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Article ID: CBB000931940

Transforming Atomic Chemistry into an Experimental Science: The Limitations of Dalton's Theory (2005-2006)

Rutherford Journal: The New Zealand Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
Volume: 1
Pages: Approx. 9000 words

Publication Date: 2005-2006
Edition Details: http://www.rutherfordjournal.org/article010101.html (Accessed on August 30, 2009.)
Language: English

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As we shall see, such a construal of Dalton's atomism involves the abstraction of a basic chemical atomism from the detailed physical atomism that was espoused by Dalton himself and which was a failure. This historical point aside, the truncated version of Dalton's atomism that yields the laws of proportion yields little else that is experimentally testable beyond what is a consequence of the laws of proportion themselves. Consequently, Dalton's chemistry did not open up an experimental programme over and above what could be pursued by tracing the consequences of the laws of proportion themselves and ignoring atoms. Dalton turned out to be right about the existence of chemical atoms, but we should not allow this fact to lead to an overestimate of Dalton's achievement and an underestimate of the efforts of those who modified and extended his key idea. Otherwise we will lose sight of the difficulty of gaining experimental access to atoms and fail to appreciate how much knowledge needed to be in place to make it possible.

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