ESTABLISHMENT OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF CHEMICAL SCIENCE--PERIOD OF DALTON.
_John Dalton_, 1766-1844.
The progress of chemical knowledge became so rapid in the early years of
the present century, that although I have in this chapter called the time
immediately succeeding that of Lavoisier "the period of John Dalton," and
although I shall attempt to describe the advances made by this philosopher
without considering those of his contemporaries Davy and Berzelius, yet I
must insist on the facts that this arrangement is made purely for the sake
of convenience, and that many of the discoveries of Davy, Berzelius and
others came in order of time before, or followed close upon the publication
of Dalton's atomic theory.
Nevertheless, as the work of these men belongs in its essence to the modern
period, and as the promulgation of the atomic theory by Dalton marks the
beginning of this period, it seems better that we should have a clear
conception of what was done by this chemist before proceeding to consider
the advances made by his contemporaries and successors.
* * * * *
JOHN DALTON, the second of three children of Joseph and Deborah Dalton, was
born at Eaglesfield, a village near Cockermouth, in Cumberland, on the 5th
of September 1766. One of the first meeting-houses established by the
Society of Friends is to be found in Eaglesfield.
The Dalton family had been settled for several generations on a small
copyhold estate in this village. The first of them to join the Friends was
the grandfather of John Dalton; his descendants remained faithful adherents
of this society.
Dalton attended the village schools of Eaglesfield and the neighbourhood
until he was eleven years old, by which time, in addition to learning
reading, writing and arithmetic, he had "gone through a course of
mensuration, surveying, navigation, etc." At the age of ten his taste for
measurements and calculations began to be remarked by those around him;
this taste was encouraged by Mr. Robinson, a relative of Dalton, who
recognizing the indomitable perseverance of the boy appears to have taken
some care about this time in directing his mathematical studies.
At the early age of twelve Dalton affixed to the door of his father's house
a large sheet of paper whereon he announced that he had opened a school
for youth of both sexes; also that "paper, pens and ink" were sold within.
The boy-teacher had little authority over his pupils, who challenged their
master to fight in the graveyard, and broke the windows of the room into
which they had been locked till their tasks should be learned.
When he was fifteen years old Dalton removed to Kendal, where he continued
for eleven or twelve years, at first as assistant-master, and then, along
with his elder brother Jonathan, as principal of a boarding school for
boys.
It was announced by the brothers that in this school "youth will be
carefully instructed in English, Latin, Greek and French; also writing,
arithmetic, merchants' accounts and the mathematics." The school was not
very successful. Both brothers were hard, inflexible, and ungainly in their
habits, and neither was fitted to become a successful teacher of boys: of
the two, John had the gentler disposition, and was preferred by the boys;
"besides, his mind was so occupied by mathematics that their faults escaped
his notice."
During this time Dalton employed his leisure in learning Latin, Greek and
French, and in pursuing his studies in mathematics and natural philosophy.
He became a frequent contributor to the _Gentlemen's Diary_, a paper which
received problems of various kinds--chiefly mathematical--and presented
prizes for their successful solution.
Besides setting and answering mathematical problems in this journal, and
also in the _Ladies' Diary_, Dalton sometimes ventured into the wider
fields of mental phenomena. It seems strange to read that, even at the age
of twenty-six, Dalton should occupy his leisure time composing answers to
such queries as these:--
"Whether, to a generous mind, is the conferring or receiving an obligation,
the greater pleasure?"
"Is it possible for a person of sensibility and virtue, who has once felt
the passion of love in the fullest extent that the human heart is capable
of receiving it (being by death or some other circumstance for ever
deprived of the object of its wishes), ever to feel an equal passion for
any other object?"
In his answer to the second of these queries, Dalton carefully framed two
hypotheses, and as carefully drew conclusions from each. The question in
the _Diary_ was by "Mira;" if "Mira" were a "rapturous maiden" she would
not derive much comfort from the cold and mathematical answer by "Mr. John
Dalton of Kendal."
At Kendal Dalton made the acquaintance of Mr. Gough, who was about eight
years older than Dalton, and had been blind from the age of two. Mr. Gough,
we are assured by Dalton, was "a perfect master of the Latin, Greek and
French tongues;" he understood "well all the different branches of
mathematics;" there was "no branch of natural philosophy but what he was
well acquainted with;" he knew "by the touch, taste and smell, almost
every plant within twenty miles of Kendal." To the friendship of this
remarkable man Dalton owed much; with his help he acquired a fair knowledge
of the classical languages, and he it was who set Dalton the example of
keeping a regular record of weather observations.
On the 24th of March 1787 Dalton made his first entry in a book which he
entitled "Observations on the Weather, etc.;" the last entry in this book
he made fifty-seven years later on the evening preceding his death. The
importance of Dalton's meteorological observations, as leading him to the
conception of the atomic theory, will be noticed as we proceed.
In the year 1793 Dalton, who was now twenty-seven years of age, was invited
to Manchester to become tutor in the mathematical and natural philosophy
department of a college recently established by influential Dissenters in
that town. Eighty pounds for the session of ten months was guaranteed him;
and he was provided with "rooms and commons" in the college at a charge of
L27 10_s._ per session.
He held this appointment for six years, when he retired, and continuing to
live in Manchester devoted himself to researches in natural philosophy,
gaining a living by giving private lessons in mathematics and physical
science at a charge of 2_s._ 6_d._ per hour, or 1_s._ 6_d._ each if more
than two pupils attended at the same time.
Dalton was elected a Fellow of the Literary and Philosophical Society of
Manchester in the year 1794; and from the time of his retiring from the
tutorship of Manchester New College till the close of his life he spent a
great part of his time in a room in the society's house in George Street,
in studying and teaching. The fifty years thus spent are marked by few
outward events. The history of Dalton's life from this time is the history
of the development of his intellect, and the record of his scientific
discoveries.
On one occasion during Dalton's stay at Kendal, as he was about to make a
visit to his native village, he bethought himself that the present of a
pair of silken hose would be acceptable to his mother. He accordingly
purchased a pair marked "newest fashion;" but his mother's remark, "Thou
hast brought me a pair of grand hose, John; but what made thee fancy so
light a colour? I can never show myself at meeting in them," rather
disconcerted him, as to his eyes the hose were of the orthodox drab colour.
His mother insisted that the stockings were "as red as a cherry." John's
brother upheld the "drab" side of the dispute; so the neighbours were
called in, and gave their decision that the hose were "varra fine stuff,
but uncommon scarlety."
