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Edwin McMillan and Philip H. Abelson identify neptunium, the lightest and first synthesized transuranium element, found in the products of uranium fission.

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transuranium element

n.

Any of various synthetic radioactive chemical elements, sometimes very unstable and short-lived, having atomic numbers higher than 92, the atomic number of uranium. Also called transuranic element.

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Define transuranium element. transuranium element synonyms, transuranium element pronunciation, transuranium element translation, English dictionary definition of transuranium element. n. Any of various synthetic radioactive chemical elements, sometimes very unstable and short-lived, having atomic numbers higher than 92, the atomic number...

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Glenn Seaborg synthesized transuranic elements (the elements after uranium in the periodic table).

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Nobelprize.org, The Official Web Site of the Nobel Prize

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Henry Moseley determined the atomic number of each of the elements and modified the 'Periodic Law'.

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Ernest Rutherford discovered the source of radioactivity as decaying atoms.

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Marie and Pierre Curie isolated radium and polonium from pitchblende.

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William Ramsay discovered the Noble Gases.

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Dmitri Mendeleev produced a table based on atomic weights but arranged 'periodically' with elements with similar properties under each other. His Periodic Table included the 66 known elements organized by atomic weights.

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Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent Professor of the history and philosophy of science, University of Paris X Nanterre, France.

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Dmitri Mendeleev | Biography, Periodic Table, & Facts

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Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist who devised the periodic table of the elements. Mendeleev found that, when all the known chemical elements were arranged in order of increasing atomic weight, the resulting table displayed a recurring pattern, or periodicity, of properties within groups of elements.

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Lothar Meyer develops an early version of the periodic table, with 28 elements organized by valence.

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Julius Lothar Meyer (19 August 1830 - 11 April 1895) was a German chemist. He was one of the pioneers in developing the first periodic table of chemical elements. Both Mendeleev and Meyer worked with Robert Bunsen. He never used his first given name, and was known throughout his life simply as Lothar Meyer.

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John Newlands arranged the known elements in order of atomic weights & observed similarities between some elements.

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Could the original formulation of the Periodic Table be regarded as British? Just four years before Mendeleev announced his Periodic Table, John Alexander Reina Newlands wrote in Chemical News

If the elements are arranged in order of their equivalents [ ie relative atomic masses in todays terminology] with a few transpositions, it will be seen that elements belonging to the same group appear in the same horizontal line. Also the numbers of similar elements differ by seven or multiples of seven. Members stand to each other in the same relation as the extremities of one or more octaves of music. Thus in the nitrogen group phosphorus is the seventh element after nitrogen and arsenic is the fourteenth elements after phosphorus as is antimony after arsenic. This peculiar relationship I propose to call The Law of Octaves'.

Surely this was a prediction of patterns in the properties of the elements and described a Periodic Table?

Newlands thought that patterns were connected with the relative weights of atoms (we would now call them relative atomic masses they were then called atomic weights) of different elements. Fortunately, in 1860 there had been a conference in Karlsruhe (Germany) which had made a more accurate list of these atomic weights than had previously been available. Not only had some values been slightly wrong through inaccurate measurements but some were half or a third of the correct value through false reasoning. See Problems with relative atomic masses.

One difficulty was that only about 60 elements were known then (there are over 100 now), although fortunately most of the undiscovered ones were of higher relative atomic mass. Newlands listed those known in order of their atomic weight putting their position in this sequence alongside the symbol. He did not give a name to this position number. A copy of his table is shown below using the symbols Newlands used.

The pattern was perfect up to calcium then became less convincing as some metals appeared unlike the non-metals to their left. However a further seven elements later there was a greater similarity. Then Newlands was forced to sometimes put two elements in the same box so that after this similar elements would be in the same horizontal line. Di stood for didymium, which we now know is not an element at all but a mixture of two elements.

Note that Newlands did not always stick to a strict increase in number. He exchanged the positions of Zn and Y, presumably because he realised that Y resembled Bo (modern symbol B). The modern Periodic Table does not always show an increase in relative atomic masses for successive elements but it is a less common occurrence than in Newlands table.

On 1st March 1865, he described his ideas at a lecture at the Chemical Society (a forerunner of the Royal Society of Chemistry). The lack of spaces for undiscovered elements and the placing of two elements in one box were justifiably criticised but an unfair suggestion from Professor Foster was that he might have equally well listed the elements alphabetically. Foster was on the Publication Committee which refused to publish his paper, supposedly because it was of a purely theoretical nature. Humiliated, Newlands went back to his work as chief chemist at a sugar factory.

