Fun Fact # 367

  Fun Fact #367

In 1803 a scientist by the name of John Dalton was studying the relationship between reactants and products (Stoichiometry). Here he realized that since he couldn’t get all types of gas to come from evaporating water but only water vapor, it may be due to a unique particle of some kind naming this type of particle: Atoms after the Greek word Atomos meaning “Indivisible”. While he was wrong on nothing being smaller than atoms, it was the first step towards particle Physics. 

Yet Dalton himself considered something he did greater: the study of colorblindness. While he could only come up with a system to classify it (Daltonism), it allowed many to lead more normal lives. French, Spanish, and Italian refer to the disease with variants of Dalton’s name. Dalton himself suffered from Protan CVD but only in one eye (now called unilateral dichromats). Now that's one way to color history!