Famous Chemists that damaged our Brain cells :)
John Dalton
Early Life John Dalton was born in a small thatched cottage in the village of Eaglesfield, Cumberland, England. That much is certain. What is less certain is the day and date of his birth as his family never recorded it properly in the family bible (the way it was done in those days). However, much later in life, he was told that it was September 5th, 1766, and that is the way history records it. His family were Quakers, and had been for a long time. His Grandfather had converted to this religion in about 1695, about the time he got married. Dalton's father inherited an estate of about 60 acres and married a local Quaker girl, Deborah Greenup. John Dalton had two surviving siblings. Both he and his brother were born color-blind. Dalton's father earned a modest income as a handloom weaver. As a child, Dalton longed for a formal education, but his family was very poor. It was clear that he would need to help out with the family finances from a young age. He grew up working in the fields and in the family shop where cloth was made. His sister sold paper, ink and pens, but despite all these sources of income they were relatively poor and the boys did not get much formal education. However, they did get a basic grounding in reading, writing and arithmetic at the nearest Quaker school, which meant that that they were doing better than most. In Dalton's time only about 1 in 200 people could read! At the Quaker school, called Pardshow Hall one teacher - the "master" - called John Fletcher took a liking inspired the young Quaker boy to take up solving mathematical problems, a skill he quickly mastered. This brought him to the attention of a number of people, including a rich Quaker, Elihu Robinson, who mentored him in mathematics, science and meteorology. Education After a failed attempt to start a school in his home town of Eaglesfield, John Dalton eventually went into partnership with his brother and in 1785 took over a different school in Kendal where the brothers offered a range of subjects including languages and 21 mathematics and science courses! Despite the school's popularity (they had 60 pupils at one point) the school did not make money and Dalton had to write answers to "ladies questions" in magazines to make needed extra income. Another person who inspired, instructed and then mentored John Dalton was the blind son of a wealthy Kendal merchant who was very interested in a range of scientific subjects, including optics. John Gough clearly had a significant influence on John Dalton, as the first two books that Dalton published were dedicated to his friend and mentor. One suggestion that Gough made to Dalton was to keep a daily log of the weather and matters meteorological. So he started writing down what he saw and what he measured about the weather patterns in a book, every day. He kept this journal for his entire life, and probably the very last thing he did on the day he died, was to make his final entry. To make money he gave public lectures and even offered to sell his extensive, eleven volume botanical collection to a local museum, but it was John Gough who in 1793 pulled a few strings and got him a place as a tutor at Manchester College (called the 'New College' and founded by Presbyterians), where he earned 80 pounds a year. He had wanted to become a physician, but his family persuaded him that his bedside manner would keep him poor all his life, so he chose science instead. Manchester was probably the second largest town in England at that time, and was rapidly becoming the industrial center of the world. This is where the famous "industrial revolution" started and the town boasted colleges, libraries and lots of other intellectual stimulants. Dalton joined the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society and immediately published his first book on Meteorological Observations and Essays. In this book Dalton lays out for the first time his ideas on gasses, and that in a mixture of gasses, each gas exists independently of each other gas and acts accordingly. His famous ideas were starting to form. However, after six years as a college tutor he went private. He gave up the post at the college and offered to tutor individual students privately at the sum of two shillings a session. This allowed him much more time to conduct his own research. It was a good move, as he was able to think and perform a series of experiments at this time that led him to the "law" or partial pressures of gasses, which he published in an work entitled Experimental Essays on the Constitution of Mixed Gases; on the Force of Steam or Vapour from water and other liquids in different temperatures, both in a Torricellian vacuum and in air; on Evaporation; and on the Expansion of Gasses by Heat. Contribution and Achievements Dalton's Law Dalton's interest in atmospheric pressures eventually led him to a closer examination of gases. While studying the nature and chemical makeup of air in the early 1800s, Dalton learned that it was not a chemical solvent, as other scientists had believed. Instead it was a mechanical system composed of small individual particles that used pressure applied by each gas independently. Dalton's experiments on gases led to his discovery that the total pressure of a mixture of gases amounted to the sum of the partial pressures that each individual gas exerted while occupying the same space. During his early career as a scientist, Dalton also researched color blindness—a topic with which he was familiar through firsthand experience. Since the condition had affected both him and his brother since birth, Dalton theorized that it must be hereditary. He proved his theory to be true when genetic analysis of his own eye tissue revealed that he was missing the photoreceptor for perceiving the color green. As a result of his contributions to the understanding of red-green color blindness, the condition is still often referred to as "Daltonism." Awards Chemist John Dalton is credited with pioneering modern atomic theory. He was also the first to study color bindness. He identified the hereditary nature of red-green color blindness. He was also well-known for he revealed the concept of Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures. Also in the 1800s, he was the first scientist to explain the behavior of atoms in terms of the measurement of weight. He stated that an atom is a fundamental unit of matter and these atoms can neither be created nor destroyed. Later Life England is a country that does not like to reward its heroes, a trait that borders on the pathological at times and a theme that recurs in almost every field of endeavor, especially science. So, event though he was over 60 years old, he still had to teach arithmetic to private students to make a living. His friends tried to get him a modest pension from the Government, but were told "... it would be attended with great difficulty". It took a lot of begging and pleading by some influential persons before Lord Grey's government finally and reluctantly provided a modest means of support for one of it's more innovative scientists. It was only 150 pounds a year. Dalton died July 26, 1844 in Manchester, England. References:
http://www.biography.com/people/john-dalton-9265201 http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/ahp/FonF/Dalton.html |