Four years later Mendeleev, unaware of Newlands' ideas, formulated an improved Periodic Table which gained acceptance, particularly because he left spaces for undiscovered elements, some of which were soon found with properties he predicted. As the Periodic Table became accepted, Newlands, understandably, claimed its first publication. However the Chemical Society did not back his claims. Indeed the final years of his working life were spent running a family chemical business with his brother.

The Chemical Society made some amends for discrediting him by asking him in 1884 to give a lecture on the Periodic Law. However its full recognition of his discovery waited until 1998, the centenary of his death, when the Royal Society of Chemistry oversaw the placing of a blue commemorative plaque on the wall of his birthplace. Note its inscription.

Questions

Q 1. Newlands was the first person to give elements a 'position number'.

(a) What do we call this today?

(b) What property of the atomic nucleus is it related to?

Q 2. (a) Which modern chemical group is missing from Newlands list of elements?

(b) Apart from the omission of this whole group which element is the first omitted?

Q 3. There are some unfamiliar symbols. Give the modern symbols and names of Gl and Bo.

Q 4. Give the symbols of two elements which are at least two columns out of position because of extremely inaccurate atomic weights.

Q 5. What do columns in the Newlands table almost correspond to in a modern Periodic Table?

Q 6. Where do the alkali metals Li, Na, K etc appear in Newlands table? Give the names of the extra elements mixed with them. Why do you think Newlands thought they had a similarity with the alkali metals? (Hint; what important property do elements in the same group share?)

Q 7. A musical octave goes from a note in one octave to the corresponding note in the next octave, eg from C to C, counting the notes at both ends. How many elements are there between Li and Na, or Na and K? What should this figure be? Explain the difference.

Q 8. Give two ways in which the Newlands table is inferior to that of Mendeleev.

Click here to see the answers

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Could the original formulation of the Periodic Table be regarded as British? Just four years before Mendeleev announced his Periodic Table, John Alexander Reina Newlands wrote in Chemical News If the elements are arranged in order of their equivalents [ ie relative atomic masses in todays terminology] with a few transpositions, it will be seen that elements belonging to the same group appear in the same horizontal line.

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Johann Dobereiner developed groups of 3 elements with similar properties.

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Jakob Berzelius developed a table of atomic weights & introduced letters to symbolize elements

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John Dalton proposed "Dalton's Law" describing the relationship between the components in a mixture of gases.

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John Dalton (; 5 or 6 September 1766 - 27 July 1844) was an English chemist, physicist and meteorologist. He is best known for introducing the atomic theory into chemistry, and for his research into colour blindness, which he had. Colour blindness is known as Daltonism in several languages, being named after him.

Historical plaque marking birthplace of John Dalton

Modern plaque marking birthplace of John Dalton

John Dalton was born into a Quaker family in Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth,[citation needed ] in Cumberland, England. His father was a weaver. He received his early education from his father and from Quaker John Fletcher, who ran a private school in the nearby village of Pardshaw Hall. Dalton's family was too poor to support him for long and he began to earn his living, from the age of ten, in the service of wealthy local Quaker Elihu Robinson.

When he was 15, Dalton joined his older brother Jonathan in running a Quaker school in Kendal, Westmorland, about 45 miles (72 km) from his home. Around the age of 23, Dalton may have considered studying law or medicine, but his relatives did not encourage him, perhaps because being a Dissenter, he was barred from attending English universities. He acquired much scientific knowledge from informal instruction by John Gough, a blind philosopher who was gifted in the sciences and arts. At 27, he was appointed teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy at the "Manchester Academy" in Manchester, a dissenting academy (the lineal predecessor, following a number of changes of location, of Harris Manchester College, Oxford). He remained for seven years, until the college's worsening financial situation led to his resignation. Dalton began a new career as a private tutor in the same two subjects.

1793 copy of Dalton's first publication, "Meteorological Observations and Essays"

Dalton's early life was influenced by a prominent Quaker, Elihu Robinson, a competent meteorologist and instrument maker, from Eaglesfield, Cumberland, who interested him in problems of mathematics and meteorology. During his years in Kendal, Dalton contributed solutions to problems and answered questions on various subjects in The Ladies' Diary and the Gentleman's Diary. In 1787 at age 21 he began his meteorological diary in which, during the succeeding 57 years, he entered more than 200,000 observations. He rediscovered George Hadley's theory of atmospheric circulation (now known as the Hadley cell) around this time. In 1793 Dalton's first publication, Meteorological Observations and Essays, contained the seeds of several of his later discoveries but despite the originality of his treatment, little attention was paid to them by other scholars. A second work by Dalton, Elements of English Grammar (or A new system of grammatical instruction: for the use of schools and academies), was published in 1801.

