Sir Humphrey Davy, Scientist and Poet

His notebooks were a mix of scientific discovery and short verse.

Sam H Arnold
Heroes of History

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Author’s Artwork

Sir Humphry Davy was a celebrity. He would entertain rapturous crowds when he delivered his lectures in chemistry. He would entertain with whizzes and bangs and beautiful prose. Because when Davy wasn’t a chemist, he was a prolific poet.

The audiences for these lavish affairs would consist of a mixed group of scientists, poets, and female admirers.

Davy successfully proved that there is a place for science and art to exist in one place.

Early life

Sir Humphry Davy was born on 17 December 1778 in Cornwall. He was born to humble circumstances, the son of a wood carver. At home, he would shut himself into his room and pretend to lecture the empty seats.

Many of his poems date back to this time. He wrote poems about Mounts Bay and other parts of the Cornish landscape.

At nineteen, he was an apprenticed surgeon and went to Bristol to study science. Here, he joined a group of literary and medical peers. One of these was poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

It was during this time he started to investigate gases. He prepared and inhaled nitrous oxide, otherwise known as laughing gas. He observed its pain-killing properties.

In 1800, he published the results of his work. His reputation and following grew from this, and he was soon hired as an assistant lecturer in chemistry at the Royal Institute.

Science & invention

In 1800, Alessandro Volta introduced the world to the first battery. Davy used this and developed electrolysis. With this, he was able to isolate substances such as Potassium, Sodium, Calcium and Magnesium for the first time.

He was knighted for his work in 1812. The year after, he set off on a two-year trip to Europe, where he collected a medal from Napoleon for identifying iodine.

During this trip, he wrote several poems, one about the ruins he saw in Greece and Rome. These are contained in notebooks interspersed with scientific notes about the ruins.

In 1815, he received a letter that would change his life. A group of Newcastle miners told him they faced great danger with methane gas. The gas would sneak into the tunnels, and their candles would ignite the spark.

Davy was energised to help them and worked on a system separating the flame from the gas. The lamp design, known as the Davy Lamp, quickly became popular.

Awards

In total, Davy added nine elements to the traditional periodic table. Poetry remained with him throughout his life. It was his way of expressing his emotions, thoughts and feelings, which he could not do in his scientific work.

Researchers have found hundreds of poems he wrote in notebooks alongside scientific discoveries. The majority of these poems had never been read before. He would write about the scientific reasons leaves turn colour and then write a poem on the subject.

Davy was made a Baronet in 1818 and was president of the Royal Society between 1820–1827. He died on 29 May 1829 in Switzerland. His assistant, Michael Faraday, went on to establish himself a reputation better known than his mentor.

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Sam H Arnold
Heroes of History

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