From this time Dalton made observations on the peculiarities of his own
vision and that of others, and in his first paper read before the Literary
and Philosophical Society in 1794, he described these peculiarities. He
says, "Since the year 1790 the occasional study of botany obliged me to
attend more to colour than before. With respect to colours that were white,
yellow, or green, I readily assented to the appropriate term; blue, purple,
pink and crimson appeared rather less distinguishable, being, according to
my idea, all referable to blue. I have often seriously asked a person
whether a flower was blue or pink, but was generally considered to be in
jest." Dalton's colour-blindness was amusingly illustrated at a later time,
when having been created D.C.L. by the University of Oxford he continued to
wear the red robes of his degree for some days; and when his attention was
drawn to the somewhat strange phenomenon, even in a university town, of an
elderly gentleman in the dress of a Quaker perambulating the town day after
day in a scarlet robe, he remarked that to him the gown appeared to be of
the same colour as the green trees.
Dalton's work during the next six or eight years dealt chiefly with
problems suggested by his meteorological observations; he published a
volume on "Meteorological Observations and Essays," chiefly occupied with
descriptions of the instruments employed, more especially of the
thermometer and barometer, and an instrument for determining the dew-point
of air. By this time he had established the existence of a connection of
some kind between magnetism and the aurora, and had thus laid the
foundations of a most important branch of meteorology.
In 1799, in a note to a paper on rain and dew, he begins his work on
aqueous vapour in the atmosphere by proving that water vapour exists as
such in the air. This paper is quickly followed by another on the
conducting power of water for heat.
A very important paper was published in 1801, on the "Constitution of Mixed
Gases, etc.," wherein Dalton asserted that the total pressure of a mixture
of two gases on the walls of the containing vessel is equal to the sum of
the pressures of each gas; in other words, that if one gas is removed the
pressure now exerted by the remaining gas is exactly the same as was
exerted by that gas in the original mixture. In a paper published much
later (1826), when his views and experiments on this subject were matured,
he writes: "It appears to me as completely demonstrated as any physical
principle, that whenever two or more ... gases or vapours ... are put
together, either into a limited or unlimited space, they will finally be
arranged each as if it occupied the whole space, and the others were not
present; the nature of the fluids and gravitation being the only
efficacious agents."
This conclusion was followed out and extended in a paper published in 1803,
on the absorption of gases by water and other liquids, wherein he states
that the amount of each gas _mechanically dissolved_ by a liquid from a
mixture of gases depends only on the quantity of _that_ gas in the mixture,
the other gases exerting no influence in this respect.
Dalton now considered the variation in the pressures of various gases
caused by increasing or decreasing temperature, and then proceeded to
discuss the relations which exist between the volumes of gases and the
temperature at which these volumes are measured. He concluded that "all
elastic fluids" under the same pressure expand equally by heat: and he adds
the very important remark, "It seems, therefore, that general laws
respecting the absolute quantity and the nature of heat are more likely to
be derived from the study of elastic fluids than of other substances"--a
remark the profound truth of which has been emphasized by each step in the
advances made in our conception of the nature of heat since the time of
Dalton.
In these papers on the "Constitution of Mixed Gases" Dalton also describes
and illustrates a method whereby the actual amount of water vapour in a
given bulk of atmospheric air may be found from a knowledge of the
dew-point of that air, that is, the temperature at which the deposition of
water in the liquid form begins. The introduction of this method for
finding the humidity of air marks an important advance in the history of
meteorology.
In this series of papers published within the first three years of the
present century Dalton evidently had before his mind's eye a picture of a
gas as a quantity of matter built up of small but independent particles; he
constantly speaks of pressures between the small particles of elastic
fluids, of these particles as repelling each other, etc. In his "New
System" he says, "A vessel full of any pure elastic fluid presents to the
imagination a picture like one full of small shot."
It is very important to notice that Dalton makes use of this conception of
small particles to explain purely physical experiments and operations.
Although we know that during these years he was thinking much of "chemical
combinations," yet we find that it was his observations on the weather
which led him to the conception--a purely physical conception--of each
chemically distinct gas as being built up of a vast number of small,
equally heavy particles. A consideration of these papers by Dalton on the
constitution of mixed gases shows us the method which he pursued in his
investigations. "The progress of philosophical knowledge," he says, "is
advanced by the discovery of new and important facts; but much more when
these facts lead to the establishment of general laws." Dalton always
strove to attain to general laws. The facts which he describes are
frequently inaccurate; he was singularly deficient in manipulation, and he
cannot claim a high place as a careful experimenter. He was however able to
draw general conclusions of wide applicability. He seems sometimes to have
stated a generalization in definite form before he had obtained any
experimental verification of it.
In the year 1802 Dalton conducted an examination of air from various
localities, and concluded that one hundred volumes of air are composed of
twenty-one volumes of oxygen and seventy-nine volumes of nitrogen. This
appears to have been his first piece of purely chemical work. But in the
next year he again returns to physical phenomena. In the paper already
referred to, on the absorption of gases by water and other liquids,
published in this year, he had stated that "All gases that enter into water
and other liquids by means of pressure, and are wholly disengaged again by
the removal of that pressure, are _mechanically_ mixed with the liquid, and
not _chemically_ combined with it." But if this be so, why, he asked, does
not water mechanically dissolve the same bulk of every kind of gas? The
answer which he gives to this question is found at the close of the paper;
to the student of chemistry it is very important:--
"This question I have duly considered, and though I am not yet able to
satisfy myself completely, I am nearly persuaded that the circumstance
depends upon the weight and number of the ultimate particles of the several
gases, those whose particles are lightest and single being least
absorbable, and the others more, accordingly as they increase in weight and
complexity. An inquiry into the relative weights of the ultimate particles
of bodies is a subject, as far as I know, entirely new. I have lately been
prosecuting this inquiry with remarkable success. The principle cannot be
entered upon in this paper; but I shall just subjoin the results, as far as
they appear to be ascertained by my experiments." Then follows a "_Table
of the relative weights of the ultimate particles of gaseous and other
bodies._" The following numbers, among others, are given:--
Hydrogen 1 Sulphur 14.4
Oxygen 5.5 Alcohol 15.1
Azote 4.2 Nitrous oxide 13.7
Phosphorus 7.2 Ether 9.6
Here is the beginning of the atomic theory; and yet Dalton's strictly
chemical experimental work lies in the future. The scope of the theory is
defined in that sentence--"_An inquiry into the relative weights of the
ultimate particles of bodies._" His paper on mixed gases is illustrated by
a plate,[7] which shows how vividly Dalton at this time pictured to himself
a quantity of gas as composed of many little particles, and how clearly he
recognized the necessity of regarding all the particles of each elementary
gas as alike, but as differing from those of every other elementary gas.
