LIFE OF DAVY.
1778 to 1829.
The history of thirteen years of the life of Davy, like that of fifty
of the life of Faraday, is closely interwoven with the history of the
Royal Institution. Their lives were the life of the place; and hence,
to complete the history of the Institution to the time of Faraday, a
sketch of Davy and his scientific life must be given here.
Humphry Davy was born on December 17, 1778, at Penzance. He was the son
of a wood carver and was apprenticed to a surgeon.
Mr. Davies Gilbert heard that the boy was fond of making chemical
experiments. He encouraged him and spoke of him to Dr. Beddoes,
Professor of Geology and Chemistry at Oxford, who happened to be at
work upon the ‘Geology of Cornwall.’
Afterwards Dr. Beddoes established the Pneumatic Institution at
Clifton, and he required an assistant to prepare the gases and
superintend the Pneumatic Hospital, and Mr. Gilbert proposed Davy. He
went on October 2, 1798, ‘to superintend experiments on the medical
powers of factitious airs or gases.’
Davy thus wrote to Mr. Davies Gilbert:
November 12, 1798.
I have purposely delayed writing until I could communicate to
you some intelligence of importance concerning the new Pneumatic
Institution. The speedy execution of the plan will, I think,
interest you both as a subscriber and a friend to science and
mankind. The present subscription is, we suppose, nearly adequate
to the purpose of investigating the medicinal powers of factitious
airs. It still continues to increase, and we may hope for the
ability of pursuing the investigation to its full extent. We are
negotiating for a house in Downe Square, the proximity of which to
Bristol and its general situation and advantages render it very
suitable for the purpose. The funds will, I suppose, enable us to
provide for eight or ten patients in the Hospital, and for as many
out of it as we can procure.
We shall try the gases in every possible way.
* * * * *
We are printing in Bristol the first volume of the ‘West Country
Collection,’ which will, I suppose, be out the beginning of January.
* * * * *
Believe me, dear Sir, with affection and respect, truly yours,
HUMPHRY DAVY.
The first two hundred pages of this collection, constituting very
nearly half the volume, consist of essays of Davy on ‘Heat, Light,
and the Combinations of Light,’ on ‘Phos-Oxygen or Oxygen and its
Combinations,’ and on the ‘Theory of Respiration.’
He wrote on February 22, 1799, to Davies Gilbert:
DEAR FRIEND,--(For I love you too well to call you by a more
ceremonious name), I have delayed writing to you, expecting
that some of our experiments would produce results worthy of
communication.
I am now as much convinced of the non-existence of caloric as I am
of the existence of light.
Our laboratory in the Pneumatic Institution is nearly finished.
I hope the gaseous oxide of azote will prove to be a specific
stimulus for the absorbents.
* * * * *
I know of little general scientific news. Berthollet makes
sulphuretted hydrogen out to be an acid.
* * * * *
I remain, with affection and respect, yours,
HUMPHRY DAVY.
Again on April 10, 1799, to Mr. Gilbert, writing of light and heat, he
said:
The supposition of active powers common to all matter from the
different modifications of which all the phenomena of its changes
result, appears to me more reasonable than the assumption of
certain imaginary fluids, alone endowed with active powers, and
bearing the same relation to common matter as the vulgar philosophy
supposes spirit to bear to matter.
It is only by forming theories, and then comparing them with facts,
that we can hope to discover the true system of nature.
I made a discovery yesterday which proves how necessary it is
to repeat experiments. The gaseous oxide of azote is perfectly
respirable when pure. It is never deleterious but when it
contains nitrous gas. I have found a mode of obtaining it pure,
and I breathed it to-day in the presence of Dr. Beddoes and some
others--sixteen quarts of it for near seven minutes. It appears
to support life longer than even oxygen gas, and absolutely
intoxicated me. Pure oxygen gas produced no alteration in my pulse
nor any other material effect, whereas this gas raised my pulse
upwards of twenty strokes, made me dance about the laboratory as a
madman, and has kept my spirits in a glow ever since.
* * * * *
Yours, with affection and respect,
HUMPHRY DAVY.
