Abstract
THE Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society lost its historic home, library and Dalton and Joule memorials in an air raid through the spread of a fire from warehouses. In the eighteenth century, when those who could not subscribe to the articles of the Anglican Church were excluded from the universities, academies were founded in several places, that at Manchester being a specially important one. Among the intellectual leaders of the time were Dr. Thomas Percival, a medical pioneer, and Joseph Priestley; and one of the teachers employed by the academy was ‘John Dalton. A group meeting at Dr. Percivai's house founded the Literary and Philosophical Society in 17£ft, and it met shortly afterwards for a time in the room attached to the non-subscribing chapel in Cross Street, which has also been burnt out. A little later the Society acquired the fine Georgian house which it has now lost, and, in that house, Dalton did his scientific work. A great deal of his apparatus and many of his notes had been placed in the basement to diminish risks, but the fury of the fire destroyed nearly everything. Dalton's watch, Joule's chronometer, some of Dalton's notes and a few small pieces of apparatus have been found and salved.
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Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society: Air Raid Damage. Nature 147, 352 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147352b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147352b0