178 1 year, he taught in a middle school, taught himself Latin, French, mathematics and natural philosophy with the help of the philosopher Goff, and began to observe nature and record meteorological data, which made great progress.
1793 dalton, 26 years old, professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Manchester college;
1796, member of Manchester Literature and Philosophy Society;
1800 as the secretary of the association;
18 17 as the president of the association;
18 16 was elected as an academician of the French academy of sciences;
1822 Member of Royal Thunder Academy;
1826, the British government awarded Dalton the first Royal Society Gold Medal.
Dalton has keen theoretical thinking and excellent experimental ability. He has made outstanding achievements in atomic research, so he is called the father of modern chemistry.
Dalton put forward the concept of quantification, and summarized the law of conservation of mass, the law of constant ratio and the law of total quantity. On this basis, in 1803, he discovered the law of multiple proportion of compounds, put forward the concept of atomic weight of elements, and formulated the earliest atomic scale.
Dalton's experiment proves the following conclusion: the total pressure of mixed gas is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of its constituent gases, and the specific state in the container has nothing to do with other gases. Explained by the particle structure of gas, the power and atoms of one gas are evenly distributed in the atoms of another gas, so the pressure of this gas is the same as that without another gas in the container.
Dalton also proposed atomism. 1804, Dalton conducted an analytical experiment on the chemical composition of methane and ethylene, deduced the proportional relationship of hydrocarbons, and found the law of multiple proportion: that is, when two or more compounds are generated by the same two elements, if the mass of one element remains unchanged, the relative weight of the other element in the compound becomes a simple integer ratio.
From 65438 to 0807, Thomson introduced Dalton's atomism in detail in his book Chemical System. In the second year, Dalton's major chemical work, A New System of Chemical Philosophy, was officially published, which recorded Dalton's major experiments and atomism theory in detail. In the experimental conclusion, Dalton's atomism reveals that the essence of all chemical phenomena is atomic motion, and defines the research object of chemistry. This has an important influence on chemistry becoming an independent discipline. Since then, chemistry and its related disciplines have flourished. Philosophically, atomism reveals the relationship between chemical reaction phenomena and essence, which is of great significance for developing scientific methodology, forming dialectical view of nature and developing epistemology.
After the establishment of atomism, Dalton became famous in Britain and even Europe, and various honors followed, becoming an academician and member of the multinational academy of sciences. However, with the increase of his fame, he began to appear less open-minded and could not accept other people's opinions well. For example, in 1808, French chemist Lussac discovered the volume law of gas reaction under the influence of atomism. In fact, it is a verification of atomism, but it was rejected and severely criticized by Dalton himself. 18 1 1 year, Italian physicist avo garderot established the molecular theory, which unified dalton's atomism with lussac's law, but it was also refuted by dalton. 18 13 years, the Swedish chemist Bezilius created a new method to express elements by letters. This new method is easy to write and remember, but Dalton has always been an opponent of new element symbols. So Dalton's scientific contribution in the second half of his life is not obvious. He even made many mistakes, but people still hold a positive attitude towards him. In addition, Dalton was the first person who discovered red-green color blindness and made some research on it.
1In April of 837, Dalton, who had just turned 70, had an unfortunate stroke, and his condition improved after treatment. It was not until the evening of July 26th 1844 that he wrote the last weather diary with trembling hands. The next morning, he went to sleep quietly like a sleeping baby, at the age of 77. The citizens of Manchester were very sad about Dalton's death, and the city hall immediately made a decision to award the scientist the title of "honorary citizen". At his funeral, there were more than 65,438+000 carriages, and then hundreds of people walked and shops along the street closed to express their condolences. The fact that an ordinary citizen is treated so highly shows that people respect him.