Dr. Paris says Coleridge gave him this account of of the caution of
Davy at this time:
Dr. Beddoes thought nitrous oxide gas would cure paralysis. A
patient was to be treated by Davy. He first took the temperature
by means of a small thermometer placed under the tongue. The
patient immediately declared that he felt better. The opportunity
was too tempting to be lost. Davy cast an intelligent glance at
Mr. Coleridge, and desired the patient to renew his visit on
the following day, when the same ceremony was again performed,
and repeated every succeeding day for a fortnight, the patient
gradually improving during that period, when he was dismissed as
cured, no other application having been used than that of the
thermometer.
Southey thus wrote his opinion and that of Coleridge regarding Davy
at this time: ‘He is a marvellous young man, whose talents I can only
wonder at.’
Later he wrote:
My residence at Westbury was one of the happiest portions of
my life.... I was in habits of the most frequent and intimate
intercourse with Davy, then in the flower and freshness of his
youth. We were within an easy walk of each other over some of the
most beautiful ground in that beautiful part of England. When I
went to the Pneumatic Institution he had to tell me of some new
experiment or discovery and of the views which it opened for him,
and when he came to Westbury there was a fresh portion of Madoc for
his hearing.
On July 3, 1800, Davy wrote from Bristol to Gilbert:
We have been repeating the galvanic experiments with success.
Nicholson, by means of a hundred pieces of silver and zinc, has
procured a visible spark. Cruickshank has revived oxidated metals
in solution by means of the nascent hydrogen produced from the
decomposition of water by the shock, and both he and Carlisle have
absolutely resolved water into oxygen and hydrogen by means of
it, making use of silver and platina wires. An immense field of
investigation seems opened by this discovery; may it be pursued so
as to acquaint us with some of the laws of life!
You have undoubtedly heard of Herschel’s discovery concerning the
production of heat by invisible rays emitted from the sun?
Coleridge is gone to reside in Cumberland.
* * * * *
Yours, with sincere affection,
HUMPHRY DAVY.
On October 20, 1800, again he wrote to Gilbert:
In pursuing experiments on galvanism during the last two months I
have met with unexpected and unhoped-for success. Some of the new
facts on this subject promise to afford instruments capable of
destroying the mysterious veil which nature has thrown over the
operation and properties of ethereal fluids.
Galvanism I have found, by numerous experiments, to be a process
purely chemical.
I remain, with sincere respect and affection, yours,
HUMPHRY DAVY.
During this year he published a volume entitled ‘Researches,
Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly concerning Nitrous Oxide and its
Respiration.’
In the spring of 1800 Mr. Underwood, a geologist and artist, had become
a proprietor of the Royal Institution. He had several conversations
with Count Rumford on the subject of Davy’s superior talents and the
advantages that would accrue to the Institution from engaging him as
a lecturer. ‘The Count called on me,’ Underwood says, ‘on January 5,
1801, having received from the managers of the Institution full powers
to negotiate upon this subject. On this occasion, however, I thought it
advisable to introduce the Count to Mr. James Thompson, as being the
more eligible person to treat in behalf of Davy, not only on account of
his greater intimacy with him, but because, not being a proprietor, he
was unconnected with the interests of the Institution.’ Mr. Thompson
wrote to Davy. With his characteristic energy Davy answered in person,
and had several conferences with Count Rumford. The following letter
from Count Rumford to Davy, written from the Royal Institution, is
dated February 16, 1801:
DEAR SIR,--In consequence of the conversations I have had with you,
respecting your engaging in the service of the Royal Institution of
Great Britain, I this day laid the matter before the managers of
the Institution at their meeting,[32] and I have the pleasure to
acquaint you that the proposal I made to them was approved, and the
following resolution unanimously taken by them: ‘Resolved,--That
Mr. Humphry Davy be engaged in the service of the Royal Institution
in the capacity of Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry, Director of the
Chemical Laboratory, and Assistant Editor of the Journals of the
Institution, and that he be allowed to occupy a room in the house
and be furnished with coals and candles, and that he be paid a
salary of 100_l._ per annum.’
