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John Dalton Facts & Worksheets

John Dalton was an English meteorologist and chemist who pioneered the development of modern atomic theory, which explains the behavior and composition of atoms.

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John Dalton was an English meteorologist and chemist who pioneered the development of modern atomic theory, which explains the behavior and composition of atoms. He is also known for his studies in color blindness, which is sometimes called Daltonism in his honor.

See the fact file below for more information on the John Dalton or alternatively, you can download our 21-page John Dalton worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY

  • Born on September 6, 1766, in Eaglesfield, England, John Dalton was from a Quaker family. This historically Christian denomination was also known as the Religious Society of Friends or Friends Church.
  • His father, Quaker John Fletcher, was a handloom weaver who was married to Deborah Greenup, a maiden from a prosperous local Quaker family. Dalton was the youngest of three siblings.
  • He got his early education from his father’s private school, John Fletcher’s Quaker Grammar School, which was in the nearby village of Pardshaw Hall. During his early years, Dalton longed for a formal education, but his family was not rich enough to financially support those desires.
  • When he was 12 years old, his father turned the school over to Jonathan, John’s older brother. Jonathan let his younger brother assist him with teaching.
  • Two years later, he and his brother bought a boarding school in Kendal, where they handled approximately 60 students.
  • As a teacher, he was influenced by the experiences of Elihu Robinson, a well-off Quaker, and John Gough, a mathematical and classical scholar in Kendal. These mentors inspired him to teach himself science, mathematics, Latin, Greek, and French.
  • At the age of 19, Dalton became the school’s principal. This lasted until 1793, when he became a math and philosophy tutor at the New College in Manchester.
  • Based on records, one of his students enjoyed his way of teaching, recalling: “The boys (were) all glad to be taught by John Dalton, because he had a gentler disposition; and besides his mind was so occupied with mathematics, that their faults escaped his notice.”

EARLY SCIENTIFIC CAREER

  • In 1787, he started his meteorological diary, which had more than 200,000 observations.
  • In 1793, Dalton left his home and moved to Manchester for a teaching opportunity. He brought with him the proof sheets of his first book, Meteorological Observations and Essays. It contained essays about meteorology based on his own observations, together with those of John Gough and Peter Crosthwaite.
  • Being born and raised in the mountainous region of Lake District leveraged Dalton to study and observe meteorological phenomena.
  • Dalton measured the air capacity to absorb water vapor and the different partial pressures given the temperature. He described partial pressure using a physical law.
  • John Frederic Daniell acknowledged him as the “Father of Meteorology”.
  • During his stay in Manchester, he was nominated as a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, where he initially contributed his first paper on color blindness titled “Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colors”. This contained the descriptions and observations he discovered in his own brother’s vision. He proposed that this eye condition is hereditary.
  • “That part of the image which others call red, appears to me little more than a shade, or defect of light; after that the orange, yellow and green seem one color, which descends pretty uniformly from an intense to a rare yellow, making what I should call different shades of yellow.”
    Excerpt from his study on colorblindness

ATOMIC THEORY

  • The atomic theory was Dalton’s most significant scientific work in chemistry.
  • His study of gases made him wonder about the components that make up atoms, which was first proposed by Democritus in ancient Greece.
  • In 1808, he published his book, A New System of Chemical Philosophy, in which he made use of countless chemical reactions, stating:
    “If two elements form more than one compound between them, then the ratios of the masses of the second element which combine with a fixed mass of the first element will be ratios of small whole numbers.”
  • From the data he collected, Dalton proposed that matter exists as atoms and that atoms of different elements have different masses.
  • Dalton showed what molecules look like when atoms combine to form compounds.
  • He also studied the movement and arrangement of water molecules when they are frozen in ice.
  • Dalton’s Atomic Theory
    • The elements are made of atoms, which are tiny particles that are too small to see.
    • All atoms of a particular element are identical.
    • Atoms of different elements have different properties. Their masses are different, and their chemical reactions are different.
    • Atoms cannot be created, destroyed, or split.
    • In a chemical reaction, atoms link to one another or seperate from one another.
    • Atoms combine in simple whole-number ratios to form compounds.

HONORS AND PERSONAL LIFE

  • In 1810, he rejected his Royal Society membership invitation. In 1822, he was nominated without his knowledge. Four years later, he bagged the Society’s Royal Medal for his Atomic Theory. In 1833 and 1834, the French Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences nominated him as one of their foreign members.
  • Dalton chose to stay single. He continued to serve his church as a faithful Quaker while living a modest life.
  • He had a mild stroke at the age of 71. Two other strokes hit him before he died on July 27, 1844, at the age of 77.
  • Because of his notable scientific discoveries and contributions, his body was placed in Manchester Town Hall. Dalton was buried in Ardwick Cemetery in Manchester.

John Dalton Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the John Dalton across 21 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use John Dalton worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about John Dalton who was an English meteorologist and chemist who pioneered the development of modern atomic theory, which explains the behavior and composition of atoms. He is also known for his studies in color blindness, which is sometimes called Daltonism in his honor.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • John Dalton Facts
  • Dalton Who?
  • Fact Checkpoint
  • Life Timeline
  • Other Notable Veterans
  • Atomic Theory Main Points
  • Dalton’s Model
  • Atomic Models
  • All About Atoms
  • Quote from Dalton
  • Message to Dalton

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Use With Any Curriculum

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