INDUXTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Vol. 16, No. 2
PANEL No. 12
FIG.~-DAT.TON COLLECrING MARSH-FIRE GAS.
P A I N T I N G BY FORD MADOXBROWNIN C O U N C I L C H A M B S R , T O W N H A L L , B Y PERMISSION OF TOWN HALL C O X M I T T B E OF T H E MANCHESTER CORPORATION
MANCBESTER.
Dalton Memorials in Manchester, England’ By A. D. Thorburn INDIANAPOLIS, IND.
HE Town Hall of Man-
T
chester, England, built about forty-five years ago a t an expense of several million dollars, has in its Council Chamber twelve mural paintings, four of which commemorate events of interest in science. Perhaps these illustrations of the search for ultimate truths ana their application have had an influence on the political and economic discussions which have taken place in this room. Panel No. 6 commemorates an edict of 1556 requiring all dealers and merchants to submit all measures and weights to be tested for accuracy. Panel No. 7 shows Wm. Crabtree, a cloth merchant of Manchester, observing the transit of Venus, concerning which Jeremiah Horrox, assisted by Crabtree, had made some historic astronomical calculations. Panel No. 10 acknowledges the indebtedness of the textile industry to the invention of the flyshuttle, which was the basis of fundamental improvements in cloth weaving. Panel No. 12, of especial interest to chemists, is entitled “Dalton Collecting 1
Received November 21, 1923.
Fro. 2-sTA‘fIJE
OF
DALTON IN T H E ENTRANCE OF THE TOWN HALL, MANCRESTER, ENGLAND
Marsh-Fire Gas.” It is a good representation of some circumstances under which Dalton and other chemists of the long ago must have worked. Dalton’s name for marsh gas was “carburetted hydrogen from stagnant water.” The artist’s representation conforms t o this name. Dalton’s conception of the marsh-gas molecule, or, as he called it, “ultimate atom,” is shown in the chart reproduced from the Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, Vol. LIX (,No. 12). Just what use Dalton made of this chart is not clear from his notes. The schoolroom where Dalton taught and where he made his experiments leading to the formulation of the theory of atomic weights and the law of multiple proportions is now used as the office of the secretary of the Literary and Philosophical Society. Pelletier, of Paris, who was the first to isolate some important alkaloids, traveled to Manchester to visit Dalton in 1826. After some difficulty he found No. 36 George St.,and being admitted, he went into the
February, 1924 Mencheder Memoirs, Vol. L I X .
INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY (No. rz.)
Plale VI.
191
Sotwithstanding this simplicity of life and thought, the people
of Manchester held Dalton in high regard, as is s h m n by the frescoand statue in the Town Hall, his statue in Piccadilly, the leading retail business district, the street named John Dalton Street, and the Dalton Fellowships in Manchester University. His position in this respwt is unusual among men of science.
Reprints from Annual Tables The Secretary-General of Annual Tabks announce3 that th? following list of rcprints from Volume IV is available for sale a t the prices indicated: "Speetroropg;'
Fie. ~--DALTON'S CONCZ~PT~ON or TIm IILTIMATR ATOMos MAYEII-PIRU G A S (SxeL'r 10)
room a t the left of the hnll and saw a tail man standing at the side 01a boy, who was figuring on a slate. Ilnwilling t o believe that a chemist whose fame extended over all Europe would be teaching a boy his first lour rules, Pellrticr questioned, "Do I have the honor of addressing Monsieur Dalton?" Dalton answered "Yes, wilt thou sit down while I set this lad right about his arithmetic."
*
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by BrOoinghaus. Preface by
,... .. "Radio.ctiuiry, Elecfronirn. Ionization of Gases, etc. by Siiphores and Uourion. Preface by Sir k. Kutherfoid ''Crysfsilo%raphyand Mineraioxy;' by Spencer. Pretace by Sir Henry A. Mieis "Biolozy;' by Terroine and Colin. Preface by lacoees Loeb "Engirieering and Metallx~igy." by Descroir. Prefsce by G. K.Yurgeis "Coliolds/ by RebiCre. Preface by Jscqees
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Duclaux
francs Ro,>nd
rarer 210
15
144
40
19
18
65
25
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9n
27
li4
30
40
0
6
12
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