显的角色，但更令人印象深刻的是，在不断创建的各种图表中，对颜色的无政府主义使用。本文着重介绍化学期刊和教科书中的元素周期表，并探索和比较从1920到1970年代为数不多的现有多色图表中发现的颜色代码的发展。