Measuring mountains

After leaving the Lake District, Dalton returned annually to spend his holidays studying meteorology, something which involved a lot of hill-walking. Until the advent of aeroplanes and weather balloons, the only way to make measurements of temperature and humidity at altitude was to climb a mountain. Dalton estimated the height using a barometer. The Ordnance Survey did not publish maps for the Lake District until the 1860s. Before then, Dalton was one of the few authorities on the heights of the region's mountains. He was often accompanied by Jonathan Otley, who also made a study of the heights of the local peaks, using Dalton's figures as a comparison to check his work. Otley published his information in his map of 1818. Otley became both an assistant and a friend to Dalton.

In 1794, shortly after his arrival in Manchester, Dalton was elected a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, the "Lit & Phil", and a few weeks later he communicated his first paper on "Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours", in which he postulated that shortage in colour perception was caused by discoloration of the liquid medium of the eyeball. As both he and his brother were colour blind, he recognised that the condition must be hereditary.

Although Dalton's theory was later disproven, his early research into colour vision deficiency was recognized after his lifetime. Examination of his preserved eyeball in 1995 demonstrated that Dalton had deuteranopia, a type of congenital red-green color blindness in which the gene for medium wavelength sensitive (green) photopsins is missing. Individuals with this form of colour blindness see every color as mapped to blue, yellow or gray, or, as Dalton wrote in his seminal paper,

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 colour, which descends pretty uniformly from an intense to a rare yellow, making what I should call different shades of yellow.

In 1800, Dalton became secretary of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, and in the following year he presented an important series of lectures, entitled "Experimental Essays" on the constitution of mixed gases; the pressure of steam and other vapours at different temperatures in a vacuum and in air; on evaporation; and on the thermal expansion of gases. The four essays, presented between 2 and 30 October 1801, were published in the Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester in 1802.

The second essay opens with the remark,

There can scarcely be a doubt entertained respecting the reducibility of all elastic fluids of whatever kind, into liquids; and we ought not to despair of effecting it in low temperatures and by strong pressures exerted upon the unmixed gases further.

After describing experiments to ascertain the pressure of steam at various points between 0 and 100 °C (32 and 212 °F), Dalton concluded from observations of the vapour pressure of six different liquids, that the variation of vapour pressure for all liquids is equivalent, for the same variation of temperature, reckoning from vapour of any given pressure.

In the fourth essay he remarks,

I see no sufficient reason why we may not conclude, that all elastic fluids under the same pressure expand equally by heat-and that for any given expansion of mercury, the corresponding expansion of air is proportionally something less, the higher the temperature. ... It seems, therefore, that general laws respecting the absolute quantity and the nature of heat, are more likely to be derived from elastic fluids than from other substances.

He enunciated Gay-Lussac's law, published in 1802 by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (Gay-Lussac credited the discovery to unpublished work from the 1780s by Jacques Charles). In the two or three years following the lectures, Dalton published several papers on similar topics. "On the Absorption of Gases by Water and other Liquids" (read as a lecture on 21 October 1803, first published in 1805) contained his law of partial pressures now known as Dalton's law.

Arguably the most important of all Dalton's investigations are concerned with the atomic theory in chemistry. While his name is inseparably associated with this theory, the origin of Dalton's atomic theory is not fully understood. The theory may have been suggested to him either by researches on ethylene ( olefiant gas) and methane ( carburetted hydrogen) or by analysis of nitrous oxide ( protoxide of azote) and nitrogen dioxide ( deutoxide of azote), both views resting on the authority of Thomas Thomson.

From 1814 to 1819, Irish chemist William Higgins claimed that Dalton had plagiarised his ideas, but Higgins' theory did not address relative atomic mass. Recent evidence suggests that Dalton's development of thought may have been influenced by the ideas of another Irish chemist Bryan Higgins, who was William's uncle. Bryan believed that an atom was a heavy central particle surrounded by an atmosphere of caloric, the supposed substance of heat at the time. The size of the atom was determined by the diameter of the caloric atmosphere. Based on the evidence, Dalton was aware of Bryan's theory and adopted very similar ideas and language, but he never acknowledged Bryan's anticipation of his caloric model. However, the essential novelty of Dalton's atomic theory is that he provided a method of calculating relative atomic weights for the chemical elements, which provides the means for the assignment of molecular formulas for all chemical substances. Neither Bryan nor William Higgins did this, and Dalton's priority for that crucial innovation is uncontested.

