There are two competing approaches to scientific progress in the philosophical literature. The epistemic approach defines the nature of scientific progress as the accumulation of scientific knowledge, while the new functional approach construes it as the increase of usefulness of exemplary practices in science. Recently the functional approach has been fruitfully applied to explain cases of progress in astronomy, biology, psychology, and interdisciplinary research. A difficulty case is from the history of chemistry, to which the epistemic approach is often applied. This project aims to examine the application of the new functional approach to the historical development of the periodic table. Such a case study will shed light on the recent philosophical debate on scientific progress and deepen our understanding of the development of 19th century chemistry.