Sir Humphry Davy

 

 

1778 – 1829

A Brilliant Mind

 

 

 

 
 
The Age of enlightment

 

 

                

  The French Revolution

 

  The Napoleonic Wars

 

  In America President John Adams was in office

 

 

 

 

 

Davy born was in Penzance, England.

 

Work at Medical Pneumatic Institution as a laboratory assistant in 1798.

 

A famous chemist with many discoveries in Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine.  

 

At age of 22 became professor at the Royal Institution in 1802.

 

He funded the Davy Medal for scientific discoveries in 1818.

 

Sir Humphry in 1820 became President of the Royal Society.

 

He wrote two books.

 

1.    Elements of Agricultural Chemistry

2.    Elements of Chemicals

 

Davy hired Faraday as his laboratory assistant.

 

Davy and his wife were married and toured Europe.

 

He died of exhaustion at the age of fifty in Geneva in 1829.

 

 

Discoveries

 

Davy identified Sodium, Potassium, Boron, Chlorine and Iodine.

 

The first anaesthetic was nitrous oxide and became known as laughing gas. 

 

The Safety Lamp for coal miners.

 

The Electric Arc for spot-welding that is used today.                     

   

 

 

By Marguerite J. Badger

July 24, 2006