its elementary character had been settled by Davy; he persisted in using the atomic weights he himself had adopted, even when they had been superseded by the more accurate determinations of other chemists; and he always objected to the chemical notation devised by J. J. Berzelius, although by common consent it was much simpler and more convenient than his cumbersome system of circular symbols. His library, he was once heard to declare, he could carry on his back, yet he had not read half the books it contained.
Before he had propounded the atomic theory he had already attained a considerable scientific reputation. In 1804 he was chosen to give a course of lectures on natural philosophy at the Royal Institution in London, where he delivered another course in 1809–1810. But he was deficient, it would seem, in the qualities that make an attractive lecturer, being harsh and indistinct in voice, ineffective in the treatment of his subject, and “singularly wanting in the language and power of illustration.” In 1810 he was asked by Davy to offer himself as a candidate for the fellowship of the Royal Society, but declined, possibly for pecuniary reasons; but in 1822 he was proposed without his knowledge, and on election paid the usual fee. Six years previously he had been made a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences, and in 1830 he was elected as one of its eight foreign associates in place of Davy. In 1833 Lord Grey’s government conferred on him a pension of £150, raised in 1836 to £300. Never married, though there is evidence that he delighted in the society of women of education and refinement, he lived for more than a quarter of a century with his friend the Rev. W. Johns (1771–1845), in George Street, Manchester, where his daily round of laboratory work and tuition was broken only by annual excursions to the Lake district and occasional visits to London, “a surprising place and well worth one’s while to see once, but the most disagreeable place on earth for one of a contemplative turn to reside in constantly.” In 1822 he paid a short visit to Paris, where he met many of the distinguished men of science then living in the French capital, and he attended several of the earlier meetings of the British Association at York, Oxford, Dublin and Bristol. Into society he rarely went, and his only amusement was a game of bowls on Thursday afternoons. He died in Manchester in 1844 of paralysis. The first attack he suffered in 1837, and a second in 1838 left him much enfeebled, both physically and mentally, though he remained able to make experiments. In May 1844 he had another stroke; on the 26th of July he recorded with trembling hand his last meteorological observation, and on the 27th he fell from his bed and was found lifeless by his attendant. A bust of him, by Chantrey, was publicly subscribed for in 1833 and placed in the entrance hall of the Manchester Royal Institution.
See Henry, Life of Dalton, Cavendish Society (1854); Angus Smith, Memoir of John Dalton and History of the Atomic Theory (1856), which on pp. 253-263 gives a list of Dalton’s publications; and Roscoe and Harden, A New View of the Origin of Dalton’s Atomic Theory (1896); also Atom.
DALTON, a city and the county-seat of Whitfield county, Georgia, U.S.A., in the N.W. part of the state, 100 m. N.N.W. of Atlanta. Pop. (1890) 3046; (1900) 4315 (957 negroes); (1910) 5324. Dalton is served by the Southern, the Nashville, Chattanooga & St Louis, and the Western & Atlanta (operated by the Nashville,
Chattanooga & St Louis) railways. The city is in a rich agricultural region; ships cotton, grain, fruit and ore; and has various manufactures, including canned fruit and vegetables, flour and foundry and machine shop products. It is the seat of Dalton Female College. Dalton was founded by Duff Green and others in 1848, and was incorporated in 1874. Hither General Braxton Bragg retreated after his defeat at Chattanooga in the last week of November 1863. Three weeks afterwards Bragg, in command of the army in northern Georgia in winter quarters here, was replaced by General Joseph E. Johnston, who, with his force of 54,400, adopted defensive tactics to meet Sherman’s invasion of
Georgia, with his 99,000 or 100,000 men in the Army of the
Cumberland (60,000) under General G. H. Thomas, the Army of
the Tennessee (25,000) under General J. B. M‘Pherson, and the
Army of the Ohio (14,000) under General J. M. Schofield. The
Federal forces stretched for 20 m. in a position south of Ringgold
and between Ringgold and Dalton. Johnston’s line of defences
included Rocky Face Ridge, a wall of rock through which the
railway passes about 5 m. north-west of the city, Mill Creek (1 m.
