John Dalton and His Atomic Model (Group 4) Kristine Gadia, Shenen Gazmen, Grazie De Guzman and Roeckl Desingano

John Dalton




Born: September 6 1766
Birthplace: Eaglesfield, Cumber, England
Death: July 27 1844


At the age of 15 he joined his brother Jonathan in running a Quaker's school. At the age of 24 he have decided to take up Law or Medicine but his family was not there to give him the support for his works. At 1793, he moved to Manchester. Through John Gough, a blind philosopher and polymath Dalton was able to have the knowledge about Science. He became a Mathematics and Natural Philosophist teacher at Manchester. And he became a private tutor at the said subjects. Dalton's early life was highly influenced by a prominent Eaglesfield Quaker named Elihu Robinson, a competent meteorologist and instrument maker, who got him interested in problems of mathematics and meteorology. Dalton contributed solutions of problems at different subjects during his times at Kendal. From 1787, he was able to enter 200,000 observation in his "meteological diary" for the past 57 years. He was able to publish his first writing, The Meteorological Observations and Essay in the year 1793. 




Later Years

Dalton communicated his atomic theory to Thompson. Included an outline of it in the 3rd edition of the System Of Chemisty. He gave futher look to the first volume of his New System of Chemical Philisophy. The first part of the second colume did not appear till 1827. It was not explained by the care of preparation. The second part of vol. ii did not also appear.

He was the the President of the Lit and Phil until his death. In 1814, he explains the principles of the volumetric analysis. He was one of the earliest workers. in 1840, he was refused by the Royal Society. instead, he published it himself.

His discovered was regarded by his self in importance to the atomic theory.


James Prescott Joule was one of his famous pupil.


John Dalton's atomic theory




John Dalton's theory says that the different elements could be based on the different atomic weight.. He stated his theory in a lecture to the Royal Institution in 1803.




Dalton's five main points in his atomic theory:
1.All matter is composed of atoms


2.Atoms cannot be made or destroyed


3.All atoms of the same element are identical


4.Different elements have different types of atoms


5.Chemical reactions occur when atoms are rearranged


6.Compounds are formed from atoms of the constituent elements.

      Using his theory, Dalton explained numerous theories but his computation is not that accurate because he gave oxygen an atomic weight of 7 instead of 8. Despite these errors, Dalton's theory provided a logical explanation of concepts, and led the way into new fields of experimentation.


Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalton#Atomic_theory
                 http://www.rsc.org/chemsoc/timeline//pages/1803.html