Selections from the Exhibition

DALTON THE MAN

Dalton was formed by his early surroundings which led to his interest in education and in natural philosophy. He was helped in his own schooldays by the village teacher John Fletcher, and by the Quaker Elihu Robinson, and he retained his passion for education and his firm Quaker beliefs all his life. Dalton visited Cumbria every summer for his holidays, and carried on his researches into meteorology and natural history there.

MOUNT STREET, 1830-1930: AN ACCOUNT OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS IN MANCHESTER
Manchester, Mount Street Centenary Committee, 1930
ML, 289.6, F32/R109499
The engraving shows Mount Street Meeting House as it was in 1830. Dalton was a member of the Manchester Meeting of the Society of Friends (Quakers).

COLOUR VISION

It was the Pelargonium zonale which brought home to Dalton the difference between his perception of colour and that of others. In 1792 he noted that while he saw the flower as a dull blue by daylight, most people saw it as pink. However by candlelight, he saw the geranium as a yellowish colour. Dalton’s brother Jonathan had the same defect in vision. Dalton himself thought that the physical construction of the eye was responsible for this, that the vitreous was in his case blue and not colourless as with most people. He left instructions that one of his eyes was to be dissected after his death to establish this theory, and this was done, but the vitreous was found to be normal, so Dalton’s theory in this case was incorrect. There are three types of cones on the human retina, one absorbing light in the blue-violet wavelength, one the green wavelength and one the yellow-red. Colour-blind people may be defficient in one, two or all three. People with red/green insensitivity cannot tell these two colours apart; people with blue blindness cannot tell blue from yellow, and people with green blindness are unable to see the green part of the spectrum. The condition is hereditary, and many more males than females suffer from it, though women are carriers of the defective gene.

JOHN DALTON
Extraordinary Facts Relating to the Vision of Colours, with Observations
FROM MEMOIRS OF THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF MANCHESTER, Vol. V, Pt. 1
London, Cadell and Davies, 1798
ML General Per.
Dalton read his paper ‘Extraordinary Facts Relating to the Vision of Colours, with Observations’ to the Literary and Philosophical Society in October 1794. He states that it was his study of botany which led to his realization that his vision of colours differed from that of most people, as he could not distinguish in daylight between blue and pink. The specific plant which prompted this discovery was Pelargonium zonale, which appeared to him blue in daylight but pink in candlelight. Dalton’s brother Jonathan also had this type of colour blindness.

METEOROLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY

Dalton kept a meteorological diary from an early age, and retained the habit all his life. He was particularly interested in the appearance of the Aurora borealis, which was seen in the Kendal – Keswick area during his early life. Plants were another interest and most of his holidays after his removal to Manchester were spent in the Lake District pursuing one of these two interests.

JOHN DALTON
Meteorological Observations and Essays
Second edition
Manchester, Pr. by Harrison and Crosfield, 1834
SC 13005B
Here is the second edition of Dalton’s Meteorological Observations and his notes on the appearances of the Aurora Borealis over Kendal and Keswick are shown. Dalton made these observations over a period of seven years, from 1786 to 1793, and notes whether the phenomenon was seen in both places, or only one, and gives details of the appearance, bright/faint, still/active and so on.

EARLY WORK

Dalton’s early work embraced various disciplines, before he focused on chemistry. He read papers to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society on topics such as; meteorology, the nature of the Aurora Borealis, the barometer, the thermometer, the hygrometer, rainfall, clouds, dew and evaporation. He was the first to establish that rain is caused by the lowering of temperature, not a change in atmospheric pressure. Dalton also worked on gases, and formulated ‘Dalton’s Law’ of partial pressures which states that the total pressure which a mixture of gases exerts is equal to that which would be exerted by the sum of the pressures of the individual gases if occupying the same volume. Dalton went on to construct experiments showing that gases are soluble in water. He analysed the atmosphere and showed it to be constant in composition up to a height of 15,000 feet, and he established the correct formula of the composition of ether.

JOHN DALTON
Experiments and Observations to Determine Whether the Quantity of Rain and Dew is Equal to the Quantity of Water carried off by the Rivers and Raised by Evaporation; with an Enquiry into the Origin of Springs

FROM MEMOIRS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE OF MANCHESTER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, Vol. V, Pt. II. 1802
ML General Per.
This paper was read to the Society in March 1799 and in it Dalton mentions the increasingly common use of rain gauges to gather information. He establishes that inland counties of England have less rain than those near the sea, especially counties on the west of the country. Dalton lists the rainfall in various places in England, dividing counties into inland and maritime sections. He also formulates a method of estimating how much water flows into the sea from the rivers of England and Wales in a year, and a means of estimating the quantity of dew falling.