A study of Dalton's laboratory notebooks, discovered in the rooms of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, concluded that so far from Dalton being led by his search for an explanation of the law of multiple proportions to the idea that chemical combination consists in the interaction of atoms of definite and characteristic weight, the idea of atoms arose in his mind as a purely physical concept, forced on him by study of the physical properties of the atmosphere and other gases. The first published indications of this idea are to be found at the end of his paper "On the Absorption of Gases by Water and other Liquids" already mentioned. There he says:

Why does not water admit its bulk of every kind of gas alike? This question I have duly considered, and though I am not able to satisfy myself completely I am nearly persuaded that the circumstance depends on the weight and number of the ultimate particles of the several gases.

He then proposes relative weights for the atoms of a few elements, without going into further detail. However, a recent study of Dalton's laboratory notebook entries concludes he developed the chemical atomic theory in 1803 to reconcile Henry Cavendish's and Antoine Lavoisier 's analytical data on the composition of nitric acid, not to explain the solubility of gases in water.

The main points of Dalton's atomic theory, as it eventually developed, are:

1. Elements are made of extremely small particles called atoms.

2. Atoms of a given element are identical in size, mass and other properties; atoms of different elements differ in size, mass and other properties.

3. Atoms cannot be subdivided, created or destroyed.

4. Atoms of different elements combine in simple whole-number ratios to form chemical compounds.

5. In chemical reactions, atoms are combined, separated or rearranged.

In his first extended published discussion of the atomic theory (1808), Dalton proposed an additional (and controversial) "rule of greatest simplicity". This rule could not be independently confirmed, but some such assumption was necessary in order to propose formulas for a few simple molecules, upon which the calculation of atomic weights depended. This rule dictated that if the atoms of two different elements were known to form only a single compound, like hydrogen and oxygen forming water or hydrogen and nitrogen forming ammonia, the molecules of that compound shall be assumed to consist of one atom of each element. For elements that combined in multiple ratios, such as the then-known two oxides of carbon or the three oxides of nitrogen, their combinations were assumed to be the simplest ones possible. For example, if two such combinations are known, one must consist of an atom of each element, and the other must consist of one atom of one element and two atoms of the other.

This was merely an assumption, derived from faith in the simplicity of nature. No evidence was then available to scientists to deduce how many atoms of each element combine to form molecules. But this or some other such rule was absolutely necessary to any incipient theory, since one needed an assumed molecular formula in order to calculate relative atomic weights. Dalton's "rule of greatest simplicity" caused him to assume that the formula for water was OH and ammonia was NH, quite different from our modern understanding (H ₂O, NH ₃). On the other hand, his simplicity rule led him to propose the correct modern formulas for the two oxides of carbon (CO and CO ₂). Despite the uncertainty at the heart of Dalton's atomic theory, the principles of the theory survived.

Various atoms and molecules as depicted in John Dalton's A New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808)

Dalton published his first table of relative atomic weights containing six elements (hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, sulfur and phosphorus), relative to the weight of an atom of hydrogen conventionally taken as 1. Since these were only relative weights, they do not have a unit of weight attached to them. Dalton provided no indication in this paper how he had arrived at these numbers, but in his laboratory notebook, dated 6 September 1803, is a list in which he set out the relative weights of the atoms of a number of elements, derived from analysis of water, ammonia, carbon dioxide, etc. by chemists of the time.

The extension of this idea to substances in general necessarily led him to the law of multiple proportions, and the comparison with experiment brilliantly confirmed his deduction. In the paper "On the Proportion of the Several Gases in the Atmosphere", read by him in November 1802, the law of multiple proportions appears to be anticipated in the words:

The elements of oxygen may combine with a certain portion of nitrous gas or with twice that portion, but with no intermediate quantity.

But there is reason to suspect that this sentence may have been added some time after the reading of the paper, which was not published until 1805.

Compounds were listed as binary, ternary, quaternary, etc. (molecules composed of two, three, four, etc. atoms) in the New System of Chemical Philosophy depending on the number of atoms a compound had in its simplest, empirical form.

