John Dalton was born into a Quaker family in Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, in Cumberland, England. His father was a weaver. He received his early education from his father and from Quaker John Fletcher, who ran a private school in the nearby village of Pardshaw Hall. Dalton\'s family was too poor to support him for long and he began to earn his living at the age of ten in the service of a wealthy local Quaker, Elihu Robinson. It is said he began teaching at a local school at age 12, and became proficient in Latin at age 14.\n', '

When he was 15, Dalton joined his older brother Jonathan in running a Quaker school in Kendal, Westmorland, about 45 miles (72 km) from his home. Around the age of 23 Dalton may have considered studying law or medicine, but his relatives did not encourage him, perhaps because being a Dissenter, he was barred from attending English universities. He acquired much scientific knowledge from informal instruction by John Gough, a blind philosopher who was gifted in the sciences and arts. At the age of 27 he was appointed teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy at the "New College" in Manchester, a dissenting academy (the lineal predecessor, following a number of changes of location, of Harris Manchester College, Oxford). He remained there until the age of 34, when the college\'s worsening financial situation led him to resign his post and begin a new career as a private tutor in mathematics and natural philosophy.\n', '

Dalton\'s early life was influenced by a prominent Eaglesfield Quaker, Elihu Robinson, a competent meteorologist and instrument maker, who interested him in problems of mathematics and meteorology. During his years in Kendal, Dalton contributed solutions to problems and answered questions on various subjects in The Ladies\' Diary and the Gentleman\'s Diary. In 1787 at age 21 he began his meteorological diary in which, during the succeeding 57 years, he entered more than 200,000 observations. He rediscovered George Hadley\'s theory of atmospheric circulation (now known as the Hadley cell) around this time. In 1793 Dalton\'s first publication, Meteorological Observations and Essays, contained the seeds of several of his later discoveries but despite the originality of his treatment, little attention was paid to them by other scholars. A second work by Dalton, Elements of English Grammar, was published in 1801.\n', '

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