Famous Chemists; The Men and Their Work (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1921. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... LAWS OF COMBINATION AND THE ATOMIC THEORY Dalton (1766-1844) Proust (1755-1826) Gay-lussac( 1778-1850) Berzelius (1779-1848) CHAPTER VIII DALTON Concerning Davy's contemporaries, Priestley, who died in 1804 in a distant land, and Cavendish, who died in 1810, something has already been said, but there is another, his senior by some twelve years, who exercised on the progress of science an influence as great though in quite a different direction. This was John Dalton, whose name has been for more than a century associated with the application of the Atomic Theory to chemistry. The Atomic Theory assumes that the established laws of combination between the elements are accounted for by the hypothesis that matter consists of separate particles limited in size and weight, and that a mass of any given element, such as oxygen or iron, consists of particles all alike in every respect. When a compound is formed the particles of the compound are also all alike, and, using Dalton's own words, "Every particle of water is like every other particle of water; every particle of hydrogen is like every other particle of hydrogen, etc. When any body exists in the elastic state, its ultimate particles are separated from each other to a much greater distance than in any other state; each particle occupies the centre of a comparatively large sphere, and supports its dignity by keeping all the rest, which by their gravity, or otherwise, are disposed to encroach upon it, at a respectful distance. . . . Chemical analysis and synthesis go no farther than to the separation of particles one from another, and to their reunion. No new creation or destruction of matter is within the reach of chemical agency. We might as well attempt to introduce a new planet into the solar system, or to annihi...