Dalton hypothesised the structure of compounds can be represented in whole number ratios. So, one atom of element X combining with one atom of element Y is a binary compound. Furthermore, one atom of element X combining with two atoms of element Y or vice versa, is a ternary compound. Many of the first compounds listed in the New System of Chemical Philosophy correspond to modern views, although many others do not.

Dalton used his own symbols to visually represent the atomic structure of compounds. They were depicted in the New System of Chemical Philosophy, where he listed 21 elements and 17 simple molecules.

Dalton published papers on such diverse topics as rain and dew and the origin of springs (hydrosphere); on heat, the colour of the sky, steam and the reflection and refraction of light; and on the grammatical subjects of the auxiliary verbs and participles of the English language.

As an investigator, Dalton was often content with rough and inaccurate instruments, even though better ones were obtainable. Sir Humphry Davy described him as "a very coarse experimenter", who "almost always found the results he required, trusting to his head rather than his hands." On the other hand, historians who have replicated some of his crucial experiments have confirmed Dalton's skill and precision.

In the preface to the second part of Volume I of his New System, he says he had so often been misled by taking for granted the results of others that he determined to write "as little as possible but what I can attest by my own experience", but this independence he carried so far that it sometimes resembled lack of receptivity. Thus he distrusted, and probably never fully accepted, Gay-Lussac's conclusions as to the combining volumes of gases.

He held unconventional views on chlorine. Even after its elementary character had been settled by Davy, he persisted in using the atomic weights he himself had adopted, even when they had been superseded by the more accurate determinations of other chemists.

He always objected to the chemical notation devised by Jöns Jacob Berzelius, although most thought that it was much simpler and more convenient than his own cumbersome system of circular symbols.

For Rees's Cyclopædia Dalton contributed articles on Chemistry and Meteorology, but the topics are not known.

He contributed 117 Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester from 1817 until his death in 1844 while president of that organisation. Of these the earlier are the most important. In one of them, read in 1814, he explains the principles of volumetric analysis, in which he was one of the earliest researchers. In 1840 a paper on phosphates and arsenates, often regarded as a weaker work, was refused by the Royal Society, and he was so incensed that he published it himself. He took the same course soon afterwards with four other papers, two of which ("On the quantity of acids, bases and salts in different varieties of salts" and "On a new and easy method of analysing sugar") contain his discovery, regarded by him as second in importance only to atomic theory, that certain anhydrates, when dissolved in water, cause no increase in its volume, his inference being that the salt enters into the pores of the water.

Even before he had propounded the atomic theory, Dalton had attained a considerable scientific reputation. In 1803, he was chosen to give a series of lectures on natural philosophy at the Royal Institution in London, and he delivered another series of lectures there in 1809-1810. Some witnesses reported that he was deficient in the qualities that make an attractive lecturer, being harsh and indistinct in voice, ineffective in the treatment of his subject, and singularly wanting in the language and power of illustration.

In 1810, Sir Humphry Davy asked him to offer himself as a candidate for the fellowship of the Royal Society, but Dalton declined, possibly for financial reasons. In 1822 he was proposed without his knowledge, and on election paid the usual fee. Six years previously he had been made a corresponding member of the French Académie des Sciences, and in 1830 he was elected as one of its eight foreign associates in place of Davy. In 1833, Earl Grey's government conferred on him a pension of £150, raised in 1836 to £300 (equivalent to £15,145 and £30,045 in 2021, respectively). Dalton was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1834.

A young James Prescott Joule, who later studied and published (1843) on the nature of heat and its relationship to mechanical work, was a pupil of Dalton in his last years.

Dalton in later life by Thomas Phillips, National Portrait Gallery, London (1835)

Dalton never married and had only a few close friends. As a Quaker, he lived a modest and unassuming personal life.

For the 26 years prior to his death, Dalton lived in a room in the home of the Rev W. Johns, a published botanist, and his wife, in George Street, Manchester. Dalton and Johns died in the same year (1844).

Dalton's daily round of laboratory work and tutoring in Manchester was broken only by annual excursions to the Lake District and occasional visits to London. In 1822 he paid a short visit to Paris, where he met many distinguished resident men of science. He attended several of the earlier meetings of the British Association at York, Oxford, Dublin and Bristol.

Dalton suffered a minor stroke in 1837, and a second in 1838 left him with a speech impairment, although he remained able to perform experiments. In May 1844 he had another stroke; on 26 July, while his hand was trembling, he recorded his last meteorological observation. On 27 July, in Manchester, Dalton fell from his bed and was found dead by his attendant.

