Sir Humphry Davy is best known for his discovery of several chemical elements, including sodium and potassium. He established himself with a study on the effects of nitrous oxide. Later in his career, he turned his attention toward very practical concerns, inventing the miner’s safety lamp. For his achievements he was knighted on April 8, 1812, and further honored with the title of baronet in 1818.
Davy was born on December 17, 1778, in Penzance, England. His father, Robert Davy, a wood-carver, speculated unsuccessfully on farming and tin mining, and he died in 1794. After his death, Davy’s mother, Grace Millett, managed a milliner’s shop until 1799, when she inherited a small estate. Davy married Jane Apreece, a widow, on April 11, 1812.
Davy’s formal education was quite limited. He attended grammar school in Penzance before transferring to school in Truro in 1793. In 1795, he apprenticed to a surgeon and apothecary, intending to enter the field of medicine. He proved quite adept at chemical science, and in 1798 he was appointed as the chemical superintendent at the Pneumatic Institute in Clifton. One of his responsibilities included experimenting with gases to understand their effects. Davy worked with nitrous oxide, which came to be known as laughing gas due to the way it released inhibitions in those who inhaled it. Since his name was associated with such a pleasant substance, Davy quickly established a positive reputation. In 1801, the newly organized Royal Institution of Great Britain in London appointed him as a lecturer. His lectures, which became very popular, sometimes included demonstrations of the scientific principles discussed, such as the effects of nitrous oxide. Davy gained friendships with the socially elite, including the poets Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth. In 1802 he was promoted to the position of professor of chemistry.
Davy subsequently turned his attention to the effects of electricity on chemicals, a discipline known as electrochemistry. In 1806, Davy reported on some of his findings in the paper entitled "On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity," which won the 1807 Napoleon Prize from the Institut de France despite the fact that England and France were warring at the time. That year Davy used electrolysis to discover sodium and potassium. He followed this with the discoveries of boron, hydrogen telluride, and hydrogen phosphate. In 1812, he published the first part of the text Elements of Chemical Philosophy, though he never managed to complete another section of the book. In 1813, Davy published a companion piece, Elements of Agricultural Chemistry. In 1815, he put his experimental expertise to use by inventing a safe lamp for mining.
Besides his publications and lectures, Davy earned recognition through awards and memberships. The Royal Society elected him a fellow in 1803, appointing him secretary in 1807, and promoting him to president from 1820 to 1827. In 1805, he won the Society’s Copley Medal. In 1826, Davy suffered from a stroke, and he never fully recovered. On May 29, 1829, he died in Geneva, Switzerland.
