Humphry davy and michael faraday
- •
Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829)
Biography
Ri positions
Director of the Laboratory 1801–1825
Professor of Chemistry 1802–1812
Honorary Professor 1813–1823
Born in Penzance, Sir Humphry Davy attended Truro Grammar School before returning to Penzance as an apothecary's apprentice. In 1798 he moved to Bristol to work at Thomas Beddoes's Pneumatic Institution where he discovered the physiological effects of nitrous oxide (laughing) gas. In Bristol he met and became friends with Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge at whose instigation he edited the 2nd edition of William Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads.
In 1802 he became professor of chemistry at the Ri. He went on to establish the Ri's reputation for excellent lectures, and also for scientific research. He used the new electric battery to isolate sodium and potassium and formulated a coherent theory of electro-chemical action while he was at the Ri. He left in 1812 following marriage to Jane Apreece, a wealthy heiress.
He toured the Continent between 1813 and 1815 (taking Michael Faraday along as his assistant)
- •
Sir Humphry Davy (1778 - 1829)
Sir Humphry Davy ©Davy was a British chemist best known for his experiments in electro-chemistry and his invention of a miner's safety lamp.
Humphry Davy was born on 17 December 1778 in Penzance in Cornwall. He was apprenticed to a surgeon and aged 19 went to Bristol to study science. There he investigated gases. He prepared and inhaled nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and in 1800 published the results of his work in 'Researches, Chemical and Philosophical'. This made his reputation and the following year he was hired as an assistant lecturer in chemistry at the Royal Institution. There he was a great success, with his lectures soon becoming a draw for fashionable London society. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1803 and was awarded its Copley Medal in 1805.
In 1800, the Italian scientist Alessandro Volta had introduced the first battery. Davy used this for what is now called electrolysis and was able to isolate a series of substances for the first time - potassium and sodium in 1807 and calcium, strontium, barium and magnesium the f
- •
Humphry Davy
Electrolysis is the process by which an electrolyte is altered or decomposed by applying an electric current. In addition to his isolation of sodium, potassium and other alkaline earth metals, electrolysis enabled Davy to disprove the view proposed by French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier that oxygen was an essential component of all acids. When Davy decomposed hydrochloric acid (then known as muriatic acid), he found that it consisted solely of hydrogen and chlorine.
Davy was born on December 17, 1778 in Penzance, a port town located in Cornwall, England. As a child he attended grammar school, but following the early death of his father he accepted an apprenticeship that he believed would help prepare him for a career in medicine. He was a lover of nature and had early literary inclinations. He wrote poetry and befriended poets, including Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (both of whom would become major figures in early English Romanticism). After Davy began serious work in science and a recommendation gained him an appointment at the Pneumatic Instit
Copyright ©dewpant.pages.dev 2025