In 1804 Dalton was invited to deliver a course of lectures in the Royal
Institution of London, on heat, mixed gases and similar subjects. In these
lectures he expounded his views on the constitution of gases, on absorption
of gases by liquids, etc. These views drew much attention in this and other
countries. "They are busy with them," he writes in 1804, "at London,
Edinburgh, Paris and in various parts of Germany, some maintaining one side
and some another. The truth will surely out at last."
[Illustration: Fig. 2]
Dalton's love of numerical calculations is noticeable in a trivial
circumstance which he mentions in a letter from London to his brother. He
tried to count the number of coaches which he met in going to the Friends'
morning meeting: this he assures his brother he "effected with tolerable
precision. The number was one hundred and four."
During vacation time Dalton usually made a walking excursion in the Lake
district. He was extremely fond of mountain scenery, but generally
combined the pursuit of science with that of pleasure; he carried his
meteorological instruments with him, determined the dew-point at various
altitudes, and measured mountain heights by the aid of his barometer.
Sometimes however he refused to have anything to do with science. A
companion in one of these excursions says that he was "like a schoolboy
enjoying a holiday, mocking the cuckoos, putting up and chasing the hares,
stopping from time to time to point out some beautiful view, or loitering
to chat with passing pedestrians."
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.
In 1822, when his fame as a philosophical chemist was fully established,
Dalton visited Paris. This visit gave him great pleasure. He was constantly
in the society of the great men who then so nobly represented the dignity
of natural science in France; Laplace, Cuvier, Biot, Arago, Gay-Lussac,
Milne-Edwards and others were his friends. For some time after this visit
he was more vivacious and communicative than usual, and we are told by one
who lived in the same house as he, "We frequently bantered him with having
become half a Frenchman." Dalton especially valued the friendship of
Clementine Cuvier, daughter of the great naturalist, with whom he became
acquainted during his visit to Paris. All through life he greatly delighted
in the society of cultivated women, and his warmest friendships were with
gentlewomen. At one time, shortly after going to Manchester, he was much
taken by a widow lady who combined great personal charms with considerable
mental culture. "During my _captivity_," he writes to a friend, "which
lasted about a week, I lost my appetite, and had other symptoms of
_bondage_ about me, as incoherent discourse, etc., but have now happily
regained my freedom." The society of men who like himself were actively
engaged in the investigation of natural science was also a source of much
pleasure to Dalton. Such men used to visit him in Manchester, so that in
the house of the Rev. Mr. Johns, in whose family he lived, "there were
found from time to time some of the greatest philosophers in Europe."
Dalton was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1822, and four years
later he became the first recipient of one of the Royal Medals, then
founded by the King (George IV.). In 1830 he was elected one of the eight
foreign Associates of the French Academy, an honour which is generally
regarded as the highest that can be bestowed on any man of science.
Dalton was one of the original members of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, and he attended most of the meetings from the first
held in York in 1831 to that held in Manchester two years before his death.
At the Oxford meeting of 1832 he was created D.C.L. by the University, and
two years later the University of Edinburgh honoured herself by enrolling
his name on the list of her doctors of law.
About this time some of Dalton's scientific friends, who considered his
work of great national importance, endeavoured to obtain a pension for him
from the civil list. At the meeting of the British Association held at
Cambridge in 1833, the president, Professor Sedgwick, was able to announce
that "His Majesty, willing to manifest his attachment to science, and his
regard for a character like that of Dr. Dalton, had graciously conferred on
him, out of the funds of the civil list, a substantial mark of his royal
favour." The "substantial mark of royal favour," the announcement of which
Dalton received "with his customary quietness and simplicity of manner,"
consisted of a pension of L150 _per annum_, which was increased three years
later to L300.
The second part of Volume I. of his "New System" was published by Dalton in
1810, and the second volume of the same work in 1827. In 1844 a paper by
him was read before the British Association, in which he announced some
important discoveries with regard to the water in crystallizable salts,
and thus brought a new class of facts within the range of the atomic
theory.
He was seized with paralysis in 1837, but recovered to a great extent; a
second attack in 1844 however completely prostrated him. On the 16th of
July in that year he made the last entry in his book of "Observations on
the Weather"--"_Little rain_;" next morning he became insensible and
quietly passed away.
* * * * *
It is as the founder of the chemical atomic theory that Dalton must ever be
remembered by all students of physical and chemical science.
To the Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus (flourished about
440-400 B.C.) we owe the conception that "The bodies which we see and
handle, which we can set in motion or leave at rest, which we can break in
pieces and destroy, are composed of smaller bodies, which we cannot see or
handle, which are always in motion, and which can neither be stopped, nor
broken in pieces, nor in any way destroyed or deprived of the least of
their properties" (Clerk Maxwell). The heavier among these small
indivisible bodies or atoms were regarded as always moving downwards. By
collisions between these and the lighter ascending atoms lateral movements
arose. By virtue of the natural law (as they said) that things of like
weight and shape must come to the same place, the atoms of the various
elements came together; thus larger masses of matter were formed; these
again coalesced, and so finally worlds came into existence.
This doctrine was extended by Epicurus (340-270 B.C.), whose teaching is
preserved for us in the poem of Lucretius (95-52 B.C.), "De Rerum Natura;"
he ascribed to the atoms the power of deviating from a straight line in
their descending motion. On this hypothesis Epicurus built a general theory
to explain all material and spiritual phenomena.
The ceaseless change and decay in everything around them was doubtless one
of the causes which led men to this conception of atoms as indivisible,
indestructible substances which could never wear out and could never be
changed. But even here rest could not be found; the mind was obliged to
regard these atoms as always in motion. The dance of the dust-motes in the
sunbeam was to Lucretius the result of the more complex motion whereby the
atoms which compose that dust are agitated. In his dream as told by
Tennyson--
"A void was made in Nature: all her bonds
Cracked: and I saw the flaring atom-streams
And torrents of her myriad universe,
Ruining along the illimitable inane,
Fly on to clash together again, and make
Another and another frame of things
For ever."
The central quest of the physicist, from the days of Democritus to the
present time, has been to explain the conception of "atom"--to develop more
clearly the observed properties of the things which are seen and which may
be handled as dependent on the properties of those things which cannot be
seen, but which yet exist. For two thousand years he has been trying to
penetrate beneath the ever-changing appearances of Nature, and to find some
surer resting-place whence he may survey these shifting pictures as they
pass before his mental vision. The older atomists thought to find this
resting-place, not in the atoms themselves, but in the wide spaces which
they supposed to exist between the worlds:--
"The lucid interspace of world and world
Where never creeps a cloud, or moves a wind,
Nor ever falls the least white star of snow,
Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans,
Nor sound of human sorrow mounts to mar
Their sacred everlasting calm."
