Humphry Davy
British chemist and inventor of the Davy lamp, pioneer of electrochemistry
Humphry Davy was born in Penzance, Cornwall, England on 17 December 1778, the eldest of five children of a woodcarver and his wife.[1]
Quick Facts
- Born
- 17 December 1778
- Birthplace
- Penzance, Cornwall, England
- Died
- 29 May 1829
- Place of death
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Field
- Chemistry
- Workplaces
- Royal Society, Royal Institution
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
At age six Davy was sent to the grammar school at Penzance, and later boarded with his godfather John Tonkin while finishing his education at Truro Grammar School.[1] After his father died in 1794, Davy was apprenticed to surgeon John Bingham Borlase in Penzance.[2] He began conducting his own chemical experiments at home, to the annoyance of his family who feared he would cause an explosion.[2] In 1799 Davy became well known for his experiments with nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, which he and his friends including Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge inhaled.[3][4]
He gave his first lecture on galvanism on 25 April 1801, and by June his lectures attracted nearly 500 people.[5] In 1807 Davy isolated potassium by electrolysing caustic potash, and later that year isolated sodium from molten sodium hydroxide.[6] In 1808 he reported isolating four new metals: barium, calcium, strontium, and magnesium.[7]
What the cited sources add
The Kenyon article notes that Davy’s 1808 discoveries depended on his use of electrochemistry, a field he had contributed to by discovering that electricity itself was caused by chemistry.[8] For his June 1808 lecture Davy brought one of the Royal Institution’s enormous 600-plate voltaic batteries into the hall to demonstrate electrochemistry.[8] The Knight article states that Davy’s success in isolating elements followed from his perception that the chemical bond is electrical.[9] Davy proved Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier wrong in his theory that oxygen was present in all acids, demonstrating that hydrochloric acid contains no oxygen.[9]
The Jay article describes how on Boxing Day 1799 Davy stripped to the waist and stepped into a sealed box designed by James Watt for inhaling nitrous oxide.[10] Davy’s experiments with nitric oxide burned his tongue and palate, and with hydrocarbonate left him comatose.[10] Davy instituted a loose reporting protocol, asking every volunteer to produce a short written description of their nitrous oxide experience.[10]
References
- Wikipedia, "Humphry Davy" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: David Knight (2004) "Davy, Sir Humphry, baronet (1778–1829)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Humphry Davy" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hunt, 1888 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Humphry Davy" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hardman, "Oxford Textbook of Anaesthesia", Oxford University Press, 2017, p. 529; Keys TE, "The Development of Anesthesia", Anesthesiology journal (Sep. 1941, vol. 2, is. 5, pp. 552–74), 1941; Priestley J, "Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air", 1776 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Humphry Davy" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jay, "'O, Excellent Air Bag'p: Humphry Davy and Nitrous Oxide", The Public Domain Review, 8 August 2014; Roberts, "High Times", Distillations, 2017, p. 36–39 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Humphry Davy" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Holmes, "The Age of Wonder", Pantheon Books, 2008 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Humphry Davy" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Knight, "Left Behind", Distillations, 2017, p. 40–43; David Knight (2004) "Davy, Sir Humphry, baronet (1778–1829)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Humphry Davy" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Davy, "Electro-chemical Researches, on the Decomposition of the Earths; With Observations in the Metals Obtained from the Alkaline Earths, and on the Amalgam Procured from Ammonia", Philosophical Transactions of the Roya; Kenyon, "Science and Celebrity: Humphry Davy's Rising Star", Chemical Heritage Magazine, 2008, p. 30–35; "On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity"; Berzelius, "Traité de chimie", p. 169 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Kenyon, "Science and Celebrity: Humphry Davy's Rising Star", Chemical Heritage Magazine, 2008, p. 30–35. facts only, no text reused. sciencehistory.org
- Knight, "Left Behind", Distillations, 2017, p. 40–43. facts only, no text reused. sciencehistory.org
- Jay, "'O, Excellent Air Bag'p: Humphry Davy and Nitrous Oxide", The Public Domain Review, 8 August 2014. facts only, no text reused. publicdomainreview.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Humphry Davy (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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