The English chemist John Dalton (1766-1844) provided the beginnings of the development of a

scientific atomic theory, thus facilitating the development of chemistry as a separate science.
His contributions to physics, particularly to meteorology, were also significant.

John Dalton was the youngest of three surviving children of a Quaker handloom weaver. He
was born about Sept. 6, 1766 (no exact record exists), in Eaglesfield. Until he was 11, he
attended school, then at the age of 12 became a teacher. For about a year he next worked as a
farm helper, but at 15 he returned to teaching, privately for the most part, pursuing it as a
career for the remainder of his life. In his work Dalton used relatively simple equipment and
has been accused of being "a very coarse experimenter." However, he had a gift for reasoning
and for drawing correct conclusions from imperfect experiments. He himself attributed his
success primarily to simple persistence.
Studies in Meteorology
Dalton's lifelong interest in meteorology did much to make that study a science. He began
keeping records of the local weather conditions--atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind, and
humidity--in 1787 and maintained them for 57 years until his death. During this time he
recorded more than 200,000 values, using equipment which for the most part was made by
him. Dalton's interest in the weather gave him a special interest in mixtures of gases, and his
earliest studies were concerned with atmospheric physics. The formulation of his law of partial
pressures (Dalton's law) was announced in 1803. It defined the pressure of a mixture of gases
as the sum of the pressures exerted by each component solely occupying the same space. In
1800 he studied the heating and cooling of gases resulting from compression and expansion,
and in 1801 he formulated a law of the thermal expansion of gases. His work on water vapor
concentration in the atmosphere, using a homemade dew-point hygrometer, and his 1804 study
of the effect of temperature on the pressure of a vapor brought him international fame.
Developing the Atomic Theory
The formulation of the atomic theory, Dalton's greatest achievement, was developed gradually,
almost inadvertently, through a series of observations resulting from his preoccupation with
gases. It began with an attempt to explain why the constituents of a gaseous mixture remain
homogeneously mixed instead of forming layers according to their density. The theory was
first alluded to in a paper presented before the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
in 1803 on the absorption of gases by water and other liquids. In the last section of the paper
was the first table of atomic weights. The acceptance of his theory prompted Dalton to expand
it further, and finally he published it in his New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808).
Although William Higgins claimed priority over Dalton, the consensus is that Dalton
conceived the idea that the atoms of different elements are distinguished by differences in their
weight. As contrasted to others who may have vaguely glimpsed the principle, Dalton
presented it as a universal and consistent fact and applied it to the explanation of chemical
phenomena. Later Life
Dalton lived a simple life, kept to the doctrines of his Quaker faith, and never
married. During most of his life he had little money and was almost
excessively economical; however, by tutoring and doing routine chemical work
at low pay his few wants were met. He had no flair for lecturing: his voice was
rather harsh, and he was inclined to be rather stiff and awkward in manner.
He is said to have had no grace in conversation or in writing. Despite his lack
of these social assets, he apparently lived a quite happy life and had many
friends.
In 1810 Dalton refused an invitation to join the Royal Society but was finally
elected in 1822 without his knowledge. As his fame grew, he received many
honors, including a doctor's degree from Oxford in 1832, at which time he was
presented to King William IV. For this occasion he had to wear the famous
scarlet regalia of Oxford, which fortunately looked gray to his color-blind eyes
and therefore was acceptable to him as an orthodox Quaker.
In 1837 he suffered a damaging stroke; the following year another left him
with impaired speech. A final stroke came on the night of July 26, 1844.
John Dalton Biography
Scientist
Englishman John Dalton was one of the first scientists to decide that all matter is made up of
small particles, or atoms. He is also remembered for his weather observations, which he began
recording in 1787 using instruments he made himself. In 1793 Dalton published
Meteorological Observations and Essays, one of the first books of its kind. His studies led him
to develop theories about water vapor and mixed gases, and in 1801 he came up with Dalton's
law of partial pressures: that in a mixture of gases, each component exerts the same pressure as
it would if it alone made up the whole volume of the mixture. From there Dalton decided that
all matter, not only gases, must consist of small particles. He revived the ancient theory of
atoms and prepared the first table of atomic weights, and announced his notions publicly in
1803. By the end of his life his atomic theory was widely accepted, and in 1833 he was
awarded an annual pension from the king.

Extra credit: In 1794 Dalton became the first to describe color blindness (sometimes called
daltonism)... A teacher throughout much of his life (beginning at the age of 12), Dalton also
published Elements of English Grammar in 1801... Dalton was a Quaker and his birth was not
officially registered at the time; some sources list his birth date as 5 September 1766.
The atomic weight scale has traditionally been a relative scale, that is without an
explicit unit, with the first atomic weight basis suggested by Dalton in 1803 as 1H.[4]
Despite the initial mass of 1H being used as the natural unit for atomic weight, it was
suggested by Ostwald that atomic weights would be best expressed in terms in units
of 1/16 weight of oxygen. This evaluation was made prior to the discovery of the
existence of elemental isotopes, which occurred in 1912.[4]

The discovery of isotopic oxygen in 1929 lead to a divergence in atomic weight

representation, with isotopically weighted and pure 16O bases both used as the basis
for the atomic mass unit. The inevitable divergence could result in errors in
computations, and was thus unwieldy. The reference was changed to carbon-12 in
1961,[5] such that 1 u= mu = 1/12 ma 12C, and hence the current unit is often referred
to as the "unified" atomic mass unit.[6]. The choice of carbon-12 was used to minimise
further divergence with prior literature.[4]
.
the unified atomic mass unit and the dalton are different names for the same unit of measure.
Since the dalton was first introduced, there has been a gradual change towards using it in
preference to the unified atomic mass unit

• In 1993, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry approved the use of the
dalton with the qualification that the GCPM had not given its approval.[7]
• In 2003 the Consultative Committee for Units, part of the CIPM, recommended a
preference for the usage of the "dalton" over the "atomic mass unit" as it "is shorter
and works better with prefixes".[8]