Who was Humphrey Davy?
Chemist.
Date and Place of Birth:
17th December 1778, Penzance, Cornwall, England.
Family Background:
Son of a Penzance wood carver. Eldest of five
children.
Education:
Truro Grammar School.
Chronology/Biography of Sir
Humphrey Davy:
1794: Death of his
father. Became apprenticed to a Surgeon-Apothecary, J. Bingham Borlase
in order to try and support his family.
1797: Became interested
in chemistry after reading Antoine Lavoisier's "Traite Elementaire".
Released from his apprenticeship he went to become Superintendant
at the Medical Pneumatic Institution in Bristol at the request of
Thomas Lovell Bedoes. He he made his first reputation studying the
medical effects of gases such as Nitrous Oxide (Laughing Gas).He
also found that heat could transfer through a vacuum and that it
is a form of motion.
1799: Realised that
when two blocks of ice were rubbed together they would melt without
the addition of any heat thus disproving the caloric theory of heat.
1800: Began to realise
the effects on chemicals of electricity.He was aware of Nicholson
and Carlisle's experiment to obtain Hydrogen and Oxygen from Water
by means of electricity in a Voltaic Pile first used by Galvani.
He realised from his own experiments with electrolysis that chemical
compounds were held together by electrical forces.
1801: The Royal
Institution in London took him on as a public lecturer.
1802: The poet and
philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge
attends one of his lectures. Published a paper with Thomas Wedgwood
entitled "An Account of a Method of Copying Paintings on Glass
and Making Profiles, by the Agency of Light Upon Nitrates of Silver".
The pictures produced by this method were, however extremely temporary.
1807: Managed to
obtain Potassium from molten potash and Sodium from Common Salt
by passing a current through them. He published the results in November
at his Bakerian lecture.
1808: Through electrolysis
he managed to discover Magnesium, Calcium, Barium and Strontium.
1810: Michael Faraday
begins attending Davy's lectures. Davy's work on Chlorine showed
that muriatic or marine acid was made of Chlorine and Hydrogen only
thus discounting Lavoisier's theory that all acids must contain
Oxygen.
1811: Faraday
sends Davy a large bound selection of his notes on his lectures
which impresses Davy tremendously. Davy took him on as his assistant
due to a temporary blindness he had contracted after an explosion
in his laboratory the previous year. (Davy was later to twice block
Faraday's election to a Fellowship of
the Royal Society some say from professional jealousy).
1812: Davy received
his Knighthood.
1813: Built a giant
battery in the basement of the Royal society of London made up of
two thousand plates and taking up nearly 900 square feet of space.
Davy then toured Europe with his new wife and his assistant Faraday.
1815: Returned to
England. Invented the Miner's Safety Lamp which would burn safely
even if there was an explosive mixture of methane and air present
in a mine. Davy did not patent his lamp and some say that George
Stephenson created the lamp first but
that is disputed. Davy made Iodine Pentoxide for the first time,
an odourless, colourless substance of hign density.
1824: Faraday
eventually becomes a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
1825: Hans Christian
Oersted first successfully isolated Aluminium despite Davy's first
failed attempts. It is interesting that the United States took on
Davy's name for this metal (Aluminum) whereas everywhere else Aluminium
is used.
1827: Davy became
seriously ill and this was said to have been caused by the many
gasses that he had inhaled over the years.
1829: Moved to Rome
in order to regain his health.
Written Works:
- 1799: "Researches
Chemical and Physical"
- 1812: "Elements
of Chemical Philosophy".
- 1813: "Elements
of Agricultural Chemistry".
Marriage:
11th April 1812 to Jan Apreece a rich Scottish
Widow.
Places of Interest:
CORNWALL:
Penzance
LONDON:
Science Museum
Royal Institution
London Zoo (Davy was a founder of the Zoological Society)
Date and Place of Death:
29th May 1829, Geneva, Switzerland.
Age at Death:
50.
Site of Grave:
Plain Palais Cemetery, Geneva, Switzerland.
