Erica Kunkel and Kelly Mooney

1. John Dalton Erica Kunkel and Kelly Mooney

2. Personal Background • John Dalton was born on September 6th 1766, and died on July 27th 1844. He was born into a Quaker family in Cumberland, England. • He earned most of his money by teaching, starting at the age of 12 • He then attended and taught at English university's until the spring of 1793 he then left Kendal, and moved to Manchester. • After he left Kendal, he became a teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy at “New College” in Manchester which is a distending academy. • He taught at “New College” until 1800. • John Dalton resigned his post at “New College” because of the colleges financial problems. • John Dalton then became a private tutor of mathematics and natural philosophy.

3. Summary of research • John Dalton was a very content scientist with the instruments he had available, although more advanced equipment was attainable. • Unlike many scientists, he trusted his head rather than his hands. • John Dalton experimented mainly with gases with the turn of the 19th century in 1803 to purpose a modern theory of the atom. • He discovered these 4 theories…. • Matter is made up of atoms that are indivisible and indestructible • All atoms of the same element are identical • Atoms of different elements have different weights and different chemical properties • Atoms of different elements combine in simple whole numbers to form compounds • Atoms can not be created or destroyed

4. Major contributions • John Daltons first major contribution was the atomic theory. The atomic theory was : 1..All matter consists of tiny particles  2.Atoms are indestructible and unchangeable 3.Elements are characterized by the mass of there atoms 4.When Elements react, their atoms combine in simple, whole-number ratios  • Later some of these points were proven wrong • This theory was fundamental to all of the future atomic theories.

5. Explanation of experiment • John Dalton did not preform one specific experiment to make his atomic theory. • He preformed many different experiments to make his theory as accurate as possible. • Although he made many important scientific discoveries, many people did not accept his theories and were disregarded most of the time. • After his death one of his most interesting experiments was preformed, he asked for an autopsy to be preformed on his body to find out the cause of his color blindness. They concluded that his colored blindness was not caused by his eyes, but by the way his brain worked. Even after his death he was making many important scientific discoveries.

6. Impact on scientific community • He impacted the scientific community greatly, he began the first steps of the periodic table and the first atomic theory. • Although not all of his discoveries were accurate, he started a long list of scientists to further investigate his understandings of the atom.

7. bibliography • Greenaway, Frank (1966). John Dalton and the Atom. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalton • Purdue. (n.d.). John Dalton. In John Dalton. Retrieved October 12, 2011, from Perdue Edu database. http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/history/dalton.html • John Dalton [Picture]. (n.d.). Retrieved from synapses database. http://www.synapses.co.uk/shop/dalton.jpg • Atom [Picture ]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://idav.ucdavis.edu/~okreylos/ResDev/ProtoShop/ BetaBarrelAtoms.png • Periodic table of elements [Picture]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://dickinsonn.ism-online.org/files/ 2009/09/PeriodicTable.gif