On this occasion I did not neglect to give an account to the
managers of the whole of what passed between us respecting the
situation it was intended you should fill in the Institution
on your engaging in its service, and the prospects that could
with propriety be held out to you of future advantages, and the
managers agreed with me in thinking that, as you had expressed
your willingness to devote yourself entirely and permanently to
the Institution, it would be right and proper to hold out to you
the prospect of becoming, in the course of two or three years,
Professor of Chemistry in the Institution, with a salary of 300_l._
per annum, provided that within that period you shall have given
proofs of your fitness to hold that distinguished situation.
Although you must ever consider the duties of the offices you may
hold under the Institution as the primary objects of your care and
attention, yet the managers are so far from being desirous that you
should relinquish the private philosophical investigations in which
you have hitherto been engaged, and by which you have so honourably
distinguished yourself and attracted their attention, that it will
afford them the sincerest pleasure to encourage and assist you in
these laudable pursuits, and give you every facility which the
philosophical apparatus at the Institution can afford to make new
and interesting experiments.
You will naturally consider the Journals of the Institution as
the most proper vehicle for communicating to the public from
time to time short accounts of the progress you may make in your
investigations; this will, however, by no means be considered as
precluding you in any degree from presenting to the Royal Society
of London, or any other learned body, philosophical papers or
memoirs on such scientific subjects as may engage your attention,
or from publishing in any other manner the results of your
researches.
As you are fully informed with respect to the nature and objects
of the Royal Institution and are acquainted with the respectable
character of those distinguished persons with whom I have the
honour to act in the management of its concerns, you cannot, I
think, entertain the smallest doubt of their constant protection
and of their readiness on all occasions to do full justice to the
zeal and abilities you may display in the situation in which they
have placed you.
It is with much esteem and a sincere desire that the talents which
at so early a period of life you discovered may be cultivated with
care, and always employed with success, that I am, dear Sir, your
most obedient Servant,
RUMFORD.
On March 8 Davy wrote to Davies Gilbert:
I cannot think of quitting the Pneumatic Institution without giving
you information of it in a letter; indeed, I believe I should have
done this some time ago had not the hurry of business and the fever
of emotion produced by the prospect of novel changes in futurity
destroyed to a certain extent my powers of consistent action.
You, my dear sir, have behaved to me with great kindness, and
the little ability I possess you have very much contributed to
develope; I should therefore accuse myself of ingratitude were I
to neglect to ask your approbation of the measures I have adopted
with regard to the change of my situation and the enlargement of my
views in life.
In consequence of an invitation from Count Rumford, given to me
with some proposals relative to the Royal Institution, I visited
London in the middle of February, where, after several conferences
with that gentleman, I was invited by the managers of the Royal
Institution to become the director of their laboratory and their
assistant professor of chemistry. At the same time I was assured
that, within the space of two or three seasons, I should be made
sole professor of chemistry, still continuing director of the
laboratory.
The immediate emolument offered was sufficient for my wants, and
the sole and uncontrolled use of the apparatus in the Institution
for private experiments was to be granted me.
The behaviour of Count Rumford, Sir Joseph Banks, Mr. Cavendish,
and the other principal managers was liberal and polite, and they
promised me any apparatus that I might need for new experiments.
The time required to be devoted to the services of the Institution
was but short, being limited chiefly to the winter and spring.
The emoluments to be attached to the office of sole professor of
chemistry are great, and, above all, the situation is permanent and
held very honourable.
These motives, joined to the approbation of Dr. Beddoes, who,
with great liberality, has absolved me from my engagements at the
Pneumatic Institution, and the strong wishes of most of my friends
in London and Bristol determined my conduct.
Thus I am quietly to be transferred to London, whilst my sphere
of action is considerably enlarged, and as much power as I could
reasonably expect, or even wish for at my time of life, secured to
me without the obligation of labouring at a profession.
The Royal Institution will, I hope, be of some utility to society.
It has undoubtedly the capability of becoming a great instrument
of moral and intellectual improvement. Its funds are very great.
