Thus a train of investigation was laid for determining the number and weight of all chemical elementary particles which enter into any sort of combination one with another. Dalton's exceptional gift for recognizing and interpreting patterns in experimental data lead him from a problem in meteorology to the idea of atoms as fundamental constituents of matter. He realized the vital theoretical connection between atomic weights and weight relations in chemical reactions. He was the first to associate the ancient idea of atoms with stoichiometry. Dalton's atomic theory rests on the following postulates.
All matter consists of tiny particles.
The existence of atoms was first suggested more that 2000 years before Dalton's birth. Atoms remained pure speculation through most of this time, although Newton used arguments based on atoms to explain the gas laws in 1687. Atoms are indestructible and unchangeable. Atoms of an element cannot be created, destroyed, broken into smaller parts or transformed into atoms of another element. Dalton based this hypothesis on the law of conservation of mass and on centuries of experimental evidence.