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Hello in 1766 John Dalton was born in Cumberland.

He was the son of a Weaver and for a time worked as an agricultural laborer.

But despite his relatively humble social background and little formal schooling, he became one of the leading scientists of his day.

At about Quaker, his scientific interests were wide-ranging. He investigated meteorology, color blindness and the height of

hills in the lake district. Through his public lectures and experiments he brought

his research and and of other scientists to a large audience here and in Europe. He's

perhaps most noted though for his development of an

early version of atomic theory. When he died in 1844 an estimated 40,000

people in Manchester filed past his coffin to pay their respects.

With me to discuss the life and career of John Dalton are Jim Bennett, former director of the

Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford and Keeper Emeritus at the Science Museum,

Aileen Five, Reader in British History at the University of St Andrews,

and James Sumner, lecturer in the History of Technology at the Center for the

History of Science Technology in Medicine at the University of Manchester.

Jim Bennett, what do we know about John Dalton's family background in the early years?

Well, it was a modest background, certainly.

As you said, he was born in Eaglesfield, grew up in Eagles Field a little village in

Cumberland and very much in a Quaker family and in a Quaker context.

It's interesting to think about Dalton's origins because Dalton was a grew up to be a man of very steady habits and very settled wares of being and and wears of living and many of these settled habits began in this very early life and

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