Why couldn't Dalton's atomic theory explain the occurence of electricity? It is said that Dalton's atomic theory was unable to explain results of many experiments,for example, it was known that substances like glass or ebonite when rubbed with silk or fur generate electricity. But on Dalton's postulates, I couldn't find any contradicting statements against this experimental result.
 A: By his theory, the only way rubbing glass with fur generates electricity is that some atoms which carry charge are rubbed off one substance and stuck to another. Without loss of generality, let's assume "glass atoms" carrying positive charges move to stick with the fur. After the glass and fur are charged, if you put a conducting substance such as a wire between them, they both lose their charge. Dalton would have concluded that the glass atoms must have gone back through the wire. 
This process would have been quite an unbelievable chemical interaction to him since glass atoms somehow know on the other end of the wire there is glass. Moreover, this process happens no matter where you connect the wire to the fur. Even if you connect the wire to a part of the fur that's not been rubbed, somehow those glass atoms know where the wire is and would still be able to migrate through the wire.
In conclusion, it would take a lot of imagination to conjure an explanation for the migration of atoms through a conductor.
