Published On:2014/09/05
Posted by alialsayed
John Dalton
The World Celebrates the Anniversary of John Dalton
John Dalton
John Dalton FRS (6 September 1766 – 27 July 1844) was an English chemist, meteorologist and physicist. He is best known for his pioneering work in the development of modern atomic theory, and his research into colour blindness (sometimes referred to as Daltonism, in his honour).
John Dalton was born into a Quaker family at Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, Cumberland, England.The son of a weaver, he joined his older brother Jonathan at age 15 in running a Quaker school in Kendal, about forty five miles away. Around 1790 Dalton seems to have considered taking up law or medicine, but his projects were not met with encouragement from his relatives – Dissenters were barred from attending or teaching at English universities – and he remained at Kendal until, in the spring of 1793, he moved toManchester. Mainly through John Gough, a blind philosopher and polymath to whose informal instruction he owed much of his scientific knowledge, Dalton was appointed teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy at the "New College" in Manchester, a dissenting academy. He remained in that position until 1800, when the college's worsening financial situation led him to resign his post and begin a new career in Manchester as a private tutor for mathematics and natural philosophy.
Dalton's early life was highly influenced by a prominent Eaglesfield Quaker named Elihu Robinson, a competent meteorologist and instrument maker, who got him interested in problems of mathematics and meteorology. During his years in Kendal, Dalton contributed solutions of problems and questions on various subjects to The Ladies' Diary and the Gentleman's Diary, and in 1787 he began to keep a meteorological diary in which, during the succeeding 57 years, he entered more than 200,000 observations. He also rediscovered George Hadley's theory of atmospheric circulation (now known as the Hadley cell) around this time. Dalton's first publication was Meteorological Observations and Essays (1793), which contained the seeds of several of his later discoveries. However, in spite of the originality of his treatment, little attention was paid to them by other scholars. A second work by Dalton, Elements of English Grammar, was published in 1801.
Death and legacy
Dalton suffered a minor stroke in 1837, and a second one in 1838 left
him with a speech impediment, though he remained able to do experiments. In May 1844 he had yet another stroke; on 26 July he recorded with trembling hand his last meteorological observation. On 27 July, in Manchester, Dalton fell from his bed and was found lifeless by his attendant. Approximately 40,000 people filed by his coffin as it was laid in state in the Manchester Town Hall. He was buried in Manchester in Ardwick cemetery. The cemetery is now a playing field, but pictures of the original grave are in published materials.
A bust of Dalton, by Chantrey, was publicly subscribed for and placed in the entrance hall of the Royal Manchester Institution. Chantrey also crafted a large statue of Dalton, now in the Manchester Town Hall. The statue was erected while Dalton was still alive and it has been said: "He is probably the only scientist who got a statue in his lifetime".
In honour of Dalton's work, many chemists and biochemists use the (as yet unofficial) unit dalton (abbreviated Da) to denote one atomic mass unit, or 1/12 the weight of a neutral atom of carbon-12. There is a John Dalton Street connecting Deansgate and Albert Square in the centre of Manchester.
Manchester Metropolitan University has a building named after John Dalton and occupied by the Faculty of Science and Engineering, in which the majority of its Science & Engineering lectures and classes take place. A statue is outside the John Dalton Building of the Manchester Metropolitan University in Chester Street which has been moved from Piccadilly. It was the work of William Theed (after Chantrey) and is dated 1855 (it was in Piccadilly until 1966).
The University of Manchester has a hall of residence called Dalton Hall; it also established two Dalton Chemical Scholarships, two Dalton Mathematical Scholarships, and a Dalton Prize for Natural History. There is a Dalton Medal awarded occasionally by the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society (only 12 times altogether).
Dalton Township in southern Ontario was named for Dalton. It has, since 2001, been absorbed into the City of Kawartha Lakes. However the township name was used in a massive new park: Dalton Digby Wildlands Provincial Park, itself renamed since 2002.
A lunar crater has been named after Dalton. "Daltonism" became a common term for colour blindness and "Daltonien" is the actual French word for "colour blind".
The inorganic section of the UK's Royal Society of Chemistry is named after Dalton (Dalton Division), and the Society's academic journal for
inorganic chemistry also bears his name (Dalton Transactions).
The name Dalton can often be heard in the halls of many Quaker schools, for example, one of the school houses in Coram House, the primary sector of Ackworth School, is called Dalton.
Much of his collected work was damaged during the bombing of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society on 24 December 1940. This event prompted Isaac Asimov to say, "John Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war". The damaged papers are now in the John Rylands Library having been deposited in the university library by the Society.
The inorganic section of the UK's Royal Society of Chemistry is named after Dalton (Dalton Division), and the Society's academic journal for 