It has attached to it the feelings of a great number of people
of fashion and property, and consequently may be the means of
employing to useful purposes money which would otherwise be
squandered in luxury and in the production of unnecessary labour.
Count Rumford professes that it will be kept distinct from party
politics. I sincerely wish that such may be the case, though I
fear it. As for myself, I shall become attached to it, full of
hope, with the resolution of employing all my feeble powers towards
promoting its true interests.
* * * * *
I have been pursuing galvanism with labour and some success; I
have been able to produce galvanic power from single plates, by
effecting on them different oxidating and deoxidating processes.
After the 11th I shall be in town--my direction, Royal Institution.
I am, my dear Friend, with respect and affection, yours,
HUMPHRY DAVY.
At the meeting of the managers of the Royal Institution on February
16 (present, Sir J. Banks, Earl Morton, Count Rumford, and Mr. R.
Clark, Chamberlain of the City of London), it was resolved ‘that Mr.
Humphry Davy be engaged in the service of the Royal Institution in
the capacities of Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry, Director of the
Laboratory, and Assistant Editor of the Journals of the Institution;
that he be allowed to occupy a room in the house, and be furnished with
coals and candles; and that he be paid a salary of one hundred guineas
per annum.’
On March 16 Count Rumford, after reporting that a room had been
prepared and furnished, stated that Mr. Davy had arrived at the
Institution on Wednesday, March 11, and taken possession of his
situation.
Davy gave three courses of lectures in the spring of 1801.
His first course consisted of five lectures on the ‘New Branch of
Philosophy’--the galvanic phenomena. His first lecture was on Tuesday
evening, April 25. He began with the history of galvanism, detailed
the successive discoveries, and described the different methods of
accumulating galvanic influence. Polished plates of different metals
and the effect of their lying together in contact with water and air
were exhibited. ‘Air is absolutely necessary to the oxydating process.’
He observed that ‘it was difficult to prove that hydrogen was given out
in the decomposition of water in this way, and that it seemed rather
probable that alkali was formed.’ He showed the effects of galvanism
on the legs of frogs, and exhibited some interesting experiments on
the galvanic effects on the solution of metals in acids. As a recent
discovery of his own he showed that with one kind of metal only, more
powerful effects may be produced than with two, as heretofore employed;
but in this case there must be more than one liquid interposed between
the plates. He stated that copper, for example, and discs of cloth
or pasteboard, moistened with diluted nitrous acid and solutions of
muriat of soda and sulphuret of potash, and arranged in the order named
(viz. copper, nitrous acid, muriat of soda, sulphuret of potash, &c.),
give much more sensible shocks than the pile as at first constructed.
The reporter added: ‘Sir Joseph Banks, Count Rumford, and other
distinguished philosophers were present. The audience was highly
gratified, and testified their satisfaction by general applause. Mr.
Davy, who appears to be very young, acquitted himself admirably well;
from the sparkling intelligence of his eye, his animated manner, and
the _tout ensemble_ we have no doubt of his attaining a distinguished
eminence.’
The second lecture was given on the 28th, and the others were to be
delivered on the Tuesday and Saturday evenings till completed. He
gave another short course on Pneumatic Chemistry. ‘The lectures were
extremely ingenious and excited considerable attention.’ The concluding
lecture was on June 20, on Respiration, and after the lecture an
opportunity was given to such as wished it to breathe some of the
nitrous oxide. The reporter said, ‘Mr. Grosvenor Bedford, Mr. Stodart,
and Mr. Underwood breathed the gas, and the effects it produced, and
especially on the last, were truly wonderful. Mr. Underwood experienced
so much pleasure from breathing it that he lost all sense of everything
else, and the breathing bag could only be taken from him at last by
force.’ ‘The irresistible tendency to muscular action produced by
this gas was such as cannot be described. It must be witnessed to be
conceived.’
