Humphry Davy: Difference between revisions

| birth_place      = [[Penzance]], Cornwall, England

'''Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet''' (17 December 1778{{spaced ndash}}29 May 1829) was a British [[chemist]] and inventor who invented the [[Davy lamp]] and a very early form of [[arc lamp]]. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several [[Chemical element|elements]] for the first time: [[potassium]] and [[sodium]] in 1807 and [[calcium]], [[strontium]], [[barium]], [[magnesium]] and [[boron]] the following year, as well as for discovering the elemental nature of [[chlorine]] and [[iodine]]. Davy also studied the forces involved in these separations, inventing the new field of [[electrochemistry]]. Davy is also credited with discovering [[clathrate hydrate]]s.

In 1799, he experimented with [[nitrous oxide]] and was astonished at how it made him laugh. He nicknamed it "laughing gas" and wrote about its potential as an [[Anesthesia|anaesthetic]] to relieve pain during surgery.

 

Davy was a [[baronet]], [[President of the Royal Society]] (PRS), [[Member of the Royal Irish Academy]] (MRIA), a founder member and Fellow of the [[Geological Society of London]], and a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]]. [[Jöns Jacob Berzelius|Berzelius]] called Davy's 1806 [[Bakerian Lecture]] "On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity" "one of the best memoirs which has ever enriched the theory of chemistry."

[[File:Penzance - Lariggan River.jpg|thumb|Lariggan River]]

Davies Giddy met Davy in [[Penzance]] carelessly swinging on the half-gate of Dr Borlase's house, and interested by his talk invited him to his house at Tredrea and offered him the use of his library. This led to his introduction to Dr Edwards, who lived at Hayle Copper House. Edwards was a lecturer in chemistry in the school of [[St. Bartholomew's Hospital]]. He permitted Davy to use his laboratory and possibly directed his attention to the floodgates of the port of [[Hayle]], which were rapidly decaying as a result of the contact between copper and iron under the influence of [[seawater]]. [[Galvanic corrosion]] was not understood at that time, but the phenomenon prepared Davy's mind for subsequent experiments on ships' [[copper sheathing]]. Gregory Watt, son of [[James Watt (inventor)|James Watt]], visited Penzance for his health's sake, and while lodging at the Davys' house became a friend and gave him instructions in chemistry. Davy was also acquainted with the [[Wedgwood]] family, who spent a winter at Penzance.<ref name=DNB />

[[File:Robert Southey by Peter Vandyke.jpg|thumb|174x174px|Robert Southey]]

   |url=http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/nitrous/nitrous_journal1.shtml

On 25 April 1801, Davy gave his first lecture on the relatively new subject of 'Galvanism'. He and his friend Coleridge had had many conversations about the nature of human knowledge and progress, and Davy's lectures gave his audience a vision of human civilisation brought forward by scientific discovery. "It [science] has bestowed on him powers which may almost be called creative; which have enabled him to modify and change the beings surrounding him, and by his experiments to interrogate nature with power, not simply as a scholar, passive and seeking only to understand her operations, but rather as a master, active with his own instruments."<ref name="AOW" /> The first lecture garnered rave reviews, and by the June lecture Davy wrote to John King that his last lecture had attendance of nearly 500 people. "There was Respiration, Nitrous Oxide, and unbounded Applause. Amen!"<ref name="AOW" /> Davy revelled in his public status.[[File:Chemical lectures. Etching by Thomas Rowlandson.jpg|thumb|400x400px|''Chemical lectures'' – etching by [[Thomas Rowlandson]]]]

Davy performed a number of experiments aimed to isolate the metal [[aluminium]] and is credited as the person who named the element. The first name proposed for the metal to be isolated from alum was ''alumium'', which Davy suggested in an 1808 article on his electrochemical research, published in [[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]].<ref name="Davy1808">{{Cite journal | last1=Davy |first1=Humphry |date=1808 |title=Electro Chemical Researches, on the Decomposition of the Earths; with Observations on the Metals obtained from the alkaline Earths, and on the Amalgam procured from Ammonia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kg9GAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA353|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|volume=98|page=353|doi=10.1098/rstl.1808.0023|access-date=10 December 2009|doi-access=free|bibcode=1808RSPT...98..333D|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415111945/https://books.google.com/books?id=Kg9GAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA353|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> It appeared that the name was created from the English word ''alum'' and the Latin suffix ''-ium''; but it was customary then to give elements names originating in Latin, so this name was not adopted universally. This name was criticized by contemporary chemists from France, Germany, and Sweden, who insisted the metal should be named for the oxide, alumina, from which it would be isolated.{{sfn|Richards|1896|pp=3–4}} The English name ''alum'' does not come directly from Latin, whereas ''alumine''/''alumina'' comes from the Latin word ''alumen'' (upon [[declension]], ''alumen'' changes to ''alumin-'').

[[File:Davy-3.jpg|left|thumb|311x311px|Dedication page of an 1812 copy of "''Elements of Chemical Philosophy''," which Davy dedicated to his wife.]]

