How Did John Dalton Weigh Atoms and How Did Dalton Figure Out the Relative Atomic Weights of Elements?
John Dalton couldn’t actually weigh atoms. The technology to do that was still over 100 years in the future, but he could do the next best thing. He could measure their relative atomic weights. Dalton first turned to the results of past studies. In 1799, the French chemist Joseph-Louis Proust followed the lead of Antoine Lavoisi
