Humphry Davy
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, FRS (17 December 1778 – 29 May 1829), often incorrectly spelled Humphrey, was an esteemed Cornish chemist and physicist. He was born in Penzance, Cornwall, United Kingdom. Sir Humphry revelled in his status, as his lectures gathered many spectators. Davy became well known due to his experiments with the physiological action of some gases, including laughing gas (nitrous oxide) - to which he was addicted, once stating that its properties bestowed all of the benefits of alcohol but was devoid of its flaws. Davy later damaged his eyesight in a laboratory accident with nitrogen trichloride. In 1801 he was nominated professor at the Royal Institution of Great Britain and Fellow of the Royal Society, over which he would later preside.
In 1800, Alessandro Volta introduced the first electric pile or battery. Davy used this electric battery to separate salts by what is now known as electrolysis. With many batteries in series he was able to separate elemental potassium and sodium in 1807 and calcium, strontium, barium, and magnesium in 1808. He also studied the energies involved in separating these salts, which is now the field of electrochemistry.
In 1812 he was knighted, gave a farewell lecture to the Royal Institution, and married a wealthy widow, Jane Apreece. In October 1813 he and his wife, accompanied by Michael Faraday as his scientific assistant (and valet) traveled to France to collect a medal that Napoleon Bonaparte had awarded Davy for his electro-chemical work. Whilst in Paris Davy was asked to by Gay-Lussac to investigate a mysterious substance isolated by Barnard Courtois. Davy showed it to be an element, which is now called iodine. The party left Paris on the 29th of December, travelling south through Montpellier and Nice and then to Italy.
After passing through Genoa, they went to Florence, where, in a series of experiments starting on Sunday 27th of March, Davy, with Faraday's assistance, succeed in using the sun's rays to ignite diamond, and proved that it was composed of pure carbon. Davy's party continued on to Rome, and also visited Naples and Mount Vesuvius. By the 17th of June, they were in Milan, where they met Alessandro Volta, and continued north to Geneva. They returned to Italy via Munich and Innsbruck, passed though Venice and returned to Rome. Their plans to travel to Greece and Constantinople (Istanbul) were abandoned after Naploeon's escape from Elba, and they returned to England.
After his return to England in 1815, Davy went on to produce the Davy lamp which was used by miners, although there is evidence to show that Davy "invented" his device at about the same time as an engineer, George Stephenson, but claimed all the credit for the invention.
He also showed that oxygen could not be obtained from the substance known as oxymuriatic acid and proved the substance to be an element, which he named chlorine. (However Carl Scheele is credited as the discoverer of chlorine. Scheele had discovered it 36 years before Davy, but was unable to publish his findings.) This discovery overturned Lavoisier's definition of acids as compounds of oxygen.
In 1815 Davy suggested that acids were substances that contained replacable hydrogen – hydrogen that could be partly or totally replaced by metals. When acids reacted with metals they formed salts. Bases were substances that reacted with acids to form salts and water. These definitions worked well for most of the century. Today we use the Brønsted-Lowry theory of acids and bases.
In 1818, he was awarded a baronetcy.
In 1824 he proposed and eventually mounted chunks of iron to the hull of a copper clad ship in the first use of cathodic protection. Whilst this was effective in preventing the corrosion of copper, it eliminated the anti-fouling properties of the copper hull, leading to the attachment of molluscs and barnacles to the "protected" hull, slowing these ships and requiring extensive time in dry docks for defouling operations.
Davy died in Geneva, Switzerland, his various inhalations of chemicals finally taking its toll on his health. His laboratory assistant Michael Faraday went on to enhance his work and in the end became more famous and influential – to such an extent that Davy is supposed to have claimed Faraday as his greatest discovery. However, he later accused his assistant of plagiarism, causing Faraday to cease all research in electromagnetism until his mentor's death.
Davy's Statue
In the town of Penzance in Cornwall a statue of Sir Humphry Davy stands in front of the imposing Market House, now owned by Lloyds TSB, at the summit of Market Jew Street, the town's main high street. On the plinth a plaque reads as follows:
Sir Humphry Davy
The most famous son of Penzance was one of the leading scientists of the 19th century.
Davy was born in Penzance in 1778, the son of a woodcarver. At the age of 16 he was apprenticed to a local doctor and became interested in chemistry. In 1798 he left to work in a medical laboratory in Bristol. There he discovered the pain releaving effects of laughing gas (nitrous oxide) and suggested its anaesthetic use.
By the age of 24, Davy was a professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution. He founded the science of electro-chemistry and discovered 6 new elements including potassium and sodium. He became famous and was honoured throughout Europe. Davy is remembered now for his work on the miner's safety lamp which bears his name, but perhaps his greatest contribution to science was the encouragement he gave to the young Michael Faraday.
Davy kept in touch with his roots and supported the Royal Geological Society in Penzance and left money to his old school. He died in 1829.
This statue was erected in 1872 and was produced by the sculptors Wills of London and is of white marble.
External links
mjednfjvhrehg mwah ha ha ha ha!! [[