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Sir
Humphry Davy
Bt FRS MRIA FGS
Portrait by Thomas Phillips, 1821
Born
(1778-12-17)17 December 1778
Penzance, Cornwall, England
Died
29 May 1829(1829-05-29) (aged 50)
Geneva, Switzerland
Known for
Electrolysis
aluminium
sodium
potassium
calcium
strontium
magnesium
barium
boron
Davy lamp
Awards
Copley Medal (1805)
Prix du galvanisme (1807)
Rumford Medal (1816)
Royal Medal (1827)
Scientific career
Fields
Chemistry
Institutions
Royal Society
Royal Institution
23rd President of the Royal Society
In office 1820–1827
Preceded by
William Hyde Wollaston
Succeeded by
Davies Gilbert
Signature
Articles about
Electromagnetism
Electricity
Magnetism
Optics
History
Computational
Textbooks
Phenomena
Electrostatics
Charge density
Conductor
Coulomb law
Electret
Electric charge
Electric dipole
Electric field
Electric flux
Electric potential
Electrostatic discharge
Electrostatic induction
Gauss law
Insulator
Permittivity
Polarization
Potential energy
Static electricity
Triboelectricity
Magnetostatics
Ampère law
Biot–Savart law
Gauss magnetic law
Magnetic dipole
Magnetic field
Magnetic flux
Magnetic scalar potential
Magnetic vector potential
Magnetization
Permeability
Right-hand rule
Electrodynamics
Bremsstrahlung
Cyclotron radiation
Displacement current
Eddy current
Electromagnetic field
Electromagnetic induction
Electromagnetic pulse
Electromagnetic radiation
Faraday law
Jefimenko equations
Larmor formula
Lenz law
Liénard–Wiechert potential
London equations
Lorentz force
Maxwell equations
Maxwell tensor
Poynting vector
Synchrotron radiation
Electrical network
Alternating current
Capacitance
Current density
Direct current
Electric current
Electrolysis
Electromotive force
Impedance
Inductance
Joule heating
Kirchhoff laws
Network analysis
Ohm law
Parallel circuit
Resistance
Resonant cavities
Series circuit
Voltage
Waveguides
Magnetic circuit
AC motor
DC motor
Electric machine
Electric motor
Gyrator–capacitor
Induction motor
Linear motor
Magnetomotive force
Permeance
Reluctance (complex)
Reluctance (real)
Rotor
Stator
Transformer
Covariant formulation
Electromagnetic tensor
Electromagnetism and special relativity
Four-current
Four-potential
Mathematical descriptions
Maxwell equations in curved spacetime
Relativistic electromagnetism
Stress–energy tensor
Scientists
Ampère
Biot
Coulomb
Davy
Einstein
Faraday
Fizeau
Gauss
Heaviside
Helmholtz
Henry
Hertz
Hopkinson
Jefimenko
Joule
Kelvin
Kirchhoff
Larmor
Lenz
Liénard
Lorentz
Maxwell
Neumann
Ohm
Ørsted
Poisson
Poynting
Ritchie
Savart
Singer
Steinmetz
Tesla
Volta
Weber
Wiechert
v
t
e
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, FRS, MRIA, FGS (17 December 1778 – 29 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for the first time: potassium and sodium[1] in 1807 and calcium, strontium, barium, magnesium and boron the following year, as well as for discovering the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine. Davy also studied the forces involved in these separations, inventing the new field of electrochemistry. Davy is also credited with discovering clathrate hydrates.
In 1799, he experimented with nitrous oxide and was astonished at how it made him laugh. He nicknamed it "laughing gas" and wrote about its potential as an anaesthetic to relieve pain during surgery.
Davy was a baronet, President of the Royal Society (PRS), Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA), Fellow of the Geological Society (FGS), and a member of the American Philosophical Society (elected 1810).[2] Berzelius called Davy's 1806 Bakerian Lecture On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity "one of the best memoirs which has ever enriched the theory of chemistry."
