John- Dalton and the Rise of Modern Chemistry

JOHN- DALTON AND THE RISE OF MODERN CHEMISTRY HENRY E. ROSCOE Haziran 2021 Paradigma Akademi JOHN- DALTON AND THE RISE OF MODERN CHEMISTRY Yazar: HENRY E. ROSCOE ISBN: 978-625-7686-94-5 Sertifika No: 32427 Matbaa Sertifika No: 43370 Her bölümün sorumluluğu yazarına aittir. Paradigma Akademi Basın Yayın Dağıtım Fetvane Sokak No 29/A Çanakkale Tel: 0531 988 97 66 Tel: 0286 212 57 66 Kapak Dizgi: Selma ARSLAN Yayın Sorumlusu: Fahri GÖKER Matbaa Adresi: Ofis2005 Fotokopi ve Büro Makineleri San. Tic. Ltd. Şti. Davutpaşa Merkez Mah. YTÜ Kampüsiçi Güngören/Esenler İSTANBUL Paradigma Akademi Yayınevi bir ÇNK kuruluşudur. Tanıtım için yapılacak kısa alıntılar dışında yayıncının yazılı izni olmaksızın hiçbir şekilde çoğaltılamaz. Bu kitap T.C. Kültür Bakanlığından alınan bandrol ve ISBN ile satılmaktadır. Bandrolsüz kitap almayınız. Orjinalinden tıpkı basım. Haziran 2021 Paradigma Akademi JOHN- DALTON AND THE RISE OF MODERN CHEMISTRY HENRY E. ROSCOE Haziran 2021 Paradigma Akademi JOHN DALTON, D.C.L., F.E.S. CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction ........ 7 Chapter I. — Early Life . 15 " II. — Eaelt Years in Manchester 48 " III. — Dalton's Colour-Blindness ... 70 " IV. — Dalton's Earlier Physical and Chemical Work . .90 " — . v. Dalton's Daily Liee . .109 " VI. — Dalton's Atomic Theory .... 127 " VII. — The Atomic Theory (continued,) . 142 " VIII. — Dalton in Later Life .... 162 " IX. — Dalton's Personal Characteristics. — Last Years and Honours . 183 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIOI^rS. PAGE PoETEAiT OF Dalton FrouUs. Dalton's School Card (^photograpkecl) . 25 Dalton's Kain-Gauge ... ... 41 Daltox's Atomic Symbols — Faasimih of Leaflet for a Lecture delivered October 19th, 1835 . At end n Facsimile of Lettee to Miss .Johns ... )> INTRODUCTION. In the vestibule of the Manchester Town Hall are placed two life-sized marble statues facing each other. One of these is that of John Dalton, by Chantrey ; the other that of James Prescott Joule, by Gilbert. Thus honour is done to Manchester's two greatest sons — to Dalton, the founder of modern Chemistry and of the Atomic Theor}', and the discoverer of the laws of chemical-combining propor- tions ; to Joule, the founder of modern Physics and the discoverer of the law of the Conservation of Energy. The one gave to the world the final and satisfactory proof of the great principle, long sur- mised and often dwelt upon, that in every kind of chemical change no loss of matter occurs ; the other proved that in all the varied modes of physical change no loss of energy takes place. Dalton, by determining the relative weights of the atoms which JOHN DALTON. take part in chemical change, proved that every such change — whether from visible to invisible, from solid to liquid, or from liquid to gas — can be represented quantitatively by a chemical equa- tion; and he created the Atomic Theory of Chem- istry by which these changes are explained. Joule, by exact experiment, proved the truth of the same statement for the different forms of energy. As we can neither create nor destroy matter, so also we can neither create nor destroy energy. As when the candle burns and the wax disappears, its constituent parts are not lost, but escape in the form of steam and carbonic acid gas formed by the union of the hydrogen and carbon of the wax with atmos- pheric oxygen ; so the energy of the chemical forces locked up, or potential, in the wax and oxygen becomes evident, or kinetic, in the heat of the flame. In other words, the molecular motion of the par- ticles becomes motion of the mass. And just as there is a definite and unalterable relation of weight between the carbon and the hydrogen of the wax and the products of their combustion carbonic acid and water — so there is a definite and unalterable relation between the amount of the chemical INTRODTTCTION. V potential energy of the constituents of tne wax, and that of the heat evolved by their oxidation. Each relation can be expressed by numbers, and these numbers are the Foundation Constants of science. By the determination of the combining weights of the elements, and of their compounds, Dalton ascertained the truth of the first principle. By rigorous experiment, Joule measured the mechanical equivalent of heat, and proved that a weight of 772 lbs. falling through the space of one foot developed a fixed and unalterable amount of heat capable of raising the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit — thus prov- ing the truth of the second. Before John Dalton's discovery of the laws of chemical combination, and without his Atomic Theory to explain those laws, Chemistry as an exact science did not exist, because