Simulation of Newton's Cradle, a device consisting of several steel balls suspended from a cage. Uses the 2D Rigid Body Physics Engine. Each ball acts like an individual pendulum. At rest all the balls are touching.
It was essential to remind people that all the matter around us has one base unit: the atom. Dalton thought it was important to use his system of symbols for the representation of chemical elements because it was helpful to remember exactly which atoms lay at the basic structure of the matter. It was easy for people to use symbols for elements in chemical formulas. He pictured the atoms as small balls and this is the same way that he depicted models of elements and compounds.
Pretend the world didn't know about the atom, then sudden a man presented the idea of an atom. This got many people excited and the theory was put to test, so Dalton was the one who as you said stimulated research for the atom. John Dalton was the first man to make a scientific atomic theory, this was litterally a quantum leap at that time. He also provided the 'structure' for future scientists to work on. Please feel free to post something up if you need more information and I'll get right back to you.