Young Humphry Davy: The Making of an Experimental ChemistHumphry Davy's contemporaries bestowed on him their highest honors. Since Davy's death in 1829, each scholarly generation has accrued info. about him & his colleagues. His startling discoveries of the scientifically novel, his isolation & identification of 7 new elements, & his association of electrical properties & chemical behavior coupled with his fame as a lecturer, made him a popular cultural hero. Others saw him as the man who had made agriculture "scientific." Davy's refusal to profit financially from his invention of the miners' safety lamp endeared him to those humanitarians who idealized scientists as members of an altruistic brotherhood. Here is a readable, thoroughly researched biography of Davy's early life. Illus. |
Common terms and phrases
Abraham Tucker affinity appeared Beddoes's Borlase Bristol Brunoian chemical chemist chemistry claimed Clayfield Clifton Coleridge Letters compound conceptualization Cornish Cornwall Cottle Count Rumford Davies Giddy Davy wrote Davy's decomposed discovery Dunkin early Edgeworth effects electrical Erasmus Darwin essays experimental experiments fluid French galvanic gases heat Humphry Davy hydrogen ideas inhaled intellectual J. R. Partington James Watt John Davy Joseph Joseph Black laboratory Lavoisier Lavoisier's lectures light London Lunar Society matter Memoirs metaphysical nature Nicholson Nicholson's Journal nitric acid nitrogen nitrous gas nitrous oxide notebooks observations oxydating oxygen paper patients Penzance perimental phenomena Philosophical phosoxygen physiological pile plates pleasure pneumatic Pneumatic Institution pneumatic medicine poem Priestley produced published R I Archives reactions readers reported Researches respiration Robert Southey Royal Institution scientific SHDPW showed solution Stansfield substances theory Thomas Beddoes thought tion Tonkin Volta's Wedgwood William young zinc
Popular passages
Page 311 - Institution for Diffusing the Knowledge and Facilitating the General Introduction of Useful Mechanical Inventions and Improvements...
Page 201 - The sentence, no doubt, was thus intended: 'In less than half a minute, the respiration [being continued, these feelings] diminished gradually, and were succeeded by [a sensation] analogous to gentle pressure on all the muscles.
Page 201 - ... were succeeded by a sensation analogous to gentle pressure on all the muscles, attended by a highly pleasurable thrilling, particularly in the chest and the extremities.
Page 340 - It has justly been said, that the greater the circle of light, the greater the boundary of darkness by which it is surrounded. This strictly applies to chemical inquiries; and, hence they are wonderfully suited to the progressive nature of the human intellect, which by its increasing efforts to acquire a higher kind of wisdom, and a state in which truth is fully and brightly revealed, seems as it were to demonstrate its birthright to immortality.
Page 255 - When I was awakened from this semi-delirious trance by Dr. Kinglake, who took the bag from my mouth, indignation and pride were the first feelings produced by the sight of the persons about me.
Page 134 - ... grey at the base, were rapidly floating over the western hills ; the whole sky was in motion ; the yellow stream below was agitated by the breeze; everything was alive, and myself part of the series of visible impressions ; I should have felt pain in tearing a leaf from one of the trees.
Page 266 - When I consider the variety of theories that may be formed on the slender foundation of one or two facts, I am convinced that it is the business of the true philosopher to avoid them altogether. It is more laborious to accumulate facts than to reason concerning them ; but one good experiment is of more value than the ingenuity of a brain like Newton's.
Page 317 - That Mr. Humphry Davy be engaged in the service of the Royal Institution, in the capacity of Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry, Director of the Chemical Laboratory, and Assistant Editor of the Journals of the Institution ; and that he be allowed to occupy a room in the house, and be furnished with coals and candles, and that he be paid a salary of one hundred guineas per annum.
Page 39 - But if any man there be who, not content to rest in and use the knowledge which has already been discovered, aspires to penetrate further ; to overcome, not an adversary in argument, but nature in action ; to seek, not pretty and probable conjectures, but certain and demonstrable knowledge ; — I invite all such to join themselves, as true sons of knowledge, with me, that passing by the outer courts of nature, which numbers have trodden, we may find a way at length into her inner chambers.
Page 207 - Mr. Robert Southey could not distinguish between the first effects and an apprehension of which he was unable to divest himself. His first definite sensations were a fullness and dizziness in the head, such as to induce the fear of falling.