John Dalton (England, 1766-1844)


Figure 1.--This mural shows John Dalton collecting marsh fire gas. The mural is located in Manchester Town Hall. It is a fresco by Ford Madox Brown. A young boy lying on a plank pond dipping with his tutor, John Dalton, sitting on the bank also pond dipping collecting marsh fire gas. Younger children are collecting details of plants.

John Dalton is one of the greatest English chemists. His work achieved advances in many areas. He described color blindness scientifically (1794), in part because he was aflicted withthe condition. Dalton focused his work on gases. He noted over 200,000 observations of the atmosphere in notebooks he kept. He analized mixed gases and the expansion of gases under heat. Dalton's Law continues to be an important scientific principle to explain the law of partial pressures in chemistry. His work on gases helped him to conceptualize the atom--at the time a highly theoretical finding. Dalton produced a scientifically based atomic theory of matter. He lectured extensively and published a detailed account of his theories in A New System of Chemical Philosophy in 1808. We have no details of his childhood at this time, but do have a image on children while he was an adult.

This mural shows John Dalton collecting marsh fire gas (figure 1). The mural is located in Manchester Town Hall. It is a fresco by Ford Madox Brown. I'm not sure when Brown did the mural. It pictures a young boy lying on a plank pond dipping with his tutor, John Dalton, sitting on the bank also pond dipping collecting marsh fire gas. Younger children are collecting details of plants. The costumes the children are wearing are clearerly shown. The older boy on the plank appears to be wearing knee breaches. The younger boy at left appears to be wearing a green tunic with matching green pabtakettes or trousers. I am not sure about the approximate date that the mural is meant to iluustrate, but we would guess about 1800. The mural is not contemprary, thus the accuracy has to be questioned. We do not know on what basis Brown based his composition. I believe that these depictions are reasonably authentic, if somewhat idealized, but the fact the mural is not comtemporary leaves some room for questions. On the humourous side a cow is watching the group with great interest and wonderment.






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Created: January 4, 2004
Last updated: January 4, 2004