HUMPHRY DAVY: BIOGRAPHY, CONTRIBUTIONS AND INVENTIONS - ARTE - 2024

Humphry Davy (1778-1829) was an English-born chemist who was noted for his discoveries in the area of ​​electrochemistry. He is considered one of the founders of this branch, along with other scientists such as the Italian Alessandro Volta and his student Michael Faraday.

He also stood out for having discovered some chemical elements such as sodium and potassium, as well as for his experiments with electrolysis. One of his most relevant contributions to the world was the invention of the Davy lamp.

Portrait of Humphry Davy. Source:, via Wikimedia Commons.

Thanks to this lamp, work in the mines was safer, specifically the extraction of coal, since it prevented explosions from occurring due to the use of the lamps. His contributions were especially important since his training was self-taught.

Biography

Humphry Davy was born in Penzance, Cornwall, an area of ​​the UK known for its port value. It came into the world on a Saturday, December 17, 1778.

He was the first of five children his parents had: Robert Day, a woodworker, and Grace Millet, who formed a middle-class family.

He was characterized by being a self-taught person; He was described as possessing a great imagination and showed passion for different branches, from art to nature.

He was named after his maternal grandfather, known as Humphry Millet.

Studies

When he was five he was sent to a local school. Davy did so well that they suggested that his students send him to another school, because they had nothing else to teach him. So the family moved to Varfel, there he took dance classes and had his first approach to painting.

She moved in with Dr. Tonkin, who paid for her studies at Truro school at age 14. He was conducting chemical experiments in his room.

At the age of 15 he attended a school to learn to read and speak French. During this stage she created some poems and her passion for fishing was born. She also mastered Latin and English.

A week before he was 16, his father died and he woke up the need to prepare to support his family. There he began his apprenticeship as a surgeon and apothecary, under the guidance of John Bingham Borlase. For his teachings, Humphry's mother sent the doctor meat, drinks, lodgings, and clothing.

His approach to chemistry took a couple of years to develop. He began to study metaphysics, ethics, and mathematics.

Start in chemistry

It was in the year 1797 that Humphry Davy took his first steps in the area of ​​chemistry. At first he did not have instruments nor did he know instructors who he considered competent to base his learning on them.

In the end his two references were Lavoisier, with his work Elements of Chemistry, and Nicholson, author of the Dictionary of Chemistry.

Their equipment or instruments consisted of flasks, tobacco pipes, wine glasses, crucibles, and teacups. He used alkaline and mineral acids, as well as some common drugs for his experiments.

Despite the rudimentary nature of his studies, his progress was brilliant and very rapid. For a few months he communicated with Dr. Beddoes through letters and was already able to master such complicated subjects as light and heat.

In 1798 Dr. Beddoes offered him the possibility to go to Bristol to experience the medicinal effect of different gases and to be the superintendent at the Pneumatic Medical Institution.

By 1799 he had already published the results of the experiments he had carried out.

He also benefited greatly from his conversations with very important intellectuals of the time. Through letters he exchanged knowledge with Gregory Watt and Davies Gilbert.

Marriage

In 1812 he married a widow (Jane Apreece) with a very good economic position, with whom he traveled the world. They met at one of Davy's lectures. The couple never had children.

Jobs

He was first part of the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol, where he became known. Later he joined the Royal Institution in London, where they were looking for a chemistry professor. In 1801 he was hired as an assistant and director of the laboratory. Only ten weeks later he was promoted to professor.

He hired Michael Faraday as his assistant, although Faraday later ended up becoming one of the most influential characters in science.

Death

Humphry Davy suffered from quite a few health problems during the last years of his life. In 1823 he began to suffer his first problems and already in 1826 he showed great difficulty in carrying out some of his favorite activities, such as fishing.

At the beginning of the year 1827 he had a minor attack of paralysis while abroad. He moved to Salzburg and resigned as president of the Royal Society.

Shortly after, he returned to England and devoted himself to writing, although he did not stay there long. He went to Rome from where he continued to send some writings on electricity. Comments on the torpedo's electricity was her last work in life.

During the year 1829 he suffered a new attack of paralysis that affected the entire right side of his body. With the help of his brother John Davy he managed to travel to Geneva. There he died on May 29, 1829, only 50 years old, in a hotel room.

He was buried in the Plain-Palais cemetery on the outskirts of Geneva.

Honors

He received a great deal of accolades for his many contributions to chemistry and the invention of Davy's lamp.

In 1812 Davy was knighted. Later, due to his scientific discoveries, he was named a baron in 1819. It was the first time that a scientist received this title, when it was normal that only knights were named.

He was awarded the Rumford Medal in 1816 for inventing the Davy lamp.

Already in 1827 he won the royal medal awarded by the Royal Society. It was as a consequence of the conference that he had held a year earlier on the relationship of electrical and chemical changes.

The royal medal was named the Davy Medal in his honor. Since 1877 it has been awarded every year for a discovery of relevance in any branch of chemistry.

There is also a lunar crater that was named in his honor.

In Westminster Abbey his wife placed a memorial plaque in marble, made by the sculptor Francis Chantrey.

Contributions and inventions

One of his early discoveries while in Bristol was that of the effects of pure nitrous oxide, also known as nitrogen oxide or laughing or hilarious gas. This gas was discovered by Joseph Priestley in 1772.

On April 9, 1799, he began to experiment with this gas, he said that he became intoxicated after breathing it for about seven minutes. He decided to name it laughing gas and through these experiments he developed an addiction to this gas. Thanks to this discovery, he gained fame, as happened with the Pneumatic Institution of which he was a part.

Similarly, Humphry Davy spoke about its potential as an anesthetic and as a pain reliever. Its use over many years was more recreational than medicinal.

During 1803 he gave his first course on agricultural chemistry, classes that he taught for ten years. Until in 1813 he published his studies on the subject in the book Elements of agricultural chemistry.

He was one of the pioneers in giving free lectures to explain his ideas in the scientific field.

Electrolysis

In 1800 he took advantage of the fact that Alessandro Volta invented the first battery to begin experimenting with electrolysis. At this time, he was able to conclude that electrolytic cells produced electricity by a chemical reaction that occurred between opposite charges.

Thanks to this conclusion, Davy realized that electrolysis allowed to decompose the substances present in the chemical elements, as he explained in 1806 at a conference.

This is how he discovered potassium and aluminum. It achieved the separation of other chemical elements such as sodium, magnesium, calcium, strontium and lithium through the electrolysis process. And he found that chlorine was a chemical element.

Davy Lamp

His most important invention was perhaps that of a lamp. It happened in 1815, when he was asked to create something that would serve to give security to the miners. After several experiments, he found that moisture from mines cannot pass through small spaces such as tubes or openings.

On November 9, he published his findings, explaining that metal tubes were better conductors of heat than glass tubes. Later, in 1816, he expanded on his discoveries, explaining the importance of wire gauze.

In late 1816, lamps were used in the mines, making the work of extracting coal safer. Something that had great relevance since the Industrial Revolution occurred in that period and mining was of great importance. Despite his invention, he never patented the lamp.

References

1. Fullmer, J. (2000). Young Humphry Davy. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.
2. Humphry Davy. Recovered from nndb.com
3. Knight, D. (2006). Humphry Davy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4. Paris, J. The Life of Sir Humphry Davy. London: Samuel Bentley.
5. Nelson. (1879). The Story of Sir Humphry Davy and the invention of the safety-lamp. London.