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DAVY, SIR HUMPHRY

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 873 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DAVY, See also:SIR See also:HUMPHRY , See also:Bart. (1778-1829), See also:English chemist, was See also:born on the 17th of See also:December 1778 at or near See also:Penzance in See also:Cornwall. During his school days at the See also:grammar See also:schools of Penzance and See also:Truro he showed few signs of a See also:taste for scientific pursuits or indeed of any See also:special zeal for know-ledge or of ability beyond a certain skill in making See also:verse See also:translations from the See also:classics and in See also:story-telling. But when in 1794 his See also:father, See also:Robert Davy, died, leaving a widow and five See also:children in embarrassed circumstances, he awoke to his responsibilities as the eldest son, and becoming apprentice to a surgeon-See also:apothecary at Penzance set to See also:work on a systematic and remark-ably wide course of self-instruction which he mapped out for himself in preparation for a career in See also:medicine. Beginning with See also:metaphysics and See also:ethics and passing on to See also:mathematics, he turned to See also:chemistry at the end of 1797, and within a few months of See also:reading See also:Nicholson's and See also:Lavoisier's See also:treatises on that See also:science had produced a new theory of See also:light and See also:heat. About the same See also:time he made the acquaintance of two men of scientific attainments—Gregory See also:Watt (1777–1804), a son of See also:James Watt, and See also:Davies Giddy, afterwards See also:Gilbert (1767–1839), who was See also:president of the Royal Society from 1827 to 1831. By the latter he was recommended to Dr See also:Thomas See also:Beddoes, who was in 1798 establishing his Medical Pneumatic Institution at See also:Bristol for investigating the medicinal properties of various gases. Here Davy, released from his indentures, was installed as See also:superintendent towards the end of 1798. See also:Early next See also:year two papers from his See also:pen were published in Beddoes' See also:West See also:Country Contributions—one " On Heat, Light and the Combinations of Light, with a new Theory of Respiration and Observations on the Chemistry of See also:Life," and the other " On the See also:Generation of Phosoxygen (See also:Oxygen See also:gas) and the Causes of the See also:Colours of Organic Beings." These contain an See also:account of the well-known experiment in which he sought to establish the immateriality of heat by showing its generation through the See also:friction of two pieces of See also:ice in an exhausted See also:vessel, and further See also:attempt to prove that light is " See also:matter of a See also:peculiar See also:kind," and that oxygen gas, being a See also:compound of this matter with a See also:simple substance, would more properly be termed phosoxygen. Founded on faulty experiments and reasoning, the views he expressed were either ignored or ridiculed; and it was See also:long before he bitterly regretted the temerity with which he had published his hasty generalizations. One of his first discoveries at the Pneumatic Institution on the 9th of See also:April 1799 was that pure nitrous See also:oxide (laughing gas) is perfectly respirable, and he narrates that on the next See also:day he became " absolutely intoxicated " through breathing sixteen quarts of it for " near seven minutes." This See also:discovery brought both him and the Pneumatic Institution into prominence. The gas itself was inhaled by See also:Southey and See also:Coleridge among other distinguished See also:people, and promised to become fashionable, while further See also:research yielded Davy material for his Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly concerning Nitrous Oxide,published in 'Soo, which secured his reputation as a chemist.

Soon afterwards, See also:

