John Dalton once made this famous quote on his work concerning the atom, " We might as well attempt to introduce a new planet into the solar system, or to annihilate one already in existence, as to create or destroy a particle of hydrogen."
             John Dalton was a British chemist and physicist, who developed the atomic theory upon which modern physical science is founded. Dalton, a Quaker, was born on September 6, 1766, in Eaglesfield, Cumberland County, England. He received education from the village school until age 11. He received tuition from Elihu Robinson, a wealthy Quaker, meteorologist, and instrument maker, who first encouraged Dalton's interest in meteorology. At age 12 he was given a job to teach at the same school he attended. He worked on a farm for two years before he moved to Kendal where he taught with his brother. He also went on to teach at a Presbyterian Institute when he was 28 years old. A year later he was elected to the Manchester Literacy and Philosophical Society. Although he did not have a specific institution where he researched, Dalton began a series of meteorological research at the Lake District in 1787. His observations continued for 57 years, accumulating some 200,000 annotations and measurements on the weather in the Manchester area. His first published book contained the first of his laws concerning the behavior of compound atmospheres. Dalton also wrote a book that has the first explanation of the dew point and hence the founding of exact hygrometry.
             In 1803 Dalton made his most important contribution to science, his theory (The atomic theory) states that matter is composed of atoms of differing weights and combine in simple ratios by weight. A physical clue to the theory was provided by the solubility of gases in water. He found through experiments that atoms of different gases have different weights. He showed how these atoms link together in definite proportions. An atom is any...