Dalton was accorded a civic funeral with full honours. His body lay in state in Manchester Town Hall for four days and more than 40,000 people filed past his coffin. The funeral procession included representatives of the city's major civic, commercial, and scientific bodies. He was buried in Manchester in Ardwick Cemetery; the cemetery is now a playing field, but pictures of the original grave may be found in published materials.

Bust of Dalton by Chantrey, 1854

Statue of Dalton by Chantrey

A bust of Dalton, by Chantrey, paid for by public subscription[39] was placed in the entrance hall of the Royal Manchester Institution. Chantrey's large statue of Dalton, erected while Dalton was alive was placed in Manchester Town Hall in 1877. He "is probably the only scientist who got a statue in his lifetime".[36]

The Manchester-based Swiss phrenologist and sculptor William Bally made a cast of the interior of Dalton's cranium and of a cyst therein, having arrived at the Manchester Royal Infirmary too late to make a cast of the head and face. A cast of the head was made, by a Mr Politi, whose arrival at the scene preceded that of Bally.[40]

A blue plaque commemorates the site of his laboratory at 36 George Street in Manchester.[41][42]

The University of Manchester established two Dalton Chemical Scholarships, two Dalton Mathematical Scholarships, and a Dalton Prize for Natural History. A hall of residence is named Dalton Hall.

The Dalton Medal has been awarded only twelve times by the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.

The Dalton crater on the Moon was named after Dalton.

The inorganic section of the UK's Royal Society of Chemistry is named the Dalton Division, and the society's academic journal for inorganic chemistry is called Dalton Transactions.

Quaker schools have named buildings after Dalton: for example, a schoolhouse in the primary sector of Ackworth School, is called Dalton.

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2. ^ Harper, Douglas. "color-blindness". Online Etymology Dictionary.

3. ^ "John Dalton". Archived from the original on 27 March 2019.

4. ^ "Pardshaw - Quaker Meeting House". Archived from the original on 23 September 2015.

5. (Subscription or ^ Davis, Peter. "Robinson, Elihu". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53552. UK public library membership required.)

6. ^ Smith, R. Angus (1856). Memoir of John Dalton and History of the Atomic Theory. London: H. Bailliere. p. 279. ISBN 978-1-4021-6437-8. Archived from the original on 15 August 2022.

7. ^ George Hadley Archived 3 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine Britannica.com. Accessed 30 April 2009.

8. ^ "Thomas West's Guide to the Lakes, 1778/1821". Archived from the original on 25 November 2014.

9. Thomas Fletcher Smith ^ Jonathan Otley, Man of Lakeland, publ. Bookcase, 2007 ISBN 978-1-904147-23-7

10. ^ Regan, B. (1998). "John Dalton's Colour Vision Legacy". British Journal of Ophthalmology. 82 (2): 203d. doi:10.1136/bjo.82.2.203d. PMC 1722488.

11. ^ Dalton, John (1798). "Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours: with observations". Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester. 5: 28-45. Archived from the original on 9 August 2017.

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15. ^ Thackray, Arnold W. (1966). "The Origin of Dalton's Chemical Atomic Theory: Daltonian Doubts Resolved". Isis. 57: 35-55. doi:10.1086/350077. S2CID 144818988.

16. Rocke, Alan J. (2005). "In Search of El Dorado: John Dalton and the Origins of the Atomic Theory". Social Research. 72 (1): 125-158. doi:10.1353/sor.2005.0003. JSTOR 40972005. S2CID 141350239.

17. ^ Wheeler, T. S; Partington, J. R. (1960). The life and work of William Higgins, chemist, 1763-1825 including reprints of "A comparative view of the phlogistic and antiphlogistic theories" and "Observations on the atomic theory and electrical phenomena" by William Higgins. Pergamon Press.

18. ^ Grossman, M. I. (2010). "William Higgins at the Dublin Society, 1810-20: The loss of a professorship and a claim to the atomic theory". Notes and Records of the Royal Society. 64 (4): 417-434. doi:10.1098/rsnr.2010.0020. S2CID 146292636.

19. ^ Grossman, M. I. (2014). "John Dalton and the London atomists: William and Bryan Higgins, William Austin, and new Daltonian doubts about the origin of the atomic theory". Notes and Records. 68 (4): 339-356. doi:10.1098/rsnr.2014.0025. PMC 4213434.

