John Dalton, in an engraving after an 1814 painting by William Allen. Note the charts with Dalton's atomic symbols lying on the table. Fisher Collection, CHF.		Dalton's Atomic Theory John Dalton (1766–1844) used the idea of atoms to explain how elements join to form compounds. He held that each element was made of a different kind of atom, and that atoms of different elements joined to form the molecules that make up compounds. Since changes in matter came from the rearrangement of atoms, an element could not be changed into another element. Since gold is an element, this made transmutation (the conversion of "base" metals, such as tin or lead, into precious "noble" metals, such as silver or gold) theoretically impossible, formally ending the age of alchemy.