Sign up to get full access to all our latest Oil & Gas IQ content, reports, webinars, and online events.

On this day in oil and gas: September 6 - Atomic Theory

Add bookmark

September 6th, 1766, Eaglesfield, The Kingdom of Great Britain – A second child is born into a Quaker family in the picturesque Lake District of North Western England.

The son of a weaver, John Dalton was an intelligent youth but as part of a "Dissenter" religious movement, was barred from attending university in England. Moving out of the Lakes, Dalton studied under blind polymath John Gough and would eventually ply his trade as a private tutor of mathematics and natural philosophy.

Colour blind since birth, Dalton’s first triumph was his in-depth study into the condition – which latterly became known as Daltonism. Nice work, but here in the oil and gas industry what we are primarily concerned with is Dalton’s modern atomic theory, point one of which is: Elements are made of extremely small particles called atoms. Along with four other equally concise assertions, Dalton’s theory would determine the future of the science.

I’ll repeat that: THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE. Try and extract shale oil or store LNG without science, oil and gas industry! Although he did become the father of atomic theory without a college education, so go figure…

Up and atom!

_______________________________

LEARN MORE:

  Have Your Say
Rate this feature and give us your feedback in the comments section below

Upcoming Events

LNG Bunkering Summit Asia

June 24 - 25, 2026

Amara Sanctuary Sentosa, Singapore

LNG Bunkering Summit Asia

Philippines Energy Week

July 21 - 24, 2026

Manila, Philippines

Philippines Energy Week

Intelligent Asset Management in Energy

September 22-24, 2026

Norris Conference Center (CityCentre), Houston, TX

Intelligent Asset Management in Energy

World Offshore Week

September 23 - 24, 2026

Singapore EXPO

World Offshore Week

Operational Excellence in Oil and Gas

November 3-5, 2026

Norris Conference Center (CityCentre), Houston, TX

Operational Excellence in Oil and Gas

Latest Webinars

Webinar: From Complexity to Resilience: Building the Autonomous Enterprise in Oil, Gas and Energy

2026-06-24

10:00 AM - 10:45 AM CST

Energy companies are navigating an increasingly complex landscape - shifting demand, geopolitical vo...

Webinar: Building a Trusted Engineering Data Foundation for Operational Excellence

2026-05-19

10:00 AM - 10:45 AM CST

AI has the potential to transform industrial operations, but that potential is only as strong as the...

On Demand Webinar - Unlocking Industrial Innovation: From Data to AI Empowerment

2025-06-10

10:00 AM - 10:45 AM CST

Join us to explore how Celona, Digi and Inductive Automation are helping industrial enterprises enab...

Recommended