Science · 1766–1844
Born: 6 September 1766 · Died: 27 July 1844 · Age at death: 77
John Dalton died aged 77. He was born on 6 September 1766 and died on 27 July 1844.
English chemist who proposed modern atomic theory and first described colour blindness, which he had himself
Did you know?He was the first person to scientifically describe colour blindness, a condition from which he suffered, leading it to be known as Daltonism.
John Dalton put atoms at the heart of chemistry. The son of a Quaker weaver in Cumberland, he was running his own school at just 12. He later taught in Manchester, where he kept careful weather records every day for 57 years. He proposed that each chemical element is made of its own kind of atom, with a particular weight. He produced the first table of atomic weights. He was also colour blind, and he wrote the first scientific description of the condition, once called Daltonism.
John Dalton (5 or 6 September 1766 – 27 July 1844) was an English chemist, physicist, and meteorologist whose work laid the foundations of modern atomic theory and stoichiometric chemistry.
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Profile
English chemist, 1766–1844
John Dalton was born in Eaglesfield, Cumberland, around 6 September 1766.
He taught in Manchester.
He described colour blindness in 1794.
He set out his atomic theory in 1808.
Career highlights
Did you know?Colour blindness was once called Daltonism.
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