To the modern student of science the idea of absolute rest appears
unthinkable; but in the most recent outcome of the atomic theory--in the
vortex atoms of Helmholtz and Thomson--he thinks he perceives the very
"foundation stones of the material universe."
Newton conceived the atom as a "solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, movable
particle." To the mind of D. Bernoulli the pressure exerted by a gas on the
walls of a vessel enclosing it was due to the constant bombardment of the
walls by the atoms of which the gas consisted.
Atomic motion was the leading idea in the explanation of heat given by
Rumford and Davy, and now universally accepted; and, as we have seen,
Dalton was himself accustomed to regard all "elastic fluids" (_i.e._
gases) as consisting of vast numbers of atoms.
But in the year 1802 or so, Dalton thought that by the study of chemical
combinations it would be possible to determine the relative weights of
atoms. Assume that any elementary gas is composed of small, indivisible,
equally heavy parts; assume that the weight of an atom of one element is
different from that of the atom of any other element; and, lastly, assume
that when elements combine the atom of the compound so produced is built up
of the atoms of the various elements. Make these assumptions, and it
follows that the relative weights of two or more elements which combine
together must represent the relative weights of the atoms of these
elements.
We know that the fixity of composition of chemical compounds had been
established before this time, largely by the labours of Black and
Lavoisier. Fixity of composition had however been called in question by
Berthollet, who held that elements combine together in very varying
quantities; that, in fact, in place of there being two or three, or a few
definite compounds of, say, iron and oxygen, there exists a graduated
series of such bodies; and that the amount of iron which combines with
oxygen depends chiefly on such physical conditions as the temperature, the
pressure, etc., under which the chemical action occurs. But by the date of
the publication of the first part of Dalton's "New System," the long
dispute between Berthollet and Proust regarding fixity of composition of
compounds had nearly closed in favour of the latter chemist, who strongly
upheld the affirmative side of the argument. But if Dalton's assumptions
are correct, it is evident that when two elements form more than one
compound, the quantity of element A in one of these must be a simple
multiple of the quantity in the other of these compounds; because there
must be a greater number of atoms of element A in the atom of one compound
than in that of the other compound, and an elementary atom is assumed to be
indivisible. Hence it follows that if one element be taken as a standard,
it must be possible to affix to any other element a certain number which
shall express the smallest quantity of that element which combines with one
part by weight of the standard element; and this number shall also
represent how many times the atom of the given element is heavier than the
atom of the standard element, the weight of which has been taken to be
_one_. If this element forms two compounds with the standard element, the
amount of this element in the second compound must be expressed by a simple
multiple of the number assigned to this element, because it is not
possible, according to the fundamental assumptions of the theory, to form a
compound by the combination of fractions of elementary atoms.
By pondering on the facts regarding chemical combinations which had been
established by various workers previous to the year 1802, Dalton had
apparently come to such conclusions as those now indicated.
In his paper on the properties of the gases constituting the atmosphere,
read to the Manchester Society on November 12, 1802, he stated that one
hundred measures of common air would combine with thirty-six measures of
"nitrous gas" in a narrow tube to produce an oxide of nitrogen, but with
seventy-two measures of the same gas in a wide vessel to produce another
oxide of nitrogen. These facts, he says, "clearly point out the theory of
the process: the elements of oxygen may combine with a certain portion of
nitrous gas, or with twice that portion, but with no intermediate
quantity."
In the concluding paragraph of his paper on absorption of gases by liquids,
read on October 21, 1803, we found (see p. 116) that he had got so far in
his inquiry into the "relative weights of the ultimate particles of bodies"
as to give a table of twenty-one such weights. About this time Dalton made
analyses of two gaseous compounds of carbon--olefiant gas and carburetted
hydrogen or marsh-gas. He found that both are compounds of carbon and
hydrogen; that in one 4.3 parts by weight of carbon are combined with one
part by weight of hydrogen, and in the other the same amount (4.3) of
carbon is combined with two parts by weight of hydrogen.[8]
This was a striking confirmation of his views regarding combination in
multiple proportions, which views followed as a necessary deduction from
the atomic hypothesis. From this time he continued to develop and extend
this hypothesis, and in the year 1808 he published his "New System of
Chemical Philosophy."
The first detailed account of the atomic theory was however given to the
chemical world the year before Dalton's book appeared. During a
conversation with Dalton in the autumn of 1804 Dr. Thomas Thomson learned
the fundamental points of the new theory, and in the third edition of his
"System of Chemistry," published in 1807, he gave an account of Dalton's
views regarding the composition of bodies.
In the same year a paper by Thomson appeared in the _Philosophical
Transactions_, wherein it was experimentally proved that oxalic acid
combines with strontia to form two distinct compounds, one of which
contains twice as much oxalic acid as the other, the amount of strontia
being the same in both. Analyses of the oxalates of potash, published about
the same time by Wollaston, afforded another illustration of the _law of
multiple proportions_, and drew the attention of chemists to Dalton's
theory. But the new theory was opposed by several very eminent chemists,
notably by Sir Humphry Davy. In the autumn of 1807 Wollaston, Thomson and
Davy were present at the dinner of the Royal Society Club, at the Crown
and Anchor, in the Strand. After dinner, these three chemists discussed
the new theory for an hour and a half, Wollaston and Thomson trying to
convince Davy of the truth of Dalton's theory; but "so far from being
convinced, he went away, if possible, more prejudiced against it than
ever."
Soon after this Wollaston succeeded in convincing Mr. Davis Gilbert
(afterwards President of the Royal Society) of the justness of the atomic
theory, and he in turn so placed the facts and the reasoning before Davy,
that from this time he became a supporter of the new theory.
In order that the atomic theory should be fruitful of results, it was now
necessary that the values of the atomic weights of many elements should be
carefully determined.
Let us consider what knowledge must be acquired before the value to be
assigned to the atomic weight of an element can be found.
Hydrogen was the element chosen as a standard by Dalton. He assumed that
the atom of hydrogen weighs 1; the atomic weight of any other element is
therefore a number which tells how many times the atom of that element is
heavier than the atom of hydrogen. Thus, when Dalton said the atomic weight
of oxygen is 8, he meant that the atom of oxygen is eight times heavier
than that of hydrogen. How was this number obtained?
