The telluric screw, or chemical patience

Thinking about unorthodox schemes of literary organization--dipping into Primo Levi's The Periodic Table (one of only a handful of books I believe everybody should read)--then into Paul Strathern's Mendeleev's Dream. The periodic table is a thing of extraordinary beauty--makes me think fondly of high-school chemistry, which was strangely boring and appealing at the same time--here is Mendeleev's original chart: