His Two Important Mentors Were Elihu Robinson and John Gough
Dalton grew up in an impoverished home and had to work from the time he was a child to support himself. Because he was a Church of England Dissenter, his educational prospects were similarly limited. The first notable mentor who contributed to Dalton's education was Elihu Robinson, a wealthy Quaker gentleman with scientific accomplishments whom Dalton met when he was 10 years old. With Elihu Robinson, a "gentleman of property" in the area, Dalton began studying mathematics and collecting meteorological data.
Dalton moved to the nearby town of Kendal with his older brother Jonathan to work as an assistant at a boarding school operated by their cousin George Bewley when he was fifteen. Bewley retired and sold the school to the Dalton brothers, who ran it for the following twelve years. Dalton met his second key instructor, John Gough, at Kendal. Dalton's pursuit of scientific inquiry was encouraged by Gough, who had been blind since boyhood, and he assisted him in developing his habit of empirical inquiry into the issues that affected him. On the advice of Mr. Gough, Dalton travelled to Manchester, England, in 1793 to work as a tutor in mathematics and natural philosophy (science) at the New College there. He was carrying the manuscript of his first book, Meteorological Observations and Essays, which he had dedicated to Mr. Gough. Dalton's daily meteorological observations, which he kept up until the day before his death, were the basis for the book, which was published in 1798.
Both of these mentors sparked an interest in meteorology in Dalton that lasted the rest of his life. John learned the fundamentals of mathematics, Greek, and Latin from these men. Dalton learned practical knowledge in the building and use of meteorologic instruments, as well as how to preserve daily weather records, from Robinson and Gough, who were also amateur meteorologists in the Lake District. For the remainder of his life, Dalton was fascinated by meteorological measurements.
