Article ID: CBB001024141

John Dalton's Puzzles: From Meteorology to Chemistry (2011)

unapi

Historical research on John Dalton has been dominated by an attempt to reconstruct the origins of his so-called chemical atomic theory. I show that Dalton's theory is difficult to define in any concise manner, and that there has been no consensus as to its unique content among his contemporaries, later chemists, and modern historians. I propose an approach which, instead of attempting to work backward from Dalton's theory, works forward, by identifying the research questions that Dalton posed to himself and attempting to understand how his hypotheses served as answers to these questions. I describe Dalton's scientific work as an evolving set of puzzles about natural phenomena. I show how an early interest in meteorology led Dalton to see the constitution of the atmosphere as a puzzle. In working on this great puzzle, he gradually turned his interest to specifically chemical questions. In the end, the web of puzzles that he worked on required him to create his own novel philosophy of chemistry for which he is known today.

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Authors & Contributors
Grapí, Pere
Seifert, Vanessa
Richter, Linda
Ortiz, Joseph D.
Banchetti-Robino, Maria P.
Pier Remigio Salvi
Concepts
Chemistry
Chemical elements
Gases
Atomism
Atmosphere (Earth)
Epistemology
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
Enlightenment
20th century
17th century
Places
Great Britain
United Kingdom
Prussia (Germany)
Spain
France
Institutions
Dublin Philosophical Society
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