Davy, Sir Humphry

Davy, Sir Humphry (1778-1829), scientist, b. Penzance, Cornwall, England.

Humphry Davy was the son of a woodcarver. He became an apprentice to a local doctor, but afterwards began to study chemistry.

He went to Bristol to work for a doctor who was experimenting with gases. By the age of twenty, Davy was experimenting with nitrous oxide or laughing gas, and a year later he was invited to be a lecturer at the Royal Institution in London.

He went on with his experiments and made discoveries about several different chemicals. He found out that diamonds were made up of pure carbon and he produced a form of electric light by passing a current between two rods of carbon.

At this time, coalminers lived in danger of explosions from a mixture of gases called fire-damp and in 1815 Davy invented a safety lamp for use in mines.

The lamp is designed in such a way that it can be used, without fear of explosion, even when explosive gases are present. It is sometimes said, as a joke, that Davy's greatest discovery was Michael Faraday. He first gave Faraday a job washing bottles in his laboratory and later made him his assistant.

See David Knight Humphry Davy