Accurate analyses of water show that in this liquid one part by weight of
hydrogen is combined with eight parts by weight of oxygen; but (it is
said) as the atom of hydrogen weighs 1, the atom of oxygen must weigh 8. In
drawing this conclusion it is assumed that the atom, or smallest particle,
of water is built up of one atom of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. Let it
be assumed that the atom of water contains two atoms of hydrogen and one of
oxygen, then the latter atom must weigh sixteen times as much as each atom
of hydrogen; let it be assumed that three atoms of hydrogen combine with
one atom of oxygen to form an atom of water, then the weight of the oxygen
atom must be twenty-four times that of the hydrogen atom. Any one of these
assumptions will equally satisfy the figures obtained by analyzing water
(1: 8 = 2: 16 = 3: 24). Now, had we any method whereby we could determine
how many times an atom of water is heavier than an atom of hydrogen we
should be able to determine which of the foregoing assumptions is correct,
and therefore to determine the atomic weight of oxygen. Hence, before the
atomic weight of an element can be determined, there must be found some
method for determining the atomic weights of compounds of that element.
Unless this can be done the atomic theory is of little avail in chemistry.
I conceive it to be one of the signal merits of Dalton that he so clearly
lays down rules, the best which could be devised at his time, for
determining the atomic weights of compounds, or, what is the same thing,
for determining the number of elementary atoms in one atom of any
compound. In his "New System" he says that he wishes to show the
importance of ascertaining "the relative weights of the ultimate particles
both of simple and compound bodies, the number of simple elementary
particles which constitute one compound particle, and the number of less
compound particles which enter into the formation of one more compound
particle."
Considering compounds of two elements, he divides these into binary,
ternary, quaternary, etc., according as the compound atom contains two,
three, four, etc., atoms of the elements. He then proceeds thus--
"The following general rules may be adopted as guides in all our
investigations respecting chemical synthesis:--
"1st. When only one combination of two bodies can be obtained, it must be
presumed to be a _binary_ one, unless some cause appear to the contrary.
"2nd. When two combinations are observed, they must be presumed to be a
_binary_ and a _ternary_.
"3rd. When three combinations are obtained, we may expect one to be
_binary_ and the other two _ternary_.
"4th. When four combinations are observed, we should expect one _binary_,
two _ternary_, and one _quaternary_," etc.
Only one compound of hydrogen and oxygen was then known; hence it was
presumed to be a binary compound, _i.e._ a compound the smallest particle
of which consisted of one atom of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen; and
hence, from the data already given on page 130, it followed that the atomic
weight of oxygen was 8. Two compounds of carbon and oxygen were known, each
containing six parts by weight of carbon, in one case united with eight,
and in the other case with sixteen parts by weight of oxygen. From Dalton's
rules one of these was a binary, and the other a ternary compound; but as
the atomic weight of oxygen had already been determined to be 8, that
compound of carbon and oxygen containing eight of oxygen combined with six
of carbon was decided to be binary, and that containing sixteen of oxygen
(_i.e._ two atoms) to be ternary; and hence the atomic weight of carbon was
determined to be 6.
In the second part of the "New System" Dalton, guided by these rules,
determined experimentally the atomic weights of a great many substances;
but this was not the kind of work suited to Dalton's genius. His analytical
determinations were generally inaccurate; nevertheless, he clearly showed
how the values of the atomic weights of elements ought to be established,
and he obtained results sufficiently accurate to confirm his general
theory. To make accurate determinations of the relative weights of
elementary atoms was one of the tasks reserved for the great Swedish
chemist Berzelius (see pp. 162-170). When we examine Dalton's rules we must
confess that they appear somewhat arbitrary. He does not give reasons for
his assertion that "when only one combination of two bodies can be
obtained, it must be presumed to be a binary one." Why may it not be
ternary or quaternary? Why must the atom of water be built up of one atom
of hydrogen combined with one atom of oxygen? Or, when two compounds are
known containing the same pair of elements, why must one be binary and the
other ternary?
Or, even assuming that this _must_ be justified by facts, does it follow
that Dalton's interpretation of the atomic structure of the two oxides of
carbon is necessarily correct? These oxides contain 6 of carbon + 8 of
oxygen, and 6 of carbon + 16 of oxygen, respectively.
Take the second, 6: 16 = 3: 8; assume this to be a binary compound of one
atom of oxygen (weighing 8) with one atom of carbon (weighing 3), then the
other will be a ternary compound containing one atom of oxygen (8) and two
atoms of carbon (6).
Hence it appears that Dalton's rules were too arbitrary, and that they were
insufficient to determine with certainty the atomic weights of some of the
elements. Nevertheless, without some such rules as those of Dalton, no
great advances could have been made in applying the atomic theory to the
facts of chemical combination; and Dalton's rules were undoubtedly founded
on wide considerations. In the appendix to Volume II. of his "New System"
he expressly states that before the number of atoms of two elements present
in the atom of a compound can be determined, it is necessary that many
combinations should be examined, not only of these elements with each
other, but also of each of these with other elements; and he tells us that
to gather together facts bearing on this general question of chemical
synthesis was the object of his work from the time of the promulgation of
the atomic theory.
When we find that Dalton applied the term "atom" to the small particles of
compound bodies, we at once see that by atom he could not always mean "that
which cannot be cut;" he simply meant the smallest particle of a substance
which exhibits the properties of that substance.
A mass of water vapour was conceived by Dalton as "like a mass of small
shot." Each shot exhibited the characteristic chemical properties of water
vapour; it differed from the large quantity of vapour only in mass; but if
one of these little pieces of shot were divided--as Dalton, of course, knew
it could be divided--smaller pieces of matter would be produced. But these
would no longer be water; they would be new kinds of matter. They are
called oxygen and hydrogen.
As aids towards gaining a clear conception of the "atom" of a compound as a
definite building, Dalton made diagrammatic representations of the
hypothetical structures of some of these atoms: the following plate is
copied from the "New System:"--A represents an atom of alum; B, an atom of
nitrate of alumina; C, of barium chloride; D, of barium nitrate; E, of
calcium chloride; F calcium nitrate; G, of calcium sulphate; H, potassium
carbonate; I, of potash; and K, an atom of soda.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
But I think if we consider this application of the term "atom" to elements
and compounds alike, we shall see objections to it. When an atom of a
compound is divided the smaller particles so produced are each very
different in chemical properties from the atom which has just been divided.
We may, if we choose, assume that the atom of an element could in like
manner be divided, and that the products of this division would be
different from the elementary atoms; but such a division of an elementary
atom has not as a matter of fact been yet accomplished, unless we class
among elements substances such as potash and soda, which for many years
were universally regarded as elements, and rightly so regarded because they
had not been decomposed. In Dalton's nomenclature then, the term "atom" is
applied alike to a small particle with definite properties known to be
divisible into smaller particles, each with properties different from those
of the undivided particle, and to a small particle which, so far as our
knowledge goes, cannot be divided into any particle smaller than or
different from itself.
