ESTABLISHMENT OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF CHEMICAL SCIENCE—PERIOD OF DALTON.
John Dalton, 1766-1844.
The progress of chemical knowledge became so rapid in the early years of the present century, that although I have in this chapter called the time immediately succeeding that of Lavoisier "the period of John Dalton," and although I shall attempt to describe the advances made by this philosopher without considering those of his contemporaries Davy and Berzelius, yet I must insist on the facts that this arrangement is made purely for the sake of convenience, and that many of the discoveries of Davy, Berzelius and others came in order of time before, or followed close upon the publication of Dalton's atomic theory.
Nevertheless, as the work of these men belongs in its essence to the modern period, and as the promulgation of the atomic theory by Dalton marks the beginning of this period, it seems better that we should have a clear conception of what was done by this chemist before proceeding to consider the advances made by his contemporaries and successors.
John Dalton, the second of three children of Joseph and Deborah Dalton, was born at Eaglesfield, a village near Cockermouth, in Cumberland, on the 5th of September 1766. One of the first meeting-houses established by the Society of Friends is to be found in Eaglesfield.
The Dalton family had been settled for several generations on a small copyhold estate in this village. The first of them to join the Friends was the grandfather of John Dalton; his descendants remained faithful adherents of this society.
Dalton attended the village schools of Eaglesfield and the neighbourhood until he was eleven years old, by which time, in addition to learning reading, writing and arithmetic, he had "gone through a course of mensuration, surveying, navigation, etc." At the age of ten his taste for measurements and calculations began to be remarked by those around him; this taste was encouraged by Mr. Robinson, a relative of Dalton, who recognizing the indomitable perseverance of the boy appears to have taken some care about this time in directing his mathematical studies.
At the early age of twelve Dalton affixed to the door of his father's house a large sheet of paper whereon he announced that he had opened a school for youth of both sexes; also that "paper, pens and ink" were sold within. The boy-teacher had little authority over his pupils, who challenged their master to fight in the graveyard, and broke the windows of the room into which they had been locked till their tasks should be learned.
When he was fifteen years old Dalton removed to Kendal, where he continued for eleven or twelve years, at first as assistant-master, and then, along with his elder brother Jonathan, as principal of a boarding school for boys.
It was announced by the brothers that in this school "youth will be carefully instructed in English, Latin, Greek and French; also writing, arithmetic, merchants' accounts and the mathematics." The school was not very successful. Both brothers were hard, inflexible, and ungainly in their habits, and neither was fitted to become a successful teacher of boys: of the two, John had the gentler disposition, and was preferred by the boys; "besides, his mind was so occupied by mathematics that their faults escaped his notice."