Upon reaching Paris, Davy was a guest of honour at a meeting of the First Class of the {{lang|fr|[[Institut de France]]|italic=no}} and met with [[André-Marie Ampère]] and other French chemists.<ref name="Knight 1992"/> It was later reported that Davy's wife had thrown the medal into the sea, near her Cornish home, "as it raised bad memories". The Royal Society of Chemistry has offered over £1,800 for the recovery of the medal.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7298375.stm|title=Napoleon's medal 'cast into sea'|date=15 March 2008|access-date=23 October 2021|website=News.bbc.co.uk|archive-date=10 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210215753/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7298375.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

|Letter to Lord Liverpool<ref name="Knight 1992"/><ref>{{cite web|last1=Davy|first1=Humphry|title=Letter to Lord Liverpool, Summer 1815[?]|url=http://www.davy-letters.org.uk/|website=List of letters: Humphry Davy and his circle|access-date=4 May 2017|archive-date=7 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170607030315/http://davy-letters.org.uk/|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}<gallery>

After his return to England in 1815, Davy began experimenting with lamps that could be used safely in coal mines. The Revd Dr Robert Gray of [[Bishopwearmouth]] in Sunderland, founder of the Society for Preventing Accidents in Coalmines, had written to Davy suggesting that he might use his 'extensive stores of chemical knowledge' to address the issue of mining explosions caused by [[firedamp]], or [[methane]] mixed with oxygen, which was often ignited by the open flames of the lamps then used by miners. Incidents such as the [[Felling mine disaster]] of 1812 near [[Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]], in which 92 men were killed, not only caused great loss of life among miners but also meant that their widows and children had to be supported by the public purse. The Revd Gray and a fellow clergyman also working in a north-east mining area, the Revd John Hodgson of [[Jarrow]], were keen that action should be taken to improve underground lighting and especially the lamps used by miners.<ref>Knight, David (1992). Humphry Davy: Science and Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 105–06. {{ISBN|0-631-16816-8}}.</ref>

In 1815 Davy also suggested that [[acid]]s were substances that contained replaceable [[hydrogen]]&nbsp;ions;– hydrogen that could be partly or totally replaced by [[metals|reactive metals]] which are placed above hydrogen in the reactivity series. When acids reacted with metals they formed [[Salt (chemistry)|salt]]s and hydrogen gas. [[Base (chemistry)|Base]]s were substances that reacted with acids to form salts and water. These definitions worked well for most of the nineteenth century.<ref>HSC, ''Conquering Chemistry'' Fourth Edition p. 146.</ref>

'When a fragment of a brown [[Manuscript|MS.]] in which the layers were strongly adhered, was placed in an atmosphere of chlorine, there was an immediate action, the papyrus smoked and became yellow, and the letters appeared much more distinct; and by the application of heat the layers separated from each other, giving fumes of [[Hydrochloric acid|muriatic acid]].'<ref>[[#Davy, 1821|Davy, 1821]], page 193</ref><ref name="Davy">{{cite journal|last1=Davy|first1=Humphry|title=Some Observations and Experiments on the Papyri Found in the Ruins of Herculaneum|journal=Philosophical Transactions|date=January 1821|volume=111|pages=191–208|jstor=107613|bibcode=1821RSPT..111..191D|doi=10.1098/rstl.1821.0016|doi-access=}}</ref>

[[Image:davygrave.jpg|thumb|right|Davy's grave at [[Cimetière des Rois|Cimetière Plainpalais]] in Geneva]]Davy spent the last months of his life writing ''Consolations in Travel'', an immensely popular, somewhat amorphous compendium of poetry, thoughts on science and philosophy. Published posthumously, the work became a staple of both scientific and family libraries for several decades afterward. Davy spent the winter in Rome, hunting in the [[Roman Campagna|Campagna]] on his fiftieth birthday. But on 20 February 1829 he had another stroke. After spending many months attempting to recuperate, Davy died in a room at L'Hotel de la Couronne, in the Rue du Rhone, in [[Geneva]], Switzerland, on 29 May 1829.<ref name="Paris">{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HQ82AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA515 |title=The Life of Sir Humphry Davy |first=John Ayrton |last=Paris |author-link=John Ayrton Paris |date=18 September 1831 |publisher=H. Colburn and R. Bentley |via=Google Books |page=515 |access-date=18 September 2021}}</ref><ref name="ODNB" /> An appendix to his will had included his last wishes; that there be no post-mortem, that he be buried where he died, and that there be an interval between the two, to ensure that he was not merely [[coma]]tose. But the ordinances of the city did not allow such an interval and his funeral took place on the following Monday, 1 June, in the [[Cimetière des Rois|Plainpalais Cemetery]], outside the city walls.<ref name="Paris" />

*English playwright [[Nick Darke]] wrote ''Laughing Gas'' (2005) a comedy script about the life of Sir Humphry Davy, unfinished at the time of Nick Darke's death; completed posthumously by actor and playwright Carl Grose and produced by the Truro-based production company O-region.

*{{cite journal|last1=Davy|first1=Humphry|title=Some Observations and Experiments on the Papyri Found in the Ruins of Herculaneum|journal=Philosophical Transactions|date=January 1821|volume=111|pages=191–208|ref=Davy, 1821|bibcode=1821RSPT..111..191D|doi=10.1098/rstl.1821.0016|doi-access=}}