Person Davy; Sir; Humphry (1778 - 1829); chemist Davy Humphry Sir chemist 1778 - 1829 British Male Penzance, Cornwall, England 17 December 1778 Hotel room, Geneva, Switzerland 29 May 1829 Burial: Plain-Palais cemetery, Geneva, Switzerland

Chemistry Career: Apprenticed to a surgeon in Penzance and studied chemistry and chemical experimentation; assistant, Sir Thomas Beddoes' Pneumatic Institute, Bristol and experimented on gases; Assistant lecturer on Chemistry, Royal Institution, London (1801); Director, Royal Institution (1805); discovered potassium (1807) and other elements; resigned chair of Chemistry at Royal Institution (1813); invented safety lamp (1815) The foremost British chemist of his day, he rose to prominence at the Pneumatic Institute in Bristol, before moving to the Royal Institution in London, and eventually became President of the Royal Society. His major contributions to science include the physiological effects of nitrous oxide (laughing gas), the discovery of potassium and sodium, the development of electro-chemistry, the miners' safety lamp, the electro-chemical protection of the copper sheeting of Royal Navy vessels, the conservation of the Herculaneum papyri and seeking to improve the quality of optical glass. As a friend of Coleridge, Southey and Wordsworth, Davy was also a Romantic poet and was almost certainly the chemist whom Mary Shelley had in mind when she described the teacher of Victor Frankenstein. Honours: Kt 1812; Bt 1818 Son of Robert Davy, woodcarver, and Grace Millet; brother of John Davy (FRS 1814); married Mrs Apreece, widow of Shuckburgh Ashly Apreece Royal Society roles: Sec 1807-1812; PRS 1820-1827 Medals and prizes: Copley Medal 1805; Rumford Medal 1816; Royal Medal 1827 Lectures: Bakerian 1806-1810, 1826 Fellow 17/11/1803 Sources: Bulloch's Roll; DNB; DSB References: Gudrun Richardson, 'A Norfolk Network within the Royal Society' in NR 2002 vol 56 pp 27-39, plate Sydney Ross, 'The Search for Electromagnetic Induction 1820-1831' in NR 1965 vol 20 pp 184-219 Stephen G Brush, 'The Royal Society's First Rejection of the Kinetic Theory of Gases (1821), John Herapath versus Humphry Davy' in NR 1963 vol 18 pp 161-180 Sir Harold Hartley, 'The Debt of Engineering to Fellows of the Royal Society' in NR 1961 vol 16 pp 136-140 Sir Harold Hartley, 'A Letter From Richard Phillips, FRS (1778-1857) to Michael Faraday, FRS (1791-1867)' in NR 1965 vol 20 pp 220-223 Roger Sharrock, 'The Chemist and the Poet: Sir Humphry Davy and the Preface to Lyrical Ballads' in NR 1962 vol 17 pp 57-76 R K Bluhm, 'A Note on the Origin of the Society's Conversaziones' in NR 1958 vol 13 pp 61-63 N G Coley, 'The Animal Chemistry Club; Assistant Society to the Royal Society' in NR 1967 vol 22 pp 173-185 L F Gilbert, 'The Election to the Presidency of the Royal Society in 1820' in NR 1954-55 vol 11 pp 256-279 G R de Beer, 'The Relations between Fellows of the Royal Society and French Men of Science when France and Britain were at War' in NR 1952 vol 9 pp 244-299 F F Cartwright, 'The Association of Thomas Beddoes, MD with James Watt, FRS' in NR 1967 vol 22 pp 131-143, plate Donald McDonald, 'Smithson Tennant, FRS (1761-1815)' in NR 1962 vol 17 pp 77-94 C Harrison Dwight, 'Count Rumford' in NR 1954-55 vol 11 pp 189-201 Garry J Tee, 'Relics of Davy and Faraday in New Zealand' in NR 1998 vol 52 pp 93-102 P M Harman, 'The Chemist in the World', review of David Knight, Humphry Davy, Science and Power in NR 1997 vol 51 pp 343-344, plate Sir John Meurig Thomas, 'Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford and the Royal Institution' in NR 1999 vol 53 pp 11-25 Stephen F Mason, 'Poet, Chemist - and Sage?', review of David Knight, Humphry Davy: Science and Power in NR 1993 vol 47 pp 317-319, plate Alan Q Morton, 'Previous Public Perceptions of Science', review of Larry Stewart, The Rise of Public Science: Rhetoric, Technology and Natural Philosophy in Newtonian Britain, 1660-1750 and Jan Golinski, Science as Public Culture: Chemistry and Enlightenment in Britain, 1760-1820 in NR 1994 vol 48 pp 157-159 C W P MacArthur, 'Davy's Differences With Gay-Lussac and Thenard: New Light on Events in Paris and on the Transmission and Translation of Davy's Papers in 1810' in NR 1984-85 vol 39 pp 207-228 G N Cantor, 'Thomas Young's Lectures at the Royal Institution' in NR 1970 vol 25 pp 87-112 K K Schwarz, 'Faraday and Babbage' in NR 2002 vol 56 pp367-381 J Corden, 'Web of Science History' project in NR 2002 vol 56 pp 383-388 R W Jones, 'Dalton's unfortunate choice' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 15-33 W P Griffith and P J T Morris, 'Charles Hatchett FRS (1765 - 1847), chemist and discoverer of niobium' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 299 - 316 J S Rowlinson, 'A national treasure house. <i>'The common purposes of life': science and society at the Royal Institution of Great Britain</i> ed Frank A J L James ' in NR 2004 vol 58 pp 105-106 M Crosland, 'Relationships between the Royal Society and the Academie des Sciences in the late eighteenth century' in NR 2005 vol 59 pp 25-34 P R Unwin & R W Unwin, 'Humphry Davy and the Royal Institution of Great Britain' in NR 2009 vol 63 pp7-33 James, Frank An electronic edition of RI MS HD 11 has been published which includes, among other items, drafts of Humphry Davy's 1816 paper on the miners' safety lamp. Further details can be found at: http://www.archive-editions.co.uk/index.php/file-downloads/the-davy-lamp-inventing-the-miners-safety-lamp Tim Fulford, Sharon Ruston eds, The collected letters of Sir Humphry Davy, 2020 The Davy Notebooks project: https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/davynotebooks/ James, F. A. J. L. (2019). 'Humphry Davy’s Early Chemical Knowledge, Theory and Experiments: An Edition of His 1798 Manuscript, “An Essay on Heat and the Combinations of Light” from The Royal Institution of Cornwall, Courtney Library, MS DVY/2'. in Ambix, 66(4), 303–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2019.1684080 Frank A. J. L. James, ‘Making money from the Royal Navy in the late eighteenth century: Charles Kerr on Antigua“breathing the true spirit of a West India agent”’ in Mariner’s Mirror 107, 402–419 (2021) Frank James, 'Lady Davy’s Money’, Davy Notebooks Project [weblog], 1 November 2021 , https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/davynotebooks/2021/11/01/ frank-james-on-lady-davys-money/ ©The Royal Society International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) - Ottawa 1996 ISBN 0-9696035-3-3 National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997 https://pictures.royalsociety.org/image-rs-9343 17 Dec 1778 - 29 May 1829 NA8200 21/11/2001 Andyg Pmab 17/10/2024 RS_NET\louisianef Yes http://viaf.org/viaf/29630108 136140ca-beb4-4af0-a752-7c15cf73d9cf