^Cite error: The named reference ODNB was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
Sir HumphryDavy, 1st Baronet, FRS, MRIA, FGS (17 December 1778 – 29 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very...
The Davy lamp is a safety lamp used in flammable atmospheres, invented in 1815 by Sir HumphryDavy. It consists of a wick lamp with the flame enclosed...
HumphryDavy School is a comprehensive school in Penzance, Cornwall, England. The school teaches 11 to 16-year-olds. The oldest part of the main school...
allowed to practise as a doctor, and HumphryDavy was appointed as his assistant, so he resigned. HumphryDavy was an even greater success, as was his...
intent on capturing them. In the late 18th to early 19th century, Sir HumphryDavy performed many experiments to determine how to lessen the corrosion that...
experiments did produce detailed photograms, but Wedgwood and his associate HumphryDavy found no way to fix these images. In 1826, Nicéphore Niépce first managed...
boron (1808), barium (1808), strontium (1808), and magnesium (1808) by HumphryDavy. The entire 19th-century electrical industry was powered by batteries...
chemical ideas and set a direction for the future course of chemistry. HumphryDavy was an English chemist and a professor of chemistry at the London's Royal...
dissolved elements by weight in the oceans. Sodium was first isolated by HumphryDavy in 1807 by the electrolysis of sodium hydroxide. Among many other useful...
that the gas might be a pure element, and this was confirmed by Sir HumphryDavy in 1810, who named it after the Ancient Greek χλωρός (khlōrós, "pale...
kali. In 1807, HumphryDavy produced the element via electrolysis: in 1809, Ludwig Wilhelm Gilbert proposed the name Kalium for Davy's "potassium". In...
Pure calcium was isolated in 1808 via electrolysis of its oxide by HumphryDavy, who named the element. Calcium compounds are widely used in many industries:...
tests. This would give insight to HumphryDavy's ideas on electrolysis. During preliminary experiments, HumphryDavy hypothesized that when two elements...
isolated by Sir HumphryDavy (1778–1829). 1807: Potassium isolated by Sir HumphryDavy (1778–1829). 1808: Calcium isolated by Sir HumphryDavy (1778–1829)...
Edmund Davy was a cousin of HumphryDavy, the famous chemist who invented the Davy lamp for the safety of miners. Edmund, the son of William Davy, was born...
Proto-Indo-European root *alu- meaning "bitter" or "beer". British chemist HumphryDavy, who performed a number of experiments aimed to isolate the metal, is...
apprenticeship, Faraday attended lectures by the eminent English chemist HumphryDavy of the Royal Institution and the Royal Society, and John Tatum, founder...
pain-reducing effects. Its colloquial name, "laughing gas", coined by HumphryDavy, is due to the euphoric effects upon inhaling it, a property that has...
Sir HumphryDavy Rolleston, 1st Baronet, GCVO, KCB (21 June 1862 – 23 September 1944) was a prominent English physician. Rolleston was the son of George...
flame test color. Strontium was first isolated as a metal in 1808 by HumphryDavy using the then newly discovered process of electrolysis. During the 19th...
Fluorite was then shown to be mostly composed of calcium fluoride. Sir HumphryDavy originally suggested the name fluorine, taking the root from the name...
chemistry". Named after HumphryDavy, the medal is awarded with a monetary gift, initially of £1000 (currently £2000). Receiving the Davy Medal has been identified...
Stephenson, which later became the Geordie lamp, and the Davy lamp, invented by Sir HumphryDavy. Subsequently, Clanny incorporated aspects of both lamps...
isolated in 1808 by HumphryDavy by electrolysis of a mixture of strontium chloride and mercuric oxide. The discovery was announced by Davy on 30 June 1808...
which consists of an arc between carbon electrodes in air, invented by HumphryDavy in the first decade of the 1800s, was the first practical electric light...
Bentley's first clerihew, published in 1905, was written about Sir HumphryDavy: Sir HumphryDavy Abominated gravy. He lived in the odium Of having discovered...