John Dalton
British chemist and mathematician (1766–1844)
John Dalton (; 5 or 6 September 1766 – 27 July 1844) was an English chemist, physicist, and meteorologist whose work laid the foundations of modern atomic theory and stoichiometric chemistry. Building on earlier ideas about the indivisibility of matter and his own precise measurements of combining ratios, Dalton proposed that each chemical element consists of identical atoms of characteristic weight, and that compounds are formed when atoms of different elements combine in fixed whole-number proportions. His A New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808) presented a coherent atomic model, supplied relative atomic weights and symbolic notation, and established the quantitative framework that shaped nineteenth-century chemistry and remains the basis of modern chemical thought.
Dalton was also a pioneering meteorologist and physicist; he kept daily weather observations for over fifty years, formulated the first empirical law of partial pressures (later known as Dalton's law), and studied the behaviour of gases through his work on vapor pressure and gas solubility. His investigations into his own color blindness led to the first scientific description of the condition—which in several languages is still known as Daltonism—and helped establish experimental methods for linking perception with physiology. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1822 and awarded its Royal Medal in 1826, Dalton became the first British scientist to develop a quantitative atomic theory and one of the key figures in the transition of chemistry from a qualitative to a mathematical science.
Early life
John Dalton was born on 5 or 6 September 1766 into a Quaker family in Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, in Cumberland, England. His father was a weaver. He received his early education from his father and from Quaker John Fletcher, who ran a private school in the nearby village of Pardshaw Hall. Dalton's family was too poor to support him for long and he began to earn his living, from the age of ten, in the service of wealthy local Quaker Elihu Robinson.
“John Dalton” enters the record as british chemist and mathematician (1766–1844). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what John, Dalton and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q41284. VIAF identifies the subject as 56739674. The Library of Congress control number is n50045107. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1766, 1844, 1808 and 1822.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Dalton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.