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John Alexander Reina Newlands(November, 1837 – July 29, 1898) was an English analytical chemist who prepared in 1863 the first periodic table of the elements arranged in order of relative atomic masses, and pointed out in 1865 the 'law of octaves' whereby every eighth element has similar properties. This came from a musical background. He was ridiculed at the time, but five years later Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev published — independent of Newlands' work — a more developed form of the table, also based on atomic masses, which forms the basis of the one used today (arranged by atomic number).