John Dalton

Gough taught Dalton, and Owen was a close friend in Manchester (possibly also lodging together). Davy described him as “a very coarse experimenter”, who in fact had a knack for getting the imaginative reasoning right (Davy opposed his theory for 50 years; Dalton merely objected that Davy didn’t smoke). Whewell, Wollaston (a speedy supporter of his ideas), Brewster and Babbage (who was outraged that one so eminent was still forced to teach in his 70’s) all knew him in London, a place he avoided if possible; Berthollet, Laplace, Arago and other French scientists were met on his sole visit to Paris.