Count See also:Rumford, requiring a lecturer on chemistry for the recently established Royal Institution in See also:London, opened negotiations with him, and on the 16th of See also:February 1801 he was engaged as assistant lecturer in chemistry and director of the laboratory. Ten See also:weeks later, having " given satisfactory proofs of his talents " in a course of lectures on galvanism, he was appointed lecturer, and his promotion to be See also:professor followed on the 31st of May 1802. One of the first tasks imposed on him by the managers was the delivery of a course of lectures on the chemical principles of tanning, and he was given leave of See also:absence for See also:July, See also:August and See also:September 1801 in See also:order to acquaint himself practically with the subject. The See also:main facts he discovered from his experiments in this connexion were described before the Royal Society in 1803. In 1802 the See also:board of See also:agriculture requested him to See also:direct his See also:attention to agricultural subjects; and in 1803, with the acquiescence of the Royal, Institution, he gave his first course of lectures on agricultural chemistry and continued them for ten successive years, ultimately See also:publishing their substance as Elements of Agricultural Chemistry in 1813. But his See also:chief See also:interest at the Royal Institution was with electro-chemistry. Galvanic phenomena had already engaged his attention before he See also:left Bristol, but in London he had at his disposal a large See also:battery which gave him much greater opportunities. His first communication to the Royal Society, read in See also:June 1801, related to galvanic combinations formed with single metallic plates and fluids, and showed that an electric See also:cell might be constructed with a single See also:metal and two fluids, provided one of the fluids was capable of oxidizing one See also:surface of the metal; previous piles had consisted of two different metals, or of one See also:plate of metal and the other of See also:char-See also:coal, with an interposed fluid. Five years later he delivered before the Royal Society his first Bakerian lecture, " On some Chemical Agencies of See also:Electricity," which J. J. See also:Berzelius described as one of the most remarkable See also:memoirs in the See also:history of chemical theory. He summed up his results in the See also:general statement that " See also:hydrogen, the alkaline substances, the metals and certain metallic oxides are attracted by negatively electrified' metallic surfaces, and repelled by positively electrified metallic surfaces; and contrariwise, that oxygen and See also:acid substances are attracted by positively electrified metallic surfaces and repelled by negatively electrified metallic surfaces; and these attractive and repulsive forces are sufficiently energetic to destroy or suspend the usual operation of elective See also:affinity." He also sketched a theory of chemical affinity on the facts he had discovered, and concluded by suggesting that the electric decomposition of neutral salts might in some cases admit of economical applications and See also:lead to the See also:isolation of the true elements of bodies.

A year after this See also:

paper, which gained him from the See also:French See also:Institute the See also:medal offered by See also:Napoleon for the best experiment made each year on galvanism, he described in his second Bakerian lecture the electrolytic preparation of See also:potassium and See also:sodium, effected in See also:October 1807 by the aid of his battery. According to his See also:cousin, See also:Edmund Davy,' then his laboratory assistant, he was so delighted with this achievement that he danced about the See also:room in See also:ecstasy. Four days after reading his lecture his See also:health See also:broke down, and severe illness kept him from his professional duties until See also:March 1808. As soon as he was able to work again he attempted to obtain the metals of the alkaline earths by the same methods as he had used for those of the fixed alkalis, but they eluded his efforts and he only succeeded in preparing them as amalgams with See also:mercury, by a See also:process due to Berzelius. His attempts to decompose " alumine, See also:silica, zircone and glucine " were still less fortunate. At the end of 1808 he read his third Bakerian lecture, one of the longest of his papers but not one of the best. In it he disproved the See also:idea advanced by See also:Gay Lussac that potassium was a compound of hydrogen, not an See also:element; but on the other See also:hand he See also:cast doubts on the elementary ' Edmund Davy (1785–1857) became professor of chemistry at See also:Cork Institution in 1813, and at the Royal See also:Dublin Society in 1826. His son, Edmund See also:William Davy (born in 1826), was appointed professor of medicine in the Royal See also:College, Dublin, in 1870. See also:character of See also:phosphorus, See also:sulphur and See also:carbon, though on this point he afterwards corrected himself. He also described the preparation of See also:boron, for which at first he proposed the name boracium, on the impression that it was a metal. , About this time a voluntary subscription among the members of the Royal Institution put him in See also:possession of a new galvanic battery of 2000 See also:double plates, with a surface equal to 128,000 sq. in., to replace the old one, which had become unserviceable. His See also:fourth Bakerian lecture, in See also:November 1809, gave further proofs of the elementary nature of potassium, and described the properties of telluretted hydrogen.