20. ^ Grossman, Mark I. (2017). "John Dalton and the origin of the atomic theory: Reassessing the influence of Bryan Higgins". The British Journal for the History of Science. 50 (4): 657-676. doi:10.1017/S0007087417000851. PMID 29065936. S2CID 206212671.

21. ^ Grossman, Mark I. (2 January 2021). "John Dalton's "Aha" Moment: the Origin of the Chemical Atomic Theory". Ambix. 68 (1): 49-71. doi:10.1080/00026980.2020.1868861. ISSN 0002-6980. PMID 33577439. S2CID 231909410.

22. ^ Levere, Trevor (2001). Transforming Matter: A History of Chemistry from Alchemy to the Buckyball. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 84-86. ISBN 978-0-8018-6610-4.

23. ^

24. ^ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dalton, John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 777-779, see page 778, final para.

25. ^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter D" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 June 2006.

26. ^ Smith, Robert Angus (1856). "Memoir of John Dalton and History of the Atomic Theory up to his time". Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester. Second. 13: 298. hdl:2027/mdp.39015016080783.

27. King, Kristine (10 October 2003). "Science celebrates 'father of nanotech'". BBC News. Archived from the original on 16 August 2017.

28. ^ Patterson, Elizabeth C. (1970). John Dalton and the Atomic Theory. Garden City, New York: Doubleday.

29. ^ Elliott, T. Lenton (1953). "John Dalton's Grave". Journal of Chemical Education. 30 (11): 569. Bibcode:1953JChEd..30..569E. doi:10.1021/ed030p569. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008.

30. ^ Millington, John Price (1906). John Dalton. London: J. M. Dent & Company. pp. 201-208. ISBN 978-0-7222-3057-2. Archived from the original on 23 February 2023.

31. ^ "The Late Dr Dalton". The Manchester Guardian. 3 August 1844. p. 5.

32. ^ International Plant Names Index. Jn.Dalton.

Greenaway, Frank (1966). John Dalton and the Atom. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.

Henry, William C. (1854). Memoirs of the Life and Scientific Researches of John Dalton. London: Cavendish Society.

Hunt, D. M.; Dulai, K. S.; Bowmaker, J. K.; Mollon, J. D. (1995). "The Chemistry of John Dalton's Color Blindness". Science. 267 (5200): 984-988. Bibcode:1995Sci...267..984H. doi:10.1126/science.7863342. PMID 7863342. S2CID 6764146.

Lonsdale, Henry (1874). The Worthies of Cumberland: John Dalton. George Routledge and Sons: George.

Millington, John Price (1906). John Dalton. London: J. M. Dent & Company.

Patterson, Elizabeth C. (1970). John Dalton and the Atomic Theory. Garden City, New York: Anchor.

Rocke, Alan J. (2005). "In Search of El Dorado: John Dalton and the Origins of the Atomic Theory". Social Research. 72 (1): 125-158. doi:10.1353/sor.2005.0003. JSTOR 40972005. S2CID 141350239.

Smyth, A. L. (1998). John Dalton, 1766-1844: A Bibliography of Works by and About Him, With an Annotated List of His Surviving Apparatus and Personal Effects. Manchester Literary and Philosophical Publications. ISBN 978-1-85928-438-4.- Original edition published by Manchester University Press in 1966

Thackray, Arnold (1972). John Dalton: Critical Assessments of His Life and Science. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-47525-0.

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John Dalton (; 5 or 6 September 1766 - 27 July 1844) was an English chemist, physicist and meteorologist. He is best known for introducing the atomic theory into chemistry, and for his research into colour blindness, which he had. Colour blindness is known as Daltonism in several languages, being named after him.

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Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Joseph Priestly independently isolated oxygen.

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Henry Cavendish discovered hydrogen as a colorless, odourless gas that burns and can form an explosive mixture with air

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A natural philosopher, the greatest experimental and theoretical English chemist and physicist of his age, Henry Cavendish (10 Oct. 1731 - 24 Feb. 1810) was distinguished for great accuracy and precision in researches into the composition of atmospheric air, the properties of different gases, the synthesis of water, the law governing electrical attraction and repulsion, and calculations of the density (and hence the weight) of the Earth.

Early Life:

Cavendish attended Cambridge University from 1749 to 1753, but left without a degree. He engrossed himself in scientific studies but did not bother to publish a number of his important discoveries as Cavendish was sociable only with his scientific friends. Even the only existing portrait of him was sketched secretly. He approached most of his investigations through quantitative measurements.

