John+Dalton+Hall


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During that period he became acquainted with the blind philosopher, Mr. Gough, to whose influence and help his progress in scientific knowledge was in no small measure due. In 1785 Dalton became, through the retirement of his cousin, joint-manager with his brother of the school at Kendal, and in addition to his ordinary teaching he, in 1787 and 1791, gave courses of lectures in natural philosophy. The school was not generally popular, for its young masters were uncouth in manners, and kept aloof from society. Discipline was strict, and the elder brother Jonathan is said to have been stern and severe; John being milder and gentler, and continually preoccupied with mathematics, allowed faults to escape his notice, and was consequently preferred by the scholars. About the year 1790 Dalton appears to have been desirous to secure a larger sphere for his abilities by entering on the profession of law or of physic; but his projects meeting with no encouragement from his relations, he continued to live at Kendal, till in the spring of 1793 he obtained, mainly through Mr Gough, the appointment of teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy in the New College, Moseley Street, Manchester. That position he rerained up to the time of the removal of the Collage to York in 1799, when he became a private tutor. In 1794 the number of his pupils at the College, in mathematics, mechanics, algebra, geometry, book-keeping, natural philosophy, and chemistry, was 24. It was in 1792 that he first visited London, which he described as "a surprising place, and well worth one’s while to see once; but the most disagreeable place on earth for one of a contemplative turn to reside in constantly."
 * __His Schooling__**

http://www.1902encyclopedia/com/D/DAL/john-dalton.html

2NO + O ---> N2O3 NO + O ---> NO2 In this way, Dalton was able to start working out a table of atomic weights based on the lightest element, hydrogen, having the arbitrary value of 1. He expressed his ideas about the make up of gasses this way, "//we may form an idea of this by supposing a vessel filled with small spherical leaden bullets among which a quantity of fine sand is poured. The balls are to the sand as the particles of bodies are with respect to the caloric; with this difference only, that the balls are supposed to touch each other, whereas the particles of bodies are not in contact, being retained at a small distance from each other by the caloric//." || This seemed to be the answer. All matter was made up of hard round particles, which he called 'atoms', and that each type of atom, or element, such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, etc., differed from the next only by its weight. The atomic theory had been born.
 * When His Research Took Place and What It Said**
 * Not all gasses interact harmlessly, as Dalton discovered. In 1803 he began to react a gas called nitric oxide (N0) with oxygen to produce a third type of gas. Strangely the result could come out in one of two ways depending on the proportions, or ratios, of the reacting gasses. Using one set of conditions it looked like nitrogen was combining with oxygen in the ratio 1 to 1.7, but at other times, in the ratio 1 to 1.3. By August 1803 he had the answer to this puzzle - the "law of multiple proportions" which stated that the weights of elements always combine with one another in ratios that were always whole numbers - thus:
 * || While forming these mental images of the physical composition of gasses, Dalton struggled to find words and images he could use to express his ideas. He found two solutions. From his reading of ancient texts, particularly those of Hindu origin, he found the term "atom eater" used by the author Kanda to describe discontinuous matter. Also that the philosopher Democritus had once described water as mostly empty space with smooth balls gliding over each other. The "balls" he called **atoms**. Newton also contributed the idea that "//... God in the beginning formed matter in solid, massey, hard, impenetrable, moveable particles ...//"

[] || Manchester Academy, in Greater Manchester, England.
 * Where did he do his Research?**

**Born:** September 6th, 1778 in Eaglesfield, Cumberland, England []
 * Died:** July 7th, 1884, Manchester England
 * Religion:** Quaker
 * Ethnicity:** White

1) All matter is made of atoms. Atoms are indivisible and indestructible. 2) All atoms of a given element are identical in mass and properties 3) Compounds are formed by a combination of two or more different kinds of atoms. 4) A chemical reaction is a **//rearrangement//** of atoms. []
 * __Dalton's Atomic Theory__**

Using his theory, Dalton rationalised the various laws of chemical combination which were in existence at that time. However, he made a mistake in assuming that the simplest compound of two elements must be binary, formed from atoms of each element in a 1:1 ratio, and his system of atomic weights was not very accurate - he gave oxygen an atomic weight of seven instead of eight. Despite these errors, Dalton's theory provided a logical explanation of concepts, and led the way into new fields of experimentation. []
 * His Errors?**

Using his theory, Dalton rationalised the various laws of chemical combination which were in existence at that time. However, he made a mistake in assuming that the simplest compound of two elements must be binary, formed from atoms of each element in a 1:1 ratio, and his system of atomic weights was not very accurate - he gave oxygen an atomic weight of seven instead of eight. Despite these errors, Dalton's theory provided a logical explanation of concepts, and led the way into new fields of experimentation.

[]

June 18, 1778

British abandon Philadelphia
On this day in 1778, after almost nine months of occupation, 15,000 British troops under General Sir Henry Clinton evacuate Philadelphia, the former U.S. capital. The British had captured Philadelphia on September 26, 1777, following General George Washington's defeats at the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of the Clouds. British General William Howe had made Philadelphia, the seat of the Continental Congress, the focus of his campaign, but the Patriot government had deprived him of the decisive victory he hoped for by moving its operations to the more secure site of York one week before the city was taken. While Howe and the British officer corps spent the winter enjoying the luxury of Philadelphia’s finest homes, the Continental Army froze and suffered appalling deprivation at Valley Forge. Fortunately for the Patriots, an infusion of capable European strategists, including the Prussian Baron von Steuben; the Frenchmen Marquis de Lafayette and Johann, Baron de Kalb; and Poles Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Casimir, Count Pulaski, aided Washington in the creation of a well-drilled, professional force capable of fighting the British. The British position in Philadelphia became untenable after France's entrance into the war on the side of the Americans. To avoid the French fleet, General Clinton was forced to lead his British-Hessian force to New York City by land. Loyalists in the city sailed down the Delaware River to escape the Patriots, who returned to Philadelphia the day after the British departure. U.S. General Benedict Arnold, who led the force that reclaimed the city without bloodshed, was appointed military governor. On June 24, the Continental Congress returned to the city from its temporary quarters at York, Pennsylvania.

[]

John died on 27 July 1844 of a stroke, after noting the weather conditions for the day in his journal. He had requested an autopsy to determine the cause of his color-blindness. It was his final experiment and proved that the condition called Daltonism is not caused by the eye itself, but some deficient sensory power. Manchester buried John with kingly honors with his body lying in state and a funeral as for a monarch. John was viewed by more than 400,000 people while his body lay in state and the procession was over a mile long. This was in direct violation to the simple Quaker principles by which John had lived. Furthermore,the city has honored him with both a large monument and a statue. []
 * His Death (Poor Guy)**