as t of paper is to t of tateBuilding.
It is of course treme durability of atoms t makes tininess t makes to detect and understand. tion t atomsare tically indestructible—and t all t occurred not to Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, as you mig, or evento rato a spare and liged Englison, ered in ter on cry.
Dalton rict near Cockermouto a family ofpoor but devout Quaker er t illiam ords Cockermoutionally brigudent—so very brig at t Dalton’s precocity, but per: about time on’s Principia in tin and oture. At fifteen, stillscering, ook a job in toer t o Mancer, scarcely stirring from ty years of er ellectual eorology to grammar. Color blindness, a condition from onism because of udies. But it em of C establisation.
t cer of just five pages (out of t encountered atoms in sometion. Dalton’s simple insig at t of all matter are exceedingly tiny,irreducible particles. “e migtempt to introduce a ne into tem or annie one already in existence, as to create or destroy a particle of hydrogen,”
e.
Neitoms nor term itself ly ne Greeks. Dalton’s contribution o consider tive sizes and cers oftoms and togetance, t estelement, so an atomic er consisted of sevenparts of oxygen to one of omic tive erribly accurate—oxygen’s atomic een, not seven—but try and muc ofmodern science.
ton famous—albeit in a lo P .J. Pelletier traveled to Mancer to meet tomic ierexpected to find taco some grand institution, so ounded to discover eacary aritic to boys in a small screet. According to tific orian E. J. ier, upon be man,stammered:
“Est-ce que j’ai l’on?” for t of European fame, teac four rules. “Yes,” said tter-of-fact Quaker. “ilt t do t about ic?”
Alton tried to avoid all ed to ty against pension. y tege stretcionary of National Biograp, rivaled inlengteentury men of science.
For a century after Dalton made remained entirely ical, and a fe scientists—notably t Ernst Maced tence of atoms at all. “Atoms cannot be perceived by the senses