Heroes of Science: ChemistsMuir, M. M. Pattison (Matthew Moncrieff Pattison)
History
Heroes of Science: Chemists
Muir, M. M. Pattison (Matthew Moncrieff Pattison)
Chemistry -- History; Chemists
This side of Dalton's nature was not often apparent. In him the quiet,
hard-working student generally appeared prominently marked; but on the
half-holiday which he allowed himself on each Thursday afternoon, in order
to enjoy the society of a few friends and to engage in his favourite
amusement of a game at bowls, he laid aside something of the quietness,
regularity and decorum which usually characterized him. "When it came to
his turn to bowl he threw his whole soul into the game,... and it was not a
little amusing to spectators to see him running after the ball across the
green, stooping down as if talking to it, and waving his hands from one
side to the other exactly as he wished the line of the ball to be, and
manifesting the most intense interest in its coming near to the point at
which he aimed."
From the year 1803-4 Dalton becomes more and more a worker in chemistry.
The establishment of the atomic theory now engaged most of his time and
attention. The results of his investigation of "the primary laws which seem
to obtain in regard to heat and to chemical combinations" appeared in his
"New System of Chemical Philosophy," Part I. of which, "On Heat, on the
Constitution of Bodies and on Chemical Synthesis," was published in 1808.
We have now arrived at the time when Dalton's inquiry into the "relative
weights of the ultimate particles of bodies" was in his opinion
sufficiently advanced for presentation to the scientific world; but I think
we shall do better to postpone our consideration of this great inquiry
until we have completed our review of the chief events in the life of
Dalton, other than this the greatest event of all.
Dalton did not look for rewards--he desired only the just fame of one who
sought for natural truths; but after the publication of the "New System"
rewards began to come to him. In 1817 he was elected a corresponding member
of the French Academy of Sciences.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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