John Dalton :: essays research papers

John Dalton Around September 2, 1766 John Dalton was born. He was born in Eaglesfield, England. Dalton was most known for the development of the modern atomic theory. Dalton was taught at his early ages of learning by his father and a Quaker teacher whom in 1778 Dalton would replace him after he retired. He quit that job and left his village to work with his cousin in Kendal, but he stayed a teacher. In 1793 he moved to Manchester, this is where he would remain the rest of his life. Dalton was influenced greatly by the mathematician John Gough. Dalton while in Manchester became the teacher of math and philosophy at a college. He taught there until 1799. Dalton became a chemist and physicist after his teaching jobs. Dalton did a lot of experimenting but did not test his experiments to make sure they were right. A good amount of his experiments were later proven to not be true. But his most famous theory "Dalton law" the modern atomic theory was proved true. John Dalton also published a lot of papers on atoms. His most famous article was on "absorption of gases by water and other liquids," this article contained his atomic theory. Dalton was the first person to develop a scientific atom theory, the ancient Greeks had ideas about the atom but could not prove it scientifically. Antoine Lavoisier and Dalton are responsible for the discovery of 90 natural elements. Dalton also explained the variations of water vapor in the atmosphere, the base of meteorology. Dalton’s atomic theory says that each element contained its own number of atoms. Each element had its own size and weight. Dalton’s idea said that all things are made of small bits of matter this bits of matter where too small to be seen even with a microscope. Scientist began to think these small bits of matter where responsible for chemical changes. They thought that when these bits of matter combined a chemical change took place. Dalton assumed that there was a special pattern in the elements and was partly responsible for the periodic table. Dalton in 1787 started to keep a journal. In Dalton’s journal he wrote about more than two hundred thousand observations. In 1793 he wrote a book about Meteorological observations. Dalton went to Paris in 1822 to discuss his theories with the other men of science in that time period.