although many facts were known, the relation between these facts was unknown. Thus before Dalton's time, although a chemist might predicate the kind of action which occurs when two chemical substances are brought together, no one could calculate with precision how much of each ingredient is required to build up the ; 10 JOHN DALTOK. new body. After Dalton's work such a calculation became easy and certain. Hence it is tbat Dalton may truly be said to be the founder of modern Chemistry. As with the indestructibility of matter, so with the indestructibility of energy. What Dalton did for the first great principle, Joule accomplished for the second; and he is therefore the founder of modern Physics. And thus the great twin brethren of Manchester did work for the world the like of which hath not been seen, and the im- portance of which cannot be reckoned. It is sufficiently remarkable that England should have produced two such men; still stranger might it seem that they arose in the midst of a population given up to industrial pursuits, where the noise of the loom and the spinning-jenny was heard in the land, and where most men's thoughts were engrossed in what shallow minds often look upon as common trade avocations. But quiet corners were in those days, and are even now, to be found in Manchester and it may well be argued whether the distant roll of the loaded waggon, the hum of the mill, or even the screech of the locomotive, with all the stir and energy at work within the busy hive of a great INTRODUCTION. 11 industrial centre which those sounds imply, are not, after all, conducive to work of another and a more abstruse character. Whether, in fact, Dalton and Joule would have accomplished their life-work more fully had they been born to the intellectual purple of the ancient universities, and had to spend their time amidst the, to many minds, somewhat ener- vating influences of college life, instead of in the more robust and stimulating air of sturdy northern independence and intelligent northern activity. If, as it is said, the world is ruled by ideas, noth- ing can surely be more appropriate than the position, in the centre of the municipal life of the northern metropolis, accorded to the statues of these two Man- chester men. For upon the work of Dalton and Joule depends success or failure, according as the principles laid down by them are respected or neglected, of all the thousand and one industrial undertakings of that, as of every other community, which follow either the chemical change of one form of matter into another, or the conversion of heat, electricity, or other forms of energy into mechanical work or vice versd. Just as the different branches of science overlap. 12 JOHN DALTON. and as there is no strictly dividing-line between them, one following on and depending on the other, so the work of one of these Manchester men follows naturally on that of the other. Joule was the pupil and the scientific son of Dalton; he inherited the scientific spirit, and carried out the methods of investigation of his master with added refinement and knowledge. It is with the life and work of the elder of these two giants of science that we have in these pages to do. In telling the life-tale of scientific men, the biographer has often little to do beyond chronicling their researches and noting the influence which their work exerted on the progress of natural knowledge. Most of such men live uneventful lives ; their personal history is not unfrequently of but slight interest to the general reader; sometimes it is even com- monplace ; their work has lain in the laboratory or the observatory, where the even tenor of their days is only broken by the discovery of a new law, of a new element, or of a new planet. In Dalton's case this rule does not apply. For although so devoted to his science that he used to say he had no time to get married, and although the INTEODUCTION. 13 greater part of his life was uneventful, spent as it was in working and teaching in a more or less humble way in a provincial town, yet his character presents so many varied aspects, and exhibits such originality, that, apart altogether from his scientific labours, and independently of his position as one of the world's great chemists, the life of the individual man is a study full of interest. Several memoirs of John Dalton have been published. The first by his friend and pupil, the late Dr. William Charles Henry, F.E.S., printed for the Cavendish Society. A second by the late Dr. Angus Smith, F.R.S., published by the Philosophical Society of Manchester, of which Society Dalton was so long the distinguished President. And a third by my late talented friend Dr.

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