Manchester Memoirs

A note with Southern s initials acknowledges Dalton s claim that the difference of the temperature of two vapours of the same elastic force, raised from two different liquids , is a constant quantity.57 In his further account of experiments on the elasticity of steam, Watt once again acknowledged Dalton s experiments (as reported in Manchester Memoirs) and also those of Mr De Betancourt (in Prony s Nouvelle Architecture Hydraulique), and of a Mr Schmidt. After recounting his own experiments of 1764-5 and 1774, Watt noted that he had asked Southern to repeat them, with the assistance of Mr Creighton and considered the results (presented in Southern s letter to Watt in the Appendix) as very reliable.58... 

Many students, and even some of the text-books, appear to have hazy notions on this question. According to Guy Lussac s law the increase in the volume of a gas at any temperature for a rise of temperature of 1°, is a constant fraction of its initial volume at 0°C. J. Dalton s law (Manchester Memoirs, 3, 595, 1802), on the other hand, supposes the increase in the volume of a gas at any temperature for a rise of 1°, is a constant fraction of its volume at that temperature (the Compound Interest Law, in fact). The former appears to approximate closer to the truth than the latter. (See page 285.) J. B. Gay Lussac (Annales de Chimie, 43,137 1802) says that Charles had noticed this same property of gases fifteen years earlier and hence it is sometimes called Charles law, or the law of Charles and Gay Lussac. After inspecting Charles apparatus, Gay Lussac expressed the opinion that it was not delicate enough to establish the truth of the law in question. But then J. Priestley in his Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air (2, 448, 1790) says that from a very coarse experiment which I made very early I concluded that fixed and common air expanded... 

J. Kepler, Strena seu de nive sexangula, Godefridum Tampach, Frankfurt am Main (1611). [English translation. The Six-Cornered Snowflake. Clarendon Press, Oxford (1966).) J. Dalton, Manchester Memoirs 6 (1805). 

One of Dalton s lecture placards. Source Dalton, Manchester Memoirs, 59 12 (1915), plate VII, sheet 24 (ca. 1811). 

Coward, H. F., and A. Harden. "John Dalton s Lectures and Lecture Illustrations, Pt. Ill The Lecture Sheets Illustrating the Atomic Theory." Manchester Memoirs 59, no. 12 (1915) 41-66. 

Smith, R. A. (1852) On the air and rain of Manchester. Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester (Sevens Series) 10, 207-217... 

Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society... 

On Dalton s symbols, see W. W. Haldane Gee, Hubert Frank Coward, and Arthur Harden, "John Dalton s Lectures and Lecture Illustrations," Memoir No. XII in Mem.Manchester LPS 59 (191415), esp. 4166. J. J. Berzelius, "Essay on the Cause of Chemical Proportions, and on some Circumstances relating to Them Together with a Short and Easy Method of Expressing Them," Annals of Philosophy 2 (1813) 443454, and 3 (1814) 4352. Also see, Crosland, 268275. 

Kipping, a Manchester native, studied with Roscoe and Schorlemmer, then spent a year (1886) in Munich at Adolf von Baeyer s laboratory where Perkin, Jr., was Privatdozent and von Baeyer s assistant. Kipping completed his London doctoral degree in 1887 and was Armstrong s assistant from 1890 to 1897. See Partington, A History of Chemistry, IV 851. And Robert Robinson, Memoirs, 2223. 

Wall, M., Remarks on the origin of the vegetable fixed alkali, with some collateral observations on nitre, Memoirs Lit and Philos. Soc. (Manchester), 2, 67-79 (1789), 2nd ed. 

Watt, James, Some account of a mine in which the aerated barytes is found, Memoirs Lit. and Philos. Snc. (Manchester), 3, 598-609 (1790). 

John Dalton, On the Absorption of Gases by Water and Other Liquids, Memoirs of the Manchester Literary Philosophical Society 6 (1805) 271-287. 

G. N. Burkhardt, Arthur Lapworth and others , unpublished memoirs. Copies are deposited in the University Libraries at Manchester and Hull, and with the Royal Society in London. 

Dalton stayed in Manchester for the rest of his fife, and it was there that he did most of his important work, the results of which were published in the Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society (MLPS). His first scientific paper, published by the MLPS in 1798, described his red-green color blindness. Dalton is said to have purchased for his mother a pair of what he thought were dull-colored stockings—Quakers did not wear bright colors—which she could not wear because they were scarlet. This misadventure motivated Dalton to investigate his color recognition deficiency. He was the first to describe red-green color blindness, sometimes known as Daltonism. 

Then, she joined the staff of the British Cotton Industry Research Association at the Shirley Institute, Manchester, researching the minor constituents of cotton — particularly the complex mixture of substances present in cotton wax and their reaction products during the bleaching and finishing of cotton fibre. Her results were published in a series of papers in the Textile Industry Journal and in the Memoirs of the Shirley Institute. 

J. Sharpe, An Account of Some Experiments to Ascertain whether the Force of Steam be in Proportion to the Generating Heat) Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, Second Series, 2 (1813), pp. 1-14. Sharpe (ca 1768-1834) was a member of the law firm Sharpe, Eccles and Cririe of Manchester. He died in Richmond, Surrey on 28 May 1834. He was elected FRS on 13 April 1826 with John Dalton and William Henry as the lead signatories of his certificate. He was also FSA. See Royal Society of London, Archives, Certificates ofElection and Candidature, EC/1826/03, and W. E. A. Axon (ed.), The Annals of Manchester, (Manchester J. Heywood, 1886). 

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