‘Professor Pictet, of Geneva, who is now on a visit in this country,
Count Rumford, and other philosophers of eminence were present, and
seemed not a little gratified with the exhibition of the gas.’[33]
‘Another galvanic course was also given by Mr. Davy, which, being
delivered in the fore part of the day, was attended not only by men of
science, but by numbers of people of rank and fashion, a proof that the
Institution bids fair to promote a taste for philosophical pursuits
among those whose wealth has but too often fostered the idea that such
subjects were beneath the notice of independence.’
At a meeting of managers, held on June 1, it was resolved ‘that Mr.
Humphry Davy, Director of the Chemical Laboratory and Assistant
Lecturer in Chemistry, since he has been employed at the Institution,
has given satisfactory proofs of his talents as a lecturer, and also it
was resolved that he be appointed and in future denominated Lecturer on
Chemistry at the Royal Institution, instead of continuing to occupy the
place of Assistant Lecturer, which he has hitherto filled.’
On June 18 his first paper was read at the Royal Society. It was an
account of some galvanic combinations formed by an arrangement of
single metallic plates and fluids analogous to the galvanic apparatus
of M. Volta.
On June 29 a permanent committee for the general purposes of chemical
investigation and analysis was appointed at the Royal Institution,
and the Minutes say that Mr. Davy was instructed to prepare himself
to give in the month of December next a course of lectures on the
Philosophical and Chemical Principles of the Art of Dyeing, or on the
Arts of Staining or Printing with Colours, Woollen, Linen, and Cotton
Goods. ‘That Mr. Davy have permission to absent himself during the
months of July, August, and September for the purpose of making himself
more particularly acquainted with the practical part of the business of
tanning.’
Davy first went to Bristol, and thence he wrote to his friend Mr.
Underwood to join him for a tour in Cornwall.
MY DEAR UNDERWOOD,--That part of Almighty God which resides in
the rocks and woods, in the blue and tranquil sea, in the clouds
and sunbeams of the sky, is calling upon thee with a loud voice;
religiously obey its commands, and come and worship with me on the
ancient altars of Cornwall.
I shall leave Bristol on Thursday next, possibly before; so that
by this day week I shall probably be at Penzance. Ten days or a
fortnight after I shall expect to see you, and to rejoice with you.
We will admire together the wonders of God--rocks and the sea, dead
hills and living hills covered with verdure. Amen.
Write to me immediately, and say when you will come. Direct, H.
Davy, Penzance. Farewell, being of energy. Yours with unfeigned
affection,
H. DAVY.
On November 14 he wrote to Davies Gilbert from the Royal Institution:
I didn’t arrive in London until the 20th of September. On my
arrival I found that Count Rumford had altered his plans of
absence, and had left London on that very day for the Continent,
purposing to return in about two months. He is now at Paris, and in
about a fortnight we expect him here.
* * * * *
I yesterday ascertained rather an important fact; namely, that
a galvanic battery may be constructed _without any metallic
substance_. By means of ten pieces of well-burnt charcoal, nitrous
acid, and water, arranged alternately in wine-glasses, I produced
all the effects usually obtained from zinc, silver, and water.
The Bakerian lecture[34] by Dr. Young, our Lecturer on Natural
Philosophy, is now reading before the Royal Society. He attempts
to revive the doctrine of Huygens and Euler, that light depends
upon undulations of an ethereal medium. His proofs (_i.e._ his
presumptive proofs) are drawn from some strong and curious
analogies he has discovered between light and sound.
* * * * *
You should fix your permanent residence in London, where alone you
can do what you ought--instruct and delight numbers of improved
men. I am, my Friend, yours with unfeigned esteem and respect,
HUMPHRY DAVY.
On January 5, 1802, a syllabus of Davy’s course of lectures on
Chemistry was printed at the press of the Royal Institution. He wrote
for it the following advertisement:
It is generally admitted that the best method of teaching the
sciences is to begin with simple facts, and gradually to proceed
from them to the more complicated phenomena.