Next year, in a paper read in July and in his fifth Bakerian lecture in November, he argued that oxymuriatic acid, contrary to his previous belief, was a simple See also:

body, and proposed for it the name " See also:chlorine." Davy's reputation was now at its See also:zenith. As a lecturer he could command an See also:audience of little less than l000 in the See also:theatre of the Royal Institution, and his fame had spread far outside London. In 1810, at the invitation of the Dublin Society, he gave a course of lectures on electro-chemical science, and in the following year he again lectured in Dublin, on chemistry and See also:geology, receiving large fees at both visits. During his second visit Trinity College conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D., the only university distinction he ever received. On the 8th of April 1812 he was knighted by the See also:prince See also:regent; on the 9th he gave his farewell lecture as professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution; and on the 11th he was married to Mrs Apreece, daughter and heiress of See also:Charles Kerr of See also:Kelso, and a distant connexion of Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott. A few months after his See also:marriage he published the first and only See also:volume of his Elements of Chemical See also:Philosophy, with a See also:dedication to his wife, and was also re-elected professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution, though he would not See also:pledge himself to deliver lectures, explaining that he wished to be See also:free from the routine of lecturing in order to have more time for See also:original work. Towards the end of the year he began to investigate chloride of See also:nitrogen, which had just been discovered by P. L. See also:Dulong, but was obliged to suspend his inquiries during the See also:winter on account of injury to his See also:eye caused by an See also:explosion of that substance. In the See also:spring of 1813 he was engaged on the chemistry of See also:fluorine, and though he failed to isolate the element, he reached accurate conclusions regarding its nature and properties. In October he started with his wife for a See also:continental tour, and with them, as " assistant in experiments and See also:writing," went See also:Michael See also:Faraday, who in the previous March had been engaged as assistant in the Royal Institution laboratory. Having obtained permission from the French See also:emperor to travel in See also:France, he went first to See also:Paris, where during his two months' stay every See also:honour was accorded him, including See also:election as a corresponding member of the first class of the Institute.

He does not, however, seem to have reciprocated the See also:

courtesy of his French hosts, but gave offence by the brusqueness of his manner, though his supercilious bearing, according to his biographer, Dr Paris, was to be ascribed less to any conscious superiority than to an " ungraceful timidity which he could never conquer." Nor was his See also:action in regard to See also:iodine calculated to conciliate. That substance, recently discovered in Paris, was attracting the attention of French chemists when he stepped in and, after a See also:short examination with his portable chemical laboratory, detected its resemblance to chlorine and pronounced it an " undecompounded body." Towards the end of December he left for See also:Italy. At See also:Genoa he investigated the electricity of the See also:torpedo-See also:fish, and at See also:Florence, by the aid of the See also:great burning-See also:glass in the Accademia del Cimento, he effected the See also:combustion of the See also:diamond in oxygen and decided that, beyond containing a little hydrogen, it consisted of pure carbon. Then he went to See also:Rome and See also:Naples and visited See also:Vesuvius and See also:Pompeii, called on See also:Volta at See also:Milan, spent the summer in See also:Geneva, and returning to Rome occupied the winter with an inquiry into the See also:composition of See also:ancient colours. A few months after his return, through See also:Germany, to London in 1815, he was induced to take up the question of constructing a miner's safety See also:lamp. Experiments with samples of See also:fire-See also:damp sent from See also:Newcastle soon taught him that " explosive mixturesof mine-damp will not pass through small apertures or tubes "; and in a paper read before the Royal Society on the 9th of November he showed that metallic tubes, being better conductors of heat, were See also:superior to glass ones, and explained that the heat lost by contact with a large cooling surface brought the temperature of the first portions of gas exploded below that required for the firing of the other portions. Two further papers read in See also:January 1816 explained the employment of See also:wire See also:gauze instead of narrow tubes, and later in the year the safety lamps were brought into use in the mines. A large collection of the different See also:models made by Davy in the course of his inquiries is in the possession of the Royal Institution. He took out no patent for his invention, and in recognition of his disinterestedness the Newcastle coal-owners in September 1817 presented him with a See also:dinner-service of See also:silver plate.' In 1818, when he was created a See also:baronet, he was commissioned by the See also:British See also:government to examine the papyri of See also:Herculaneum in the Neapolitan museum, and he did not arrive back in See also:England till June 1820. In November of that year the Royal Society, of which he had become a See also:fellow in 1803, and acted as secretary from 1807 to 1812, See also:chose him as their president, but his See also:personal qualities were not such as to make him very successful in that See also:office, especially in comparison with the tact and firmness of his predecessor, Sir See also:Joseph See also:Banks. In 182I he was busy with See also:electrical experiments and in 1822 with investigations of the fluids contained in the cavities of crystals in rocks. In 1823, when Faraday liquefied chlorine, he read a paper which suggested the application of liquids formed by the condensation of gases as See also:mechanical agents.

In the same year the See also:

admiralty consulted the Royal Society as to a means of preserving the See also:copper sheathing of See also:ships from corrosion and keeping it smooth, and he suggested that the copper would be preserved if it were rendered negatively electrical, as would be done by fixing " protectors " of See also:zinc to the sheeting. This method was tried on several ships, but it was found that the bottoms became extremely foul from accumulations of seaweed and shellfish. For this See also:reason the admiralty decided against the See also:plan, much to the inventor's annoyance, especially as orders to remove the protectors already fitted were issued in June 1825, immediately after he had announced to the Royal Society the full success of his remedy. In 1826 Davy's health, which showed signs of failure in 1823, had so declined that he could with difficulty indulge in his favourite See also:sports of fishing and See also:shooting, and early in 1827, after a slight attack of See also:paralysis, he was ordered abroad. After a short stay at See also:Ravenna he removed to See also:Salzburg, whence, his illness continuing, he sent in his resignation as president of the Royal Society. In the autumn he returned to England and spent his time in writing his Salmonia or Days of Flyfishing, an See also:imitation of The Compleat See also:Angler. In the spring of 1828 he again left England for See also:Illyria, and in the winter fixed his See also:residence at Rome, whence he sent to the Royal Society his " Remarks on the Electricity of the Torpedo," written at See also:Trieste in October. This, with the exception of a See also:posthumous work, Consolations in Travel, or the Last Days of a Philosopher (1830), was the final See also:production of his pen. On the loth of February 1829 he suffered a second attack of paralysis which rendered his right See also:side quite powerless, but under the care of his See also:brother, Dr See also:John Davy (1791-1868), he rallied sufficiently to be removed to Geneva, where he died on the 29th of May. Of a sanguine, somewhat irritable temperament, Davy displayed characteristic See also:enthusiasm and See also:energy in all his pursuits. As is shown by his verses and sometimes by his See also:prose, his mind was highly imaginative; the poet Coleridge declared that if he " had not been the first chemist, he would have been the first poet ' Davy's will directed that this service, after See also:Lady Davy's See also:death, should pass to his brother, Dr John Davy, on whose decease, if he had no heirs who could make use of it, it was to be melted and sold, the proceeds going to the Royal Society " to found a medal to be given annually for the most important discovery in chemistry any-where made in See also:Europe or Anglo-See also:America." The silver produced £736, and the interest on that sum is expended on the Davy medal, which was awarded for the first time in 1877, to See also:Bunsen and See also:Kirchhoff for their discovery of spectrum See also:analysis. of his See also:age," and Southey said that " he had all the elements of a poet; he only wanted the See also:art." In spite of his ungainly exterior and peculiar manner, his happy gifts of exposition and See also:illustration won him extraordinary popularity as a lecturer, his experiments were ingenious and rapidly performed, and Coleridge went to hear him " to increase his stock of `metaphors." The dominating ambition of his life was to achieve fame, but though that sometimes betrayed him into See also:petty See also:jealousy, it did not leave him insensible to the claims on his knowledge of the " cause of humanity," to use a phrase often employed by him in connexion with his invention of the miners' lamp.

Of the smaller observances of See also:

etiquette he was careless, and his frankness of disposition sometimes exposed him to annoyances which he might have avoided by the exercise of See also:ordinary tact. See Dr J. A. Paris, The Life of Sir Humphry Davy (1831), vol. ii. of which on pp. 450-456 gives a See also:list of his publications. Dr John Davy, Memoirs of Sir Humphry Davy (1836) ; Collected See also:Works (with shorter memoir, 1839); Fragmentary Remains, See also:Literary and Scientific (1858). T. E. See also:Thorpe, Humphry Davy, Poet and Philosopher (1896).

End of Article: DAVY, SIR HUMPHRY

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