The Philosophical Progress of the Cumbrian Chemist

n                    If Henry Cavendish had all the advantages of rank, fortunenand privilege, the same cannot be said of one of his near contemporaries, JohnnDalton. He was born at Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth in Cumberland (nownCumbria), the English Lake District, in 1766. His parents were members of thenSociety of Friends (the Quakers); his father, Joseph, was an impoverishednwoollen weaver, described as ‘feckless’, who inherited a small farm from hisnfather, and his mother, Deborah, (neé Greenup) came from a family of respectablenyeomen. 

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nJohn was the youngest of the three surviving six children born tonJoseph and Deborah, and began his education at a local school, where hisnpassion for learning attracted the attention of Mr Elihu Robinson, a Quakerngentleman, who took young John under his wing and provided him with extrantuition, particularly in mathematics. John could only attend in winter, as innthe summers he had to work on his father’s farm. When the schoolmaster, MrnFletcher, retired in 1788, his place was taken by John, at the astonishing agenof twelve. He had discipline problems with the older boys, many of whom werenhis own age, and who frequently wanted to fight with him in the adjoiningngraveyard. He received about five shillings a week in penny fees, and supplementednhis income by selling stationery, but the school was closed after two years andnJohn began working in the fields. 

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nIn 1781, he moved to Keswick, where he joinednhis brother Jonathan, teaching in a school that they took over when the mastern(and their cousin) George Bewley retired. Their sister, Mary, acted asnhousekeeper, and over sixty pupils, both day pupils and boarders, attended,nearning a profit of one hundred guineas in the first year. Their parents wouldnfrequently visit, bringing home-grown produce, walking the forty-four milesnfrom Eaglesfield to Keswick in a single day. John met John Gough, the blindnpolymath, at Kendal and received instruction in Greek, Latin and French,ntogether with more advanced mathematics from him. Gough also encouraged him tonkeep a meteorological journal, which he did for 57 years, making over 200,000nentries. At Gough’s recommendation, John took the position of Professor ofnMathematics and Natural Philosophy at New College, Manchester, in 1793, and thenfollowing year he became a member of the Literary and Philosophical Society ofnManchester. In October 1794, he presented a paper to the society, ExtraordinarynFacts relating to the Vision of Colours, in which he describedncolour-blindness, discovered in his brother and himself whilst undertakingnbotanical studies, which still carries the alternative name Daltonism. 

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nJohn hadnbought his mother some silk stockings as a birthday present, thinking them tonbe dark-bluish drab, when in fact the devout Quaker lady was presented with a pairnof bright scarlet stockings, to which she responded 

nHe returned to his observationsnof flowers and found his descriptions of them to be false. 

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nHis salary at thenCollege was £80 per year, from which £27 10s were deducted for rent andncommons, but Dalton lived frugally on the remainder. All the tutors werenDissenters and the College admitted those students who were barred from thenuniversities on religious grounds. Not unlike a modern lecturer, Dalton hadntwenty-one hours contact time with his students, and after his lecturenpreparation time, he had leisure to spend in the small college library and thenlarge public library of Manchester. He spent six years in the post beforenleaving and taking the position of the Secretary of the Literary andnPhilosophical Society, becoming Vice-President in 1808 and President in 1817. 

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nAs a Quaker, Dalton had few vices but he enjoyed a game of bowls on a Thursdaynafternoon at the Dog and Partridge inn, where he played in the team, drank hisntea and smoked his churchwarden pipe – he said that he liked to take hisnSaturday half-holiday in the middle of the week. He was of moderate height andnas one would expect of a ex-Cumbrian farmhand, physically strong; he dressednformally, in the typical Quaker garb, in good quality matching clothes, verynneat and tidy. He retained his broad Cumbrian accent, was quite gruff althoughnwell-mannered, and enjoyed socialising with friends and the Johns family, withnwhom he lodged. He rose at eight and after a light breakfast went to hisnlaboratory, took lunch at one then back to work until tea at five, and suppernat nine, after which he would come out of the laboratory, smoke a pipe with Rev. Johns and talk about the day. 

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nHe took his holidays back home in the Lakes,nwhere he enjoyed hill walking on the Fells, climbing the mountains and the ‘rightngude crack’ with old friends. Although he ‘never found the time’ to marry,nhe appreciated the company of the ladies but never entered into a romanticnrelationship, dedicating himself instead to science. His great legacy is hisnatomic theory, which developed from his enquiries into the nature of gases. Itndeserves a post of its own. 

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nMonsieur Pelletan of Paris came to Manchester inn1820 with the express purpose of meeting le philosophe, expecting tonfind him in his professor’s chair surrounded by adoring adepts. After muchndifficulty, he eventually found the distinguished Dalton helping a young boy tonwrite numbers on a slate. Greatly surprised, Pelletan inquired if he was,nindeed, speaking to Monsieur Dalton the physicist. “Yes,” came thenreply, “wilt thou sit down till I put this lad right about his arithmetic.” 

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nAnother story is that he was called to the Royal Court, to meet George VI. As anQuaker, Dalton would not wear court dress but a compromise was found, whereinnhe could wear the scarlet academic gown of a Doctor of Law from Oxford.nNoticing the odd garb, the King asked who it was, to be told it was Dr Dalton,nthe Manchester philosopher. He went over to him and said, 

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nHe wouldnnot suffer fools, however, and when pressed about a particular issue by antroublesome inquirer, he responded with, 

nIn 1822,nhe was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1833 he was granted angovernment pension of £150 per year, raised in 1836 to £300. In later life, hisnhealth declined and in July 1844, after a series of strokes, he died atnManchester, aged 77. 

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nHis body was laid in state in a darkened room innManchester Town Hall, where 40,000 people came to pay their respects, and anprocession of over a hundred carriages attended his funeral. Policemen worentokens of mourning and the shops and warehouses along the route were closed innrespect, as hundreds of people walked to Ardwick cemetery, where his remainsnwere laid to rest beneath a red granite memorial. There is a John Dalton Streetnin Manchester city centre, university buildings in the city’s universities arennamed after him, as is a crater on the moon. 

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nMuch of Dalton’s original work wasndestroyed by a German bomb, during an air raid on Manchester on Christmas Even1940.

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