Humphry Davy

Moises Von Rosauro R. De Gacia

At the end of the day before you close your eyes, be content with were you’ve been,

and proud of who you are.

Born: Dec 17, 1778

Birthplace: Penzance, Cornwall, England

Died: May 29, 1829

Location of death: Geneva, Switzerland

Cause of death: Heart Failure

Remains: Buried, Cimetièredes Plainpalais, Geneva, Switzerland



During his school days at thegrammar schools of Penzance andTruro he showed few signs of a tastefor scientific pursuits or indeed ofany special zeal for knowledge or ofability beyond a certain skill inmaking verse translations from theclassics and in storytelling



He was apprenticedto a surgeon andaged 19 went toBristol to studyscience.

He prepared andinhaled nitrous oxide(laughing gas) and in1800 published theresults of his work in'Researches,Chemical andPhilosophical'.

Figure A young Humphry Davy gleefully works the bellows in this caricature by

James Gillray of experiments with laughing gas at the Royal Institution. The lecturer

is Thomas Garrett, Davy’s predecessor as professor of chemistry. Benjamin

Thompson, Count Rumford, the founder of the Royal Institution, stands at the

doorway. CHF Collections.



He became a fellow of the RoyalSociety in 1803 and was awarded itsCopley Medal in 1805.

In 1800, the Italian scientistAlessandro Volta had introducedthe first battery.



Davy used this for what is nowcalled electrolysis and was able toisolate a series of substances for thefirst time.

Potassium and Sodium in 1807

Calcium, Strontium, Barium andMagnesium the following year.



Davy was now considered one ofBritain's leading scientists and wasknighted in 1812.

In 1815, he received a letter fromsome Newcastle miners which toldof the dangers they faced frommethane gas



Davy separated theflame from the gas,and his 'Davy' lamplater became widelyused.

The same yearGeorge Stephenson,the railway engineer,also invented a safetylamp.

Figure An 1830 engraving of Sir Humphry Davy, by G.

R. Newton, after a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence(1769–1830). Davy stands next to one of hisinventions, the miner's safety lamp. CHF Collections.



Davy was made a baronet in 1818and from 1820 - 1827 was presidentof the Royal Society

He died on 29 May 1829 inSwitzerland. His assistant, MichaelFaraday, went on to establish aneven more prestigious reputationthan Davy.



Apprenticed to anapothecary-surgeon,Davy taught himself awide range of othersubjects: theology andphilosophy, poetics,seven languages, andseveral sciences,including chemistry.



In 1798 he took a position atThomas Beddoes’s PneumaticInstitution, where the use of thenewly discovered gases in thecure and prevention of diseasewas investigated.



Davy’s earliest published work “AnEssay on Heat, Light, and theCombinations of Light,” in Contributionsto Physical and Medical Knowledge,Principally from the West ofEngland, ed. Beddoes, 1799 was arefutation of Lavoisier’s caloric,arguing, among other points, that heatis motion but light is matter.



In 16th of February 1801 Davy wasappointed—first as a lecturer, then as aprofessor of chemistry 31st of May 1802—to the Royal Institution in London.

In 1800, his electrochemical experimentsled him to propose that the tendency ofone substance to react preferentially withother substances—its “affinity”—iselectrical in nature.



Davy’s recognition that the alkalis andalkaline earths were all oxides challengedLavoisier’s theory that oxygen was theprinciple of acidity.

Later, Davy determined that not all acidscontain oxygen, including muriatic acid (ourhydrochloric acid), which, as Davydiscovered, was not “oxymuriatic acid,” asLavoisier thought



He wrote the first text on theapplication of chemistry to agriculture

In 1810, at the invitation of the DublinSociety, he gave a course of lectureson electro-chemical science, and inthe following year he again lectured inDublin, on chemistry and geology,receiving large fees at both visits.



THANK YOU

Humphry Davy

Education

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