Nevertheless, if the atomic theory was to be victorious, it was necessary
that it should be applied to elements and compounds alike. Until a clear
conception should be obtained, and expressed in accurate language, of the
differences in structure of the ultimate particles of compounds and of
elements, it was perhaps better to apply the term "atom" to both alike.
These two difficulties--(1) the difficulty of attaching to the term "atom"
a precise meaning applicable to elements and compounds alike, and (2) the
difficulty of determining the number of elementary atoms in the atom of a
given compound, and hence of determining the relative weights of elementary
atoms themselves--were for many years stumbling-blocks in the path of the
upholders of the Daltonian theory.
The very great difficulty of clearly comprehending the full meaning of
Dalton's proposed theory becomes apparent when we learn that within three
years from the publication of Part I. of the "New System," facts were made
known by the French chemist Gay-Lussac, and the true interpretation of
these facts was announced by the Italian chemist Avogadro, which facts and
interpretation were sufficient to clear away both the difficulties I have
just mentioned; but that nevertheless it is only within the last ten or
fifteen years that the true meaning of the facts established by Gay-Lussac
and the interpretation given by Avogadro have been generally recognized.
In 1809 Gay-Lussac, in a memoir on the combination of gaseous bodies,
proved that gases combine chemically in simple proportions by volume, and
that the volume of the product always bears a simple relation to the
volumes of the combining gases. Thus, he showed that two volumes of
hydrogen combine with one volume of oxygen to form two volumes of water
vapour; that one volume of nitrogen combines with three volumes of hydrogen
to form two volumes of ammonia gas, and so on. Now, as elements combine
atom with atom, the weights of these combining volumes of elements must
represent the relative weights of the atoms of the same elements.
In 1811 Avogadro distinguished between the ultimate particles of compounds
and elements. Let a gaseous element, A, combine with another gaseous
element, B, to form a gaseous compound, C; then Avogadro supposed that the
little particles of A and the little particles of B (Dalton's atoms) split
up, each into two or more smaller particles, and that these smaller
particles then combine together to form particles of the compound C. The
smaller particles produced by splitting a Daltonian elementary atom were
regarded by Avogadro as all identical in properties, but these very small
particles could not exist uncombined either with each other or with very
small particles of some other element. When the atom of a compound is
decomposed, Avogadro pictured this atom as splitting into smaller particles
of two or three or more different kinds, according as the compound had
contained two or three or different elements.
To Avogadro's mental vision an elementary gas appeared as built up of a
great many little particles, each exhibiting in miniature all the
properties of the gas. The gas might be heated, or cooled, or otherwise
physically altered, but each of the little particles remained intact; the
moment however that this gas was mixed with another on which it could
chemically react, these little particles split into smaller parts, but as
the smaller parts so produced could not exist in this state, they seized
hold of the corresponding very small parts of the other gas, and thus a
particle of a compound gas was produced.
A compound gas was pictured by Avogadro as also built up of small
particles, each exhibiting in miniature the properties of the gas, and each
remaining undecomposed when the gas was subjected only to physical actions;
but when the gas was chemically decomposed, each little particle split, but
the very small parts thus produced, being each a particle of an elementary
substance, continued to exist, and could be recognized by the known
properties of that element.
To the smallest particle of any substance (elementary or compound) which
exhibits the properties of that substance, and which cannot be split into
parts without destroying these properties, we now give the name of
_molecule_.
A molecule is itself a structure. It is built up of parts; each of these
parts we now call an _atom_. The molecule of a compound is, of course,
composed of the atoms of the elements which form that compound. The
molecule may contain two or three or more unlike atoms. The molecule of an
element is composed of the atoms of that element, and all of these atoms
are supposed to be alike. We cannot get hold of elementary atoms and
examine them, but we have a large mass of evidence in favour of the view
which regards the molecule of an element as composed of parts each weighing
less than the molecule itself.
The student of physics or chemistry now believes that, were a very small
quantity of a gas (say ammonia) or a drop of a liquid (say water) magnified
to something like the size of the earth, he should see before him a vast
heap of particles of ammonia or of water, each exhibiting all the
properties by the possession of which he now distinguishes ammonia or water
from all other kinds of matter. He believes that he should see these
particles in motion, each moving rapidly from place to place, sometimes
knocking against another, sometimes traversing a considerable space without
coming into collision with any other. But the student tries to penetrate
yet further into the nature of things. To the vision of the chemist these
particles of almost inconceivable minuteness are themselves built up of
smaller particles. As there is an architecture of masses, so is there an
architecture of molecules. Hydrogen and oxygen are mixed; the chemist sees
the molecules of each in their never-ceasing dance moving here and there
among the molecules of the other, yet each molecule retaining its identity;
an electric spark is passed through the mixture, and almost instantaneously
he sees each hydrogen molecule split into two parts, and each oxygen
molecule split into two parts, and then he sees these parts of molecules,
these atoms, combine, a pair of hydrogen atoms with an atom of oxygen, to
form compound molecules of water.
Avogadro's hypothesis gave the chemist a definition of "molecule;" it also
gave him a definition of "atom."
It is evident that, however many atoms of a given element there may be in
this or in that compound molecule, no compound of this element can exist
containing less than a single atom of the element in question; therefore an
atom of an element is the smallest quantity of that element in the molecule
of any compound thereof.
And so we have come back to the original hypothesis of Dalton; but we have
extended and modified that hypothesis--we have distinguished two orders of
small particles, the molecule (of a compound or of an element) and the atom
(of an element). The combination of two or more elements is now regarded as
being preceded by the decomposition of the molecules of these elements into
atoms. We have defined molecule and we have defined atom, but before we can
determine the relative weights of elementary atoms we must have a means of
determining the relative weights of compound molecules. The old difficulty
still stares us in the face--how can we find the number of elementary atoms
in the molecule of a given compound?
The same naturalist who enriched chemical science by the discovery of the
molecule as distinct from the atom, placed in the hands of chemists the
instrument for determining the relative weights of molecules, and thus also
the relative weights of atoms.
The great generalization, usually known as _Avogadro's law_, runs thus:
"_Equal volumes of gases measured at the same temperature and under the
same pressure contain equal numbers of molecules._"
Gay-Lussac had concluded that "equal volumes of gases contain equal numbers
of atoms;" but this conclusion was rejected, and rightly rejected by
Dalton, who however at the same time refused to admit that there is a
simple relation between the combining volumes of elements. The
generalization of Avogadro has however stood the test of experiment, and is
now accepted as one of the fundamental "laws" of chemical science.
