Davy, Sir Humphry 1778-1829
English chemist and science propagandist

Born in Penzance, Cornwall, he was apprenticed to a surgeon and apothecary. Thomas Lovell Beddoes employed him as an assistant at the Pneumatic Institute in Bristol (1798), where Davy discovered the anaesthetic effect of laughing gas (nitrous oxide). He also showed that heat can be transmitted through a vacuum and suggested that it is a form of motion. His Researches, Chemical and Physical (1799) led to his appointment as assistant lecturer in chemistry at the Royal Institution (1801), where his research into electrochemistry was organized by J�ns Jacob Berzelius into a coherent system. He isolated the metals sodium and potassium, as well as barium, strontium, calcium and magnesium. Following up the work of Bernard Courtois, Davy showed that fluorine and chlorine are related to iodine, and his work also refuted Antoine Lavoisier's theory that all acids contain oxygen. He also proved that diamond is a form of carbon. His Elements of Agricultural Chemistry (1813) was the first book to apply chemical principles systematically to farming. From 1813 to 1815 he travelled on the Continent, taking the young Michael Faraday as chemical assistant and valet. He invented the safety lamp (1815, the 'Davy lamp') which enabled greater coal production as deeper, more gaseous seams could be mined with less risk of explosion. Davy popularized science and interested industrialists in scientific research. He was one of the founders of the Athenaeum Club and of the Zoological Society, which in its turn founded London Zoo. He was made a baronet in 1812.

Bibliography: Sir H Hartley, Humphrey Davy (1966)