77 
Ordinary Meeting, February 22nd, 1876. 
Edward Schunck, Ph.D., F.R.S., &c., President, in the Chair. 
“ Notes on a Collection of Apparatus employed by Dr. 
Dalton in his Researches, which is about to be exhibited 
(by the Council of the Literary and Philosophical Society of 
Manchester) at the Loan Exhibition of Scientific Apparatus 
at South Kensington,” by Professor Roscoe, F.R.S. 
The apparatus employed by John Dalton in his classical 
researches, whether physical or chemical, was of the simplest 
and even of the rudest character. Most of it was made 
with his own hands, and that which is to be exhibited has 
been chosen as illustrating this fact, and as indicating the 
genius which with so insignificant and incomplete an expe- 
rimental equipment was able to produce such great results. 
The Society has in its possession a large quantity of appara- 
tus used by Dalton, most of which however consists of 
electrical apparatus, models of mechanical powers, models of 
steam engines, air pumps, a Gregorian telescope, and other 
apparatus of a similar kind, which was either bought or 
presented to him. It has not been thought necessary to 
exhibit these, but rather to show the. home-made apparatus 
with which Dalton obtained his most remarkable results. 
I. Meteorological and Physical Apparatus made and used 
by Dr. Dalton. 
Throughout his life Dalton devoted much time and atten- 
tion to the study of meteorology; indeed his first work, 
published in 1793, was entitled “Meteorological Observa- 
tions and Essays,” and his last paper, printed in 1842,* 
* Vide Life of Dalton by Dr. Henry, published by the Cavendish 
Society ; Memoir of Dr. Dalton and the History of the Atomic Theory, 
published in the Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of 
Manchester, 2nd Series, Yol. 1 ; Dr. Lonsdale’s Life of Dalton, Longmans, 
1874. 
Proceedings— Lit. & Phil. Soc.— Yol. XV.— No. 7.— Session 1S73-G. 
