Dalton

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:08:53 +0100

Background

John Dalton was born on September 6, 1766 in Eaglesfield, England into an underprivileged Quaker family. He had a brother, Jonathon, and a sister, Mary. His father was a weaver, which unfortunately paid very little. Dalton went to school until the age of 12, and became a schoolteacher. Because of his research, color-blindness is also knows as Daltonism. Dalton first became interested in science when a friend introduced him to meteorology. He started making observations and recording the weather. His observations led him ponder more about the atmosphere and what makes things up. From 1793 he taught mathematics and physical sciences at New College, Manchester. Soon after Dalton took over a school in Kendall with his brother. The brothers offered a wide range of subjects; most common was mathematics and sciences. Growing up, Dalton suffered from colorblindness; he researched and found for information on it. In his later years, Dalton mostly kept to his family and never married. In 1837 Dalton suffered a stoke, and only a year later he endured another one which left him impaired speech. His death came the night of July 29, 1844, when he suffered a final stroke.

What did he discover?
John Dalton's fascination with the atmosphere led him to discover the atomic theory in 1803. His theory stated 5 important discoveries...

1. All mater is composed of extremely small particles of atoms

2. All atoms of a given element are identical, having the same size, mass, and chemical properties. Atoms of a specific element are different from those of any other element

3. Atoms cannot be created, divided into smaller particles, or be destroyed

4. Different atoms combine in simple whole-number ratios to form compounds

5. In a chemical reaction, atoms are separated, combined, or rearranged

Equipment?
Dalton lived in the 19^thcentury and because of that there was very little equipment invented. Dalton did compose experiments but since it was in such an early time the equipment he used is unknown.

History
The 19th century was the age of machine tools. The19^thcentury was the age of machine tools. The effect of machine tools was the assembly line, speeding up the factory production of consumer goods. The light bulb, telephone, typewriter, sewing machine were all invented during this time. 1845 was when Congress said presidential elections would be held every 4 years in November. Nothing could stop people from believing that a cow being milked by Mrs. Catherine O'Leary had kicked over a kerosene lantern to start the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. The civil war 61 in the United States. It was 4 years of bitter fighting until the federal soldiers of the North, lead by President Lincoln, were finally victorious over theconfederates of the south. Also, Abe Lincoln was assonated on April 15, 1865, by a man known as Booth.

dalton

Dalton

Background