north-north-west of Dalton), which he dammed so that it could
not be forded, and earthworks north and east of the city. On
the 7th of May General M’Pherson started for Resaca, 18 m.
south of Dalton, to occupy the railway there in Johnston’s rear,
but he did not attack Resaca, thinking it too strongly protected;
Thomas, with Schofield on his left, on the 7th forced the Confederates
through Buzzard’s Roost Gap (the pass at Mill Creek)
north-west of Dalton; at Dug Gap, 4 m. south-west of Dalton,
on the 8th a fierce Federal assault under Brigadier-General John
W. Geary failed to dislodge the Confederates from a quite impregnable
position. On the 11th the main body of Sherman’s
army followed M’Pherson toward Resaca, and Johnston, having
evacuated Dalton on the night of the 12th, was thus forced, after
five days’ manœuvring and skirmishing, to march to Resaca and
to meet Sherman there.
See J. D. Cox, The Atlanta Campaign (New York, 1882); Johnson and Buel, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 vols., New York, 1887); and Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, series 1, vols. 32, 38, 39, 45, 49; series ii., vol. 8.
DALTON-IN-FURNESS, a market town in the North Lonsdale
parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 4 m. N.E. by N.
of Barrow-in-Furness by the Furness railway. Pop. of urban
district (1901) 13,020. The church of St Mary is in the main a
modern reconstruction, but retains ancient fragments and a font
believed to have belonged to Furness Abbey. This fine ruin lies
3 m. south of Dalton (see Furness). St Mary’s churchyard
contains the tomb of the painter George Romney, a native of
the town. Of Dalton Castle there remains a square tower,
showing decorated windows. Here was held the manorial court
of Furness Abbey. There are numerous iron-ore mines in the
parish, and ironworks at Askam-in-Furness, in the northern part
of the district.
DALY, AUGUSTIN (1838–1899), American theatrical manager
and playwright, was born in Plymouth, North Carolina, on the
20th of July 1838. He was dramatic critic for several New York
papers from 1859, and he adapted or wrote a number of plays,
Under the Gaslight (1867) being his first success. In 1869 he was
the manager of the Fifth Avenue theatre, and in 1879 he built
and opened Daly’s theatre in New York, and, in 1893, Daly’s
theatre in London. At the former he gathered a company of
players, headed by Miss Ada Rehan, which made for it a high
reputation, and for them he adapted plays from foreign sources,
and revived Shakespearean comedies in a manner before unknown
in America. He took his entire company on tour, visiting
England, Germany and France, and some of the best actors on
the American stage have owed their training and first successes
to him. Among these were Clara Morris, Sara Jewett, John
Drew, Fanny Davenport, Maude Adams, Mrs Gilbert and many
others. Daly was a great book-lover, and his valuable library
was dispersed by auction after his death, which occurred in
Paris on the 7th of June 1899. Besides plays, original and
adapted, he wrote Woffington: a Tribute to the Actress and the Woman (1888).
DALYELL (or Dalziell or Dalzell), THOMAS (d. 1685), British soldier, was the son of Thomas Dalyell of Binns, Linlithgowshire, a cadet of the family of the earls of Carnwath, and of Janet, daughter of the 1st Lord Bruce of Kinloss, master of the rolls in England. He appears to have accompanied the Rochelle expedition in 1628, and afterwards, becoming colonel, served under Robert Munro, the general in Ireland. He was taken prisoner at the capitulation of Carrickfergus in August 1650, but was given a free pass, and having been banished from Scotland remained in Ireland. He was present at the battle of Worcester (3rd of September 1651), where his men surrendered, and he himself was captured and imprisoned in the Tower. In May he escaped abroad, and in 1654 took part in the Highland rebellion and was excepted from Cromwell’s act of grace, a reward of £200 being offered for his capture, dead or alive. The king’s cause being now for the time hopeless, Dalyell entered the
