Who was Humphrey Davy?
Chemist. Date and Place of Birth: 17th December 1778, Penzance, Cornwall, England. Family Background: Son of a Penzance wood carver. Eldest of five children. Education: Truro Grammar School. Chronology/Biography of Sir Humphrey Davy: 1794: Death of his father. Became apprenticed to a Surgeon-Apothecary, J. Bingham Borlase in order to try and support his family. 1797: Became interested in chemistry after reading Antoine Lavoisier’s “Traite Elementaire”. Released from his apprenticeship he went to become Superintendant at the Medical Pneumatic Institution in Bristol at the request of Thomas Lovell Bedoes. He he made his first reputation studying the medical effects of gases such as Nitrous Oxide (Laughing Gas).He also found that heat could transfer through a vacuum and that it is a form of motion. 1799: Realised that when two blocks of ice were rubbed together they would melt without the addition of any heat thus disproving the caloric theory of heat. 1800: Began to realise the effects o