Like the atomic theory itself, Avogadro's law is an outcome of physical
work and of physical reasoning. Of late years the great naturalists,
Clausius, Helmholtz, Joule, Rankine, Clerk Maxwell and Thomson have
developed the physical theory of molecules, and have shown that Avogadro's
law may be deduced as a necessary consequence from a few simple physical
assumptions. This law has thus been raised, from being a purely empirical
generalization, to the rank of a deduction from a wide, yet simple physical
theory.
Now, if "equal volumes of gases contain equal numbers of molecules," it
follows that the ratio of the densities of any two gases must also be the
ratio of the weights of the molecules which constitute these gases. Thus, a
given volume of water vapour weighs nine times more than an equal volume of
hydrogen; therefore the molecule of gaseous water is nine times heavier
than the molecule of hydrogen. One has therefore only to adopt a standard
of reference for molecular weights, and Avogadro's law gives the means of
determining the number of times any gaseous molecule is heavier than that
of the standard molecule.
But consider the combination of a gaseous element with hydrogen; let us
take the case of hydrogen and chlorine, which unite to form gaseous
hydrochloric acid, and let us determine the volumes of the uniting elements
and the volume of the product. Here is a statement of the results: one
volume of hydrogen combines with one volume of chlorine to form two volumes
of hydrochloric acid. Assume any number of molecules we please in the one
volume of hydrogen--say ten--there must be, by Avogadro's law, also ten
molecules in the one volume of chlorine; but inasmuch as the volume of
hydrochloric acid produced is double that of either the hydrogen or the
chlorine which combined to form it, it follows, by the same law, that
twenty molecules of hydrochloric acid have been formed by the union of ten
molecules of hydrogen with ten molecules of chlorine. The necessary
conclusion is that each hydrogen molecule and each chlorine molecule has
split into two parts, and that each half-molecule (or atom) of hydrogen has
combined with one half-molecule (or atom) of chlorine, to produce one
compound molecule of hydrochloric acid.
Therefore we conclude that the hydrogen molecule is composed of two atoms,
and that the chlorine molecule is also composed of two atoms; and as
hydrogen is to be our standard element, we say that if the atom of hydrogen
weighs one, the molecule of the same element weighs two.
It is now easy to find the _molecular weight_ of any gas; it is only
necessary to find how many times heavier the given gas is than hydrogen,
the weight of the latter being taken as 2. Thus, oxygen is sixteen times
heavier than hydrogen, but 1: 16 = 2: 32, therefore the molecule of oxygen
is thirty-two times heavier than the molecule of hydrogen. Ammonia is eight
and a half times heavier than hydrogen, but 1: 8-1/2 = 2: 17, therefore the
molecule of ammonia is seventeen times heavier than the molecule of
hydrogen. This is what we more concisely express by saying "the molecular
weight of oxygen is 32," or "the molecular weight of ammonia is 17," etc.,
etc.
Now, we wish to determine the _atomic weight_ of oxygen; that is, we wish
to find how many times the oxygen atom is heavier than the atom of
hydrogen. We make use of Avogadro's law and of the definition of "atom"
which has been deduced from it (see p. 142).
We know that eight parts by weight of oxygen combine with one part by
weight of hydrogen to form water; but we do not know whether the molecule
of water contains one atom of each element, or two atoms of hydrogen and
one atom of oxygen, or some other combination of these atoms (see p. 131).
But by vaporizing water and weighing the gas so produced, we find that
water vapour is nine times heavier than hydrogen: now, 1: 9 = 2: 18,
therefore the molecular weight of water gas is 18. Analysis tells us that
eighteen parts by weight of water gas contain sixteen parts of oxygen and
two parts of hydrogen; that is to say, we now know that in the molecule of
water gas there are two atoms of hydrogen combined with sixteen parts by
weight of oxygen. We now proceed to analyze and determine the molecular
weights of as many gaseous compounds of oxygen as we can obtain. The
outcome of all is that we have as yet failed to obtain any such compound in
the molecule of which there are less than sixteen parts by weight of
oxygen. In some of these molecules there are sixteen, in some thirty-two,
in some forty-eight, in some sixty-four parts by weight of oxygen, but in
none is there less than sixteen parts by weight of this element. Therefore
we conclude that the atomic weight of oxygen is 16, because this is the
smallest amount, referred to hydrogen taken as 1, which has hitherto been
found in the molecule of any compound of oxygen.
The whole of the work done since the publication of Dalton's "New System"
has emphasized the importance of that chemist's remark, that no safe
conclusion can be drawn as to the value of the atomic weight of an element
except from a consideration of many compounds of that with other elements.
But in Avogadro's law we have a far more accurate and trustworthy method
for determining the molecular weights of compounds than any which Dalton
was able to devise by his study of chemical combinations.
We have thus got a clearer conception of "atom" than was generally
possessed by chemists in the days of Dalton, and this we have gained by
introducing the further conception of "molecule" as that of a quantity of
matter different from, and yet similar to, the atom.
The task now before us will for the most part consist in tracing the
further development of the fundamental conception of Dalton, the
conception, viz., of each chemical substance as built up of small parts
possessing all the properties, other than the mass, of the whole; and--what
we also owe to Dalton--the application of this conception to explain the
facts of chemical combination.
* * * * *
The circumstances of Dalton's early life obliged him to trust largely to
his own efforts for acquiring knowledge; and his determination not to
accept facts at second hand but to acquire them for himself, is very marked
throughout the whole of his life. In the preface to the second part of the
"New System" he says, "Having been in my progress so often misled by
taking for granted the results of others, I have determined to write as
little as possible but what I can attest by my own experience."
We should not expect such a man as this to make any great use of books; one
of his friends tells us that he heard him declare on a public occasion that
he could carry his library on his back, and yet had not read half of the
books which comprised it.
The love of investigation which characterized Dalton when young would
naturally be increased by this course of intellectual life. How strong this
desire to examine everything for himself became, is amusingly illustrated
by a story told by his medical adviser, Dr. Ransome. Once when Dalton was
suffering from catarrh Dr. Ransome had prescribed a James's powder, and
finding his patient much better next day, he congratulated himself and
Dalton on the good effects of the medicine. "I do not well see how that can
be," said Dalton, "as I kept the powder until I could have an opportunity
of analyzing it."
As Dalton grew older he became more than ever disinclined to place much
trust in the results obtained by other naturalists, even when these men
were acknowledged to be superior to himself in manipulative and
experimental skill. Thus, as we have already learned, he could not be
brought to allow the truth of Gay-Lussac's experimentally established law
regarding gaseous combinations; he preferred to attribute Gay-Lussac's
results to errors of experiment. "The truth is, I believe, that gases do
not unite in equal or exact measures in any one instance; when they appear
to do so it is owing to the inaccuracy of our experiments."
That Dalton did not rank high as an experimenter is evident from the many
mistakes in matters of fact which are to be found in the second part of his
"New System." A marked example of his inaccuracy in purely experimental
work is to be found in the supposed proof given by him that charcoal, after
being heated to redness, does not absorb gases. He strongly heated a
quantity of charcoal, pulverized it, and placed it in a Florence flask,
which was connected by means of a stopcock with a bladder filled with
carbonic acid: after a week he found that the flask and its contents had
not sensibly increased in weight, and he concluded that no carbonic acid
had been absorbed by the charcoal. But no trustworthy result could be
obtained from an experiment in which the charcoal, having been deprived of
air by heating, was again allowed to absorb air by being pulverized in an
open vessel, and was then placed in a flask filled with air, communication
between the carbonic acid and the external air being prevented merely by a
piece of bladder, a material which is easily permeated by gases.
Dalton used a method which can only lead to notable results in natural
science when employed by a really great thinker; he acquired a few facts,
and then thought out the meaning of these. Almost at the beginning of each
investigation he tried to get hold of some definite generalization, and
_then_ he proceeded to amass special facts. The object which he kept before
himself in his experimental work was to establish or to disprove this or
that hypothesis. Every experiment was conducted with a clearly conceived
aim. He was even willing to allow a large margin for errors of experiment
if he could thereby bring the results within the scope of his hypothesis.
That the _law of multiple proportions_ is simply a generalization of facts,
and may be stated apart from the atomic theory, is now generally admitted.
But in Dalton's mind this law seems to have arisen rather as a deduction
from the theory of atoms than to have been gained as a generalization from
experiments. He certainly always stated this law in the language of the
atomic theory. In one of his walking excursions he explained his theory to
a friend, and after expounding his views regarding atomic combinations, he
said that the examples which he had given showed the necessary existence of
the principle of multiple proportions: "Thou knowest it must be so, for no
man can split an atom." We have seen that carburetted hydrogen was one of
the compounds on the results of the analysis of which he built his atomic
theory; yet we find him saying of the constitution of this compound that
"no correct notion seems to have been formed till the atomic theory was
introduced and applied in the investigation."
When Dalton was meditating on the laws of chemical combination, a French
chemist, M. Proust, published analyses of metallic oxides, which proved
that when a metal forms two oxides the amount of metal in each is a fixed
quantity--that there is a sudden jump, as it were, from one oxide to
another. We are sometimes told that from these experiments Proust would
have recognized the law of multiple proportions had his analyses only been
more accurate; but we know that Dalton's analyses were very inaccurate, and
yet he not only recognized the law of multiple proportions, but propounded
and established the atomic theory. Something more than a correct system of
keeping books and balancing accounts is wanted in natural science. Dalton's
experimental results would be the despair of a systematic analyst, but from
these Dalton's genius evolved that splendid theory which has done so much
to advance the exact investigation of natural phenomena.
Probably no greater contrast could be found between methods of work, both
leading to the establishment of scientific (that is, accurate and precise)
results, than that which exists between the method of Dalton and the method
pursued by Priestley.
Priestley commenced his experiments with no particular aim in view;
sometimes he wanted to amuse himself, sometimes he thought he might light
upon a discovery of importance, sometimes his curiosity incited him to
experiment. When he got facts he made no profound generalizations; he was
content to interpret his results by the help of the prevailing theory of
his time. But each new fact only spurred him on to make fresh incursions
into the fields of Nature. Dalton thought much and deeply; his
experimentally established facts were to him symbols of unseen powers. He
used facts as Hobbes says the wise man uses words: they were his counters
only, not his money.
When we ask how it was that Dalton acquired his great power of penetrating
beneath the surface of things and finding general laws, we must attribute
this power in part to the training which he gave himself in physical
science. It was from a consideration of physical facts that he gained the
conception of ultimate particles of definite weight. His method was
essentially dynamical; that is, he pictured a gas as a mass of little
particles, each of which acted on and was acted on by, other particles. The
particles were not thrown together anyhow; definite forces existed between
them. Each elementary or compound gas was pictured as a system of little
particles, and the properties of that gas were regarded as dependent on the
nature and arrangement of these particles. Such a conception as this could
only be gained by a careful and profound thinker versed in the methods of
physical and mathematical science. Thus we see that although Dalton
appeared to gain his great chemical results by a method which we are not
generally inclined to regard as the method of natural science, yet it was
by virtue of his careful training in a branch of knowledge which deals with
facts, as well as in that science which deduces particular conclusions from
general principles, that he was able to introduce his fruitful conceptions
into the science of chemistry.
To me it appears that Dalton was pre-eminently distinguished by the
possession of imagination. He formed clear mental images of the phenomena
which he studied, and these images he was able to combine and modify so
that there resulted a new image containing in itself all the essential
parts of each separate picture which he had previously formed.
From his intense devotion to the pursuit of science the development of
Dalton's general character appears to have been somewhat dwarfed. Although
he possessed imagination, it was the imagination of a naturalist rather
than that of a man of broad culture. Perhaps it was a want of broad
sympathies which made him trust so implicitly in his own work and so
readily distrust the work of others, and which moreover led him astray in
so many of his purely experimental investigations.
* * * * *
Dalton began his chemical work about six years after the death of
Lavoisier. Unlike that great philosopher he cared nothing for political
life. The friends in whose family he spent the greater part of his life in
Manchester were never able to tell whether he was Whig or Tory. Unlike
Priestley he was content to let metaphysical and theological speculation
alone. In his quiet devotion to study he more resembled Black, and in his
method, which was more deductive than that usually employed in chemistry,
he also resembled the Edinburgh professor. Trained from his earliest days
to depend on himself, nurtured in the creedless creed of the Friends, he
entered on his life's work with few prejudices, if without much profound
knowledge of what had been done before him. By the power of his insight
into Nature and the concentration of his thought, he drew aside the curtain
which hung between the seen and the unseen; and while Herschel, sweeping
the heavens with his telescope and night by night bringing new worlds
within the sphere of knowledge, was overpowering men's minds by new
conceptions of the infinitely great, John Dalton, with like imaginative
power, was examining the architecture of the ultimate particles of matter,
and revealing the existence of law and order in the domain of the
infinitely small.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] See Fig. 2, which is copied from the original in the "New System of
Chemical Philosophy," and illustrates Dalton's conception of a quantity of
carbonic acid gas, each atom built up of one atom of carbon and two of
oxygen; of nitrous oxide gas, each atom composed of one atom of nitrogen
and one of oxygen; and of hydrogen gas, constituted of single atoms.
[8] More accurate analysis has shown that there are six parts of carbon
united respectively with one and with two parts by weight of hydrogen in
these compounds.