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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Dalton, John;
Pellón González, Inés;
(2012)
El atomismo en Química: Un nuevo sistema de Filosofía Química
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Pratt, Herbert;
(2010)
A Letter Signed: The Very Beginnings of Dalton's Atomic Theory
(/isis/citation/CBB001021940/)
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Pere Grapí;
(2020)
The Reinvention of the Nitrous Gas: Eudiometrical Test in the Context of Dalton’s Law on the Multiple Proportions of Combination
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Chapter
Maria P. Banchetti-Robino;
(2020)
The Changing Relation between Atomicity and Elementarity: From Lavoisier to Dalton
(/isis/citation/CBB907470408/)
Article
Pier Remigio Salvi;
(2023)
Dalton's Long Journey from Meteorology to the Chemical Atomic Theory
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Gregory S. Girolami;
(2019)
A Book Collector’s View of the Periodic Table: Before Mendeleev.
(/isis/citation/CBB300228576/)
Article
Wisniak, Jaime;
(2001)
William Henry: His Achievements and His Law
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Article
Chalmers, Alan;
(2005-2006)
Transforming Atomic Chemistry into an Experimental Science: The Limitations of Dalton's Theory
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Article
Rocke, Alan J.;
(2005)
In Search of El Dorado: John Dalton and the Origins of the Atomic Theory
(/isis/citation/CBB000650660/)
Article
Pellón, Inés;
Bilbao-Goyoaga, Ana;
(2013)
The Chemical Atomic Theory in Ramón Torres Muñoz De Luna's Textbooks (1848--1885)
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Chapter
Geoffrey Blumenthal;
James Ladyman;
Vanessa Seifert;
(2020)
Referring to Chemical Elements and Compounds: Colorless Airs in Late-Eighteenth-Century Chemical Practice
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Article
Grossman, Mark I.;
(2010)
William Higgins at the Dublin Society, 1810--20: The Loss of a Professorship and a Claim to the Atomic Theory
(/isis/citation/CBB001022725/)
Article
Knight, David;
(August 2007)
Davy and the Placing of Potassium among the Elements
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Chapter
Marie Thébaud-Sorger;
(2018)
Capturing the Invisible: Heat, Steam and Gases in France and Great Britain, 1750-1800
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Article
Richter, Linda;
(2019)
The Meteorology and Medicine of the Romantic Era in Context: Henrik Steffens’ Ideas on Medical Meteorology (1811) and Its Reception by the Prussian State
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Article
Tomory, Leslie;
(2014)
Science and the Arts in William Henry's Research into Inflammable Air during the Early Nineteenth Century
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Article
Usselman, Melvyn C.;
Brown, Todd A.;
(2015)
Atomic Theory and Multiple Combining Proportions: The Search for Whole Number Ratios
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Pere Grapí;
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Gavroglu, Kostas;
(2009)
A Pioneer Who Never Got It Right: James Dewar and the Elusive Phenomena of Cold
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Joseph D. Ortiz;
Roland Jackson;
(2020)
Understanding Eunice Foote's 1856 Experiments: Heat Absorption by Atmospheric Gases
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