Bicentenary of the Atomic Theory

Image: © David Dixon Taken: 11 Mar 2020

This small black-and-white plaque between two Chinese restaurants on the side of Faulkner Street facing the car park, was erected in 203 to mark the bicentenary of John Dalton’s atomic theory. This theory, the prime source of Dalton’s fame, was first announced in 1803 while Dalton was in lodgings here. Dalton moved to Manchester in 1793 when he was appointed teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy at the New College, Manchester. He rented rooms in what is now Chinatown but was then the Georgian area of St James’s around the long-demolished church of the same name. He lived in three properties in Faulkner Street and nearby Booth Street before purchasing 27 Faulkner Street where he lived from 1835 until he died in 1844 Dalton made over 200,000 notes on the weather (when meteorologists refer to ‘oldest known records’, they are often referring to Dalton’s work) and wrote many papers and two books on meteorology. He suffered from colour-blindness – an inability to tell red from green – and wrote the first scientific paper about the affliction. Ironically the word for colour-blindness in a number of European languages features his name. It is Daltonismo in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian but in English, we just say ‘colour-blindness’ and ignore Dalton’s contribution. However, John Dalton is most famous for his Atomic Theory which he first presented as a postscript to a paper on the absorption of gases by water and other liquids. He first presented this paper to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society in October 1803. This work is widely regarded as the beginning of modern chemistry. His name lives on in John Dalton Street. There is a statue of him in the entrance of Manchester Town Hall, and also outside the Dalton Building at Manchester Metropolitan University, on the corner of Oxford Street and Chester Street (and also this small plaque hiding away in Faulkner Street).

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