‘Sir humphry davy who abominated gravy…’
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Abstract
Essay: Humphry Davy made many contributions to basic science, including materials science. In this extended Christmas essay, one of the most recent directors of the Royal Institution in London reviews the and work of one of his most illustrious predecessors from a humble beginning as the son of a Cornish woodcarver to the heights of the Presidency of the Royal Society.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: History and advancements in chemistry
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References (11)
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1. This square translates to 'Arepo the sower holds the wheels with care.'
2. The lateW. H.Audenis said to have written some of the best ever clerihews.
3. Sir Stamford Raffles (1781–1826) was the founder of Singapore. Davy and Raffles failed to persuade the Government to establish a Natural History Section to the British Museum. This came later. It occupies a magnificent building in South Kensington London.
4. The first five of Davy's publications were poems all of which appeared in Vol. 1 of Annual Anthology. The titles of some of the other four poems were: The Song of Pleasure Ode to St Michaels's Mount in Cornwall The Tempest.
5. John Dalton (1766–1844) gave the first public account of his atomic theory in lectures attended by Davy at the Royal Institution in 1803–4.
6. The German name “Sauerstoff for oxygen reminds us of the deep‐seated influence exerted by Lavoisier”s postulate. The “sour stuff” is the acid which is synonymous with oxygen.
7. Davy used to say that Michael Faraday was his greatest discovery.
8. One of Davy's most brilliant lecture demonstrations (which I repeated in my Christmas Lectures broadcast by BBC‐2 in January 1988) entails passing an electric current through a horizontal metal wire the amperage being such that the wire glows ever so faintly. On stroking one part of the hot wire with a lump of ice the unstroked parts glow a brighter red. The drop in temperature of one part of the wire causes the resistance to drop thereby permitting an increase in current. This constitutes a striking method of demonstrating that a metal's resistance increases 'with increasing temperature.
9. By attaching relatively small quantities of more electropositive metals such as zinc or iron to copper plates it could be demonstrated that the plates remained uncorroded both under laboratory conditions and in the sea. Davy wrote a letter to the Times on 17th October 1824 defending his method of protecting copper sheeting on ships–it had been criticized by many–and also defending his reputation against charges that he had had an ocean cruise at public expense.
10. Davy has been identified–seeJ. Z.Fullmer's“Sir Humphry Davy's Published Works” (Harvard University Press 1969 p.47)
11. As the author of the prologue to „The Honey Moon: A Comedy in Five Acts. As Performed at the Theatre‐Royal Drury Lane with Universal Applause„ 1805