Humphry Davy

Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet (17 December 1778 – 29 May 1829) was a British <a href="/facts/Chemist/N09K7Bdm">chemist</a> and inventor who invented the <a href="/facts/Davy_lamp/PfePf9j6">Davy lamp</a> and a very early form of <a href="/facts/Arc_lamp/1y99ep6E">arc lamp</a>. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several <a href="/facts/Chemical_element/0jducgWD">elements</a> for the first time: <a href="/facts/Potassium/5lcumVgo">potassium</a> and <a href="/facts/Sodium/eYuSPu2V">sodium</a> in 1807 and <a href="/facts/Calcium/hf252CC0">calcium</a>, <a href="/facts/Strontium/ABaA5qQK">strontium</a>, <a href="/facts/Barium/IkL09XHQ">barium</a>, <a href="/facts/Magnesium/XyIhd2FG">magnesium</a> and <a href="/facts/Boron/Pmwgd7Mf">boron</a> the following year, as well as for discovering the elemental nature of <a href="/facts/Chlorine/y27UwYBM">chlorine</a> and <a href="/facts/Iodine/JlfMecMf">iodine</a>. Davy also studied the forces involved in these separations, inventing the new field of <a href="/facts/Electrochemistry/C0RUWpBH">electrochemistry</a>. Davy is also credited with discovering <a href="/facts/Clathrate_hydrate/3lVEg9H7">clathrate hydrates</a>.
In 1799, he experimented with <a href="/facts/Nitrous_oxide/Jvys91lI">nitrous oxide</a> and was astonished at how it made him laugh. He nicknamed it "laughing gas" and wrote about its potential as an <a href="/facts/Anesthesia/b3MKVn8E">anaesthetic</a> to relieve pain during surgery.
Davy was a <a href="/facts/Baronet/6Faqhx8r">baronet</a>, <a href="/facts/President_of_the_Royal_Society/ECv5IsS1">President of the Royal Society</a> (PRS), <a href="/facts/Member_of_the_Royal_Irish_Academy/2R9VtUPw">Member of the Royal Irish Academy</a> (MRIA), a founder member and Fellow of the <a href="/facts/Geological_Society_of_London/e3q5blMv">Geological Society of London</a>, and a member of the <a href="/facts/American_Philosophical_Society/auqTbV2C">American Philosophical Society</a>. <a href="/facts/J%25C3%25B6ns_Jacob_Berzelius/HakSv3sP">Berzelius</a> called Davy's 1806 <a href="/facts/Bakerian_Lecture/n1Kk0WBE">Bakerian Lecture</a> "On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity" "one of the best memoirs which has ever enriched the theory of chemistry."

Humphry Davy open-in-new

Humphry Davy