Contributions and Achievements:

He was the first to recognize hydrogen gas as a distinct substance for which he calculated its density as well as the densities of several other gases. He showed that hydrogen produced dew, which appeared to be water, upon being burned. He also found hydrogen to be much less dense than air. Cavendish also investigated the products of fermentation, showing that the gas from the fermentation of sugar is indistinguishable from the "fixed air" characterized as a constituent of chalk and magnesia by Black (in modern language, carbon dioxide). In his study of the methods of gas analysis Cavendish made one amazing observation.

He was glinting air with excess oxygen (to form oxides of nitrogen) over alkali until no more absorption took place and noted that a tiny amount of gas could not be further reduced, "so that if there is any part of the phlogisticated air of our atmosphere which differs from the rest, and cannot be reduced to nitrous acid, we may safely conclude that it is not more than 1/120 part of the whole." As is now known, he had observed the noble gases of the atmosphere.

In addition to his achievements in chemistry, Cavendish is also known for the Cavendish experiment, the first to measure the force of gravity between masses in a laboratory and to produce an accurate value for Earth's density. The apparatus he was working with was devised by the Rev. John Michell, though he had the most important parts reconstructed to his own designs, it depended on measuring the attraction exercised on a horizontal bar, suspended by a vertical wire and bearing a small lead ball at each end, by two large masses of lead. His work and constant observation led others to accurate values for the gravitational constant (G) and Earth's mass.

Based on his results, one can calculate a value for G of 6.754 × 10⁻¹¹N·m ²/kg ², which compares favorably with the modern value of 6.67428 × 10⁻¹¹N·m ²/kg ².

Cavendish compared the electrical conductivities of equivalent solutions of electrolytes and expressed a version of Ohm's law. He was not the first to profound an inverse-square law of electrostatic attraction, but Cavendish's exhibition, based in part on mathematical reasoning, was the most effective. He founded the study of the properties of dielectrics and also distinguished clearly between quantity of electricity and what is now called potential.

Cavendish's work and reputation have to be considered in two parts, the one relating to his published work, the other to the large amount he did not publish. During his lifetime he made notable discoveries in chemistry and physics mainly for which he is known the best and recognized.

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A natural philosopher, the greatest experimental and theoretical English chemist and physicist of his age, Henry Cavendish (10 Oct. 1731 - 24 Feb. 1810) was distinguished for great accuracy and precision in researches into the composition of atmospheric air, the properties of different gases, the synthesis of water, the law governing electrical attraction and repulsion, and calculations of the density (and hence the weight) of the Earth.

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Antoine Lavoisier wrote the first extensive list of elements containing 33 elements & distinguished between metals and non-metals.

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hundreds of periodic tables in web space, but there is only one comprehensive database of periodic tables & periodic system formulations. If you know of an interesting periodic table that is missing, please contact the database curator: Dr Mark R Leach .

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Plato coins term â€˜elementsâ€™ (stoicheia)

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Aristotle proposes the four element theory: earth, air, fire & water.

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Robert Boyle published "The Sceptical Chymist" which was a treatise on the distinction between chemistry and alchemy. It also contained some of the earliest ideas of atoms, molecules, and chemical reaction marking the beginning of the history of modern chemistry

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The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes is the title of a book by Robert Boyle, published in London in 1661. In the form of a dialogue, the Sceptical Chymist presented Boyle's hypothesis that matter consisted of atoms and clusters of atoms in motion and that every phenomenon was the result of collisions of particles in motion.

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Joseph Black isolated carbon dioxide, which he called "fixed air".

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On This Day - June 11 : The Scottish chemist Joseph Black discovered carbon dioxide on this day in 1754- Learn Chemistry

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Black noticed that upon heating, calcium carbonate (CaCO3) produced a gas that was denser than air and could not sustain fire or animal life. He called this gas 'fixed air', but we now know it as carbon dioxide (CO2).

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Sir Francis Bacon published "The Proficience and Advancement of Learning" which contained a description of what would later be known as the scientific method.

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The Advancement of Learning (full title: Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human ) is a 1605 book by Francis Bacon. It inspired the taxonomic structure of the highly influential Encyclopédie by Jean le Rond d'Alembert and Denis Diderot, and is credited by Bacon's biographer-essayist Catherine Drinker Bowen with being a pioneering essay in support of empirical philosophy.

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Democritus and Leucippus propose the idea of the atom, an indivisible particle that all matter is made of.