John Dalton

Hello! My name is John Dalton. I was born a long, long time ago on September 6th, 1766. I lived in a small village in England. When I was a boy, I was very curious. I loved asking questions about everything I saw around me, and I especially loved learning about the weather!

When I grew up, I became a teacher. I loved helping children learn all about the world. But my favorite hobby was still studying the sky. Every single day, I would look outside my window. I wrote down what the weather was like. Was it a sunny day? Was it a rainy day? Or was it a windy day? Doing this every day helped me understand the air and what it was made of.

Thinking so much about the air made me wonder something very important: what is EVERYTHING made of? Around the year 1803, I had a big idea! I realized that the whole world is made of teeny-tiny little pieces. The ground you walk on, the water you drink, the tall trees, and even you are all made of these pieces. I called them 'atoms.' Atoms are like the world’s smallest building blocks, so tiny that we cannot see them with our eyes!

I lived to be 77 years old. Today, people remember me for my big idea about atoms. Understanding these tiny building blocks helped other scientists make amazing discoveries that help us all today. It is wonderful to know my curiosity helped us learn more about our amazing world.