THE ATOMIC THEORY

Ideas about the atomic nature of matter had existed since the time of the Greek philosophers. Dalton’s advance was to systematise that general notion from experimental data to give a basis for quantitative chemistry. Briefly, Dalton’s theory proposed that
• Every element consisted of very small indivisible particles (atoms)
• Atoms are indestructible
• The atoms of one element are identical, but are different to those of other elements, for instance in mass
• Chemical compounds are formed by the combination of atoms of different elements in simple ratios.
Dalton’s first expression of his atomic theory was at the end of his 1803 paper on “The Absorption of Gases by Water and Other Liquids” in which he explored the ‘relative weights of the ultimate particles of bodies’, and which included a first list of atomic weights. Dalton developed his ideas in the series of lectures he gave in London in 1803, in Manchester in 1805 and in Edinburgh in 1807. The ideas at first aroused little interest among other scientists, but the Edinburgh lectures and the publication of Thomson’s A System of Chemistry in 1807 and Dalton’s New System of Chemical Philosophy in 1808 brought the theory into a wider arena.

HENRY E. ROSCOE and ARTHUR HARDEN
A New View of the Origin of Dalton’s Atomic Theory: a Contribution to Chemical History, etc.
London, Macmillan, 1896
ML, 541.2, D8
Roscoe and Harden present Dalton’s atomic theory and collect together letters and notes from his notebooks in Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society’s collection. They examined Dalton’s notebooks for the period 1802-1808 when he was formulating his atomic theory. This page shows details from Dalton’s notebooks for 1802 and the beginning of 1803, and the titles of papers he was reading to the Society in these years are cited.

DEATH, FUNERAL, THE LEGACY

Dalton received many honours – honorary degrees from the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh; he was president of Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, and Vice-President of the British Association when it met in Manchester. He was awarded the Royal Medal by the Royal Society in 1826. Dalton’s distinguished place in Manchester life resulted in his having an elaborate public funeral. His body lay in state in Manchester Town Hall, and thousands of people filed past to pay their respects. When the actual funeral took place, shops were closed so that as many people as possible were able to line the route and observe the procession going past. Dalton was buried in Ardwick cemetery.

REPORT OF THE TWELFTH MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, HELD AT MANCHESTER IN JUNE 1842
London, John Murray, 1843
ML Store, 204174
When the illustrious British Association met in Manchester in 1842 Dalton was Vice-President for the occasion. After a stroke he was too frail to be President so Lord Francis Egerton fulfilled this role. However Dalton did make some contributions on microcosmic salt and on a new method of analysing sugar.

THE LEGACY

Dalton had a profound influence in chemistry and on the next generation of chemists such as Joule and Roscoe. The University established two Dalton Chemical Scholarships, two Dalton Mathematical Scholarships and a Dalton Prize for Natural History. Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society created the Dalton Medal, first awarded in 1898 to Edward Schunck. Dalton Hall of residence, originally for Quaker students, was the first hall of residence at a modern university, and a street in the centre of Manchester, running from Albert Square to Deansgate, was named after him.

G. A. SUTHERLAND
Dalton Hall; a Quaker Venture
London, Bannisdale Press, 1963
R116098
The Society of Friends (Quakers) in Manchester made a proposal in 1872 to establish an institution where Quaker students could live while studying at Owens College, which was one of only two higher education institutions in England at the time which was open to Dissenting students. The original proposal was to admit women as well as men, but this was later dropped. The hall of residence opened in 1876, and in 1892 another building in Victoria Park was bought to increase the accommodation, and called ‘Eaglesfield’ after Dalton’s birthplace.

THE DALTON MANUSCRIPTS

Dalton’s collection of manuscripts passed into the possession of Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society at his death and kept in their premises at George Street. In December 1940 the building was burnt down during the blitz on Manchester. Some manuscripts were saved, although damaged. The collection was bought by the University of Manchester in 1979, and in 1990 conservation work began on the papers. Many pages had suffered fire damage and were highly acidic and brittle. They had to be de-acidified, then the sheets were enclosed individually in wallets specially made from polyester. This ensured that the items could be read, without further deterioration.

DALTON MANUSCRIPTS 411
A lock of Dalton’s hair has been preserved in the collection of Dalton manuscripts. It was cut off and presented to H. H. Watson by Dalton’s housekeeper after Dalton had suffered a stroke in 1837.

A paperweight has been produced showing the caricature of Dalton by J. Stephenson. This, the bookmarks showing the statue of Dalton in the Deansgate building of JRUL, the postcard and the booklet on Dalton are available from the sales point in the Main Library.

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