John Dalton
John Dalton was born in Eaglesfield, Cumberland of England on September 6, 1766. He was raised by a Quaker family which made him later in life formed a Quaker school with his brother. As a christian who separated from the English church, Dalton wasn't accepted by the universities of England. John Dalton's discovered many great things including the Atomic Law, the organization of atomic weights and the organization of atomic mass units. Thomson worked with Dalton to create a first volume of a book called, The System of Chemistry in 1807. Dalton suffered from a bad case of paralysis which later lead to his death in Manchester of 1844.
Achievements
One of John Dalton's greatest and historical achievements of his scientific career is the Atomic Law. In 1800 Dalton formed a paper that was of mixed gases on the bases of different pressures. After he examined the difference of different pressures he could then find vapor pressures of six different types of liquids. With that experiment he found out that the pressures were the same with the same temperature. One of his most notable doings was his research on the gas laws. Relating the the law of partial pressures, Dalton's law, he published papers about the absorptions of water and other liquids. Dalton put his atomic theory into different parts. Dalton was ridiculed for his bold thoughts as many scientists were back then. One of his most historical ideas was his organization of atomic weights. [1]
One of the biggest stepping stones in science was Dalton's discovery of the organization of the atomic mass units. It all started when he suggested that one atom of hydrogen would be considered as one atomic mass unit. Before Dalton made this system, the masses of atoms were based one the fractions of oxygen atoms. The thought was that one of the units was basically 1/16 of an oxygen atom. The unified atomic mass unit that we use today wasn't active until 1960. Before we knew all this, scientists had to rely on a series of long hard equations that were simply inefficient. [2]
Early life
John Dalton was born on September 6, 1766 in Eaglesfield, Cumberland of England. He was raised by a Quaker family. At the age of twenty-four, Dalton had the notion to take up the skill of law or medicine. His family was not supportive of his new ambitions. As a christian who separated from the English church, Dalton was not accepted by the universities of England. Without the ability to learn or teach at his desired universities he was forced to stay at Kendal, but in the spring of 1773 he moved to Manchester University. At Manchester, Dalton was appointed the teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy. He remained in that position until 1800, when he decided to retire and become a private tutor, due to the college's financial problems. [3]
Later Years
In 1807, Thomson worked with Dalton to create the third edition of a book called, "The System of Chemistry". In 1808, Dalton explained the first book in more detail and released the first volume of his series which was titled, "The System of Chemistry Philosophy". The second part of the first volume was released in 1810, but the first part of his second volume was not issued until 1827. The second part of the second volume never appeared.
In 1822, he visited Paris for a short time where he met several intellectual scientists. Dalton suffered from paralysis which later lead to his death in Manchester on July 27, 1844. He is nothing short of a true scientist when dealing with his disease, because he had a stroke in 1837, 1838 and 1844. Even though both of those traumatic events left him terribly physically and mentally disabled, he still pushed through with his experiments. He recorded his last meteorological observation on July 26th and on July 27th, he fell from his bed and was found lifeless. Due to his color blindness, before he died, he asked that scientists examined his eyes in order to find a cure. The reason he couldn't see color was that he had humors in his eyes, which was later discovered in the early 1900's. [4]
References
- Atomic mass unit wikipedia
- John dalton wikipedia
- free document license
- john dalton biography
- Chemical achievements
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