In the following pages, which contain the outlines of a course of
lectures on Chemistry, an attempt has been made to employ such a
method. Hence the abstruse doctrines concerning the imponderable
fluids have been separated from the history of simple chemical
action, and the applications of the science from the science
itself. The classification of substances adopted is founded
rather upon facts than analogies, and in consequence certain
bodies have been placed among the simple principles which, from
their resemblance to other bodies of known composition, have
been generally arranged in the class of compounds. This is an
imperfection, but on the principles assumed it could not easily be
avoided. And it will be fortunate for the author if a discerning
public should not discover many more important imperfections.
Part I. ‘The Chemistry of Ponderable Substances.’
Part II. ‘The Chemistry of Imponderable Substances.’ Div. 1,
of Heat or Caloric; Div. 2, of Light; Div. 3, of the Electric
Influence; Div. 4, of Galvanism.
Part III. ‘The Chemistry of the Arts.’ Div. 1, of Agriculture; Div.
2, of Tanning; Div. 3, of Bleaching; Div. 4, of Dyeing; Div. 5, of
Metallurgy; Div. 6, of the Manufactory of Glass and Porcelain; Div.
7, of the Preparation of Food and Drink; Div. 8, of the Management
of Heat and Light Artificially Produced.
He gave his introductory lecture to the morning course on General
Chemistry on Thursday, January 21, and to the evening course on
Outlines of Chemical Science and Chemistry of the Arts on February 9.
The allusion to the Royal Institution with which he ended his first
lecture was full of poetry.
‘In reasoning concerning the future hopes of the human species we
may look forward with confidence to a state of society in which the
different orders and classes of men will contribute more effectually
to the support of each other than they have hitherto done. This state,
indeed, seems to be approaching fast; for, in consequence of the
multiplication of the means of instruction, the man of science and the
manufacturer are daily becoming more assimilated to each other.
‘The arts and sciences also are in high degree patronised by the rich
and privileged orders.
‘The unequal division of property and of labour, the differences
of rank and condition amongst mankind, are the sources of power
in civilised life--its moving causes and even its very soul. In
considering and hoping that the human species is capable of becoming
more enlightened and more happy we can only expect that the different
parts of the great whole of society should be intimately united
together by means of knowledge and the useful arts, that they should
act as the children of one great parent with one determinate end, so
that no power may be rendered useless, no exertions thrown away.
‘In this view we do not look to distant ages or amuse ourselves with
brilliant though delusive dreams concerning the infinite improvability
of man, the annihilation of labour, disease, and even death; but we
reason by analogy from simple facts; we consider only a state of human
progression arising out of its present condition; we look for a time
that we may reasonably expect, FOR A BRIGHT DAY OF WHICH WE ALREADY
BEHOLD THE DAWN.’
The following day Sir H. Englefield wrote to Mr. Underwood from Tilney
Street, ‘Davy, covered with glory, dines with me at five to-day. If you
could meet him it would give me great pleasure.’
At this dinner Sir Henry wrote a request to Davy to print his lecture.
A friend of Davy’s some years afterwards thus mentioned the success of
his lectures to Dr. Paris:
‘The sensation created by his lectures at the Institution and the
enthusiastic admiration which they obtained is at this period scarcely
to be imagined. Men of the first rank and talent, the literary and
the scientific, the practical and the theoretical, blue-stockings and
women of fashion, the old and the young, all crowded, eagerly crowded,
the lecture room. His youth, his simplicity, his natural eloquence,
his chemical knowledge, his happy illustrations and well-conducted
experiments excited universal attention and unbounded applause.
‘Compliments, invitations, and presents were showered upon him in
abundance from all quarters. His society was courted by all, and all
appeared proud of his acquaintance.’
On February 5 he again dined with Sir H. Englefield at his house at
Blackheath. Eighteen long years afterwards, looking back through Davy’s
career, Sir H. Englefield said of this evening, ‘It was the last flash
of expiring nature.’
On May 31, 1802, at the managers’ meeting, it was resolved that Mr.
Humphry Davy be for the future styled Professor of Chemistry to the
Royal Institution. In July ‘he respectfully requested leave of the
managers that he may be permitted to spend a few weeks during the
summer in the country. It is not amusement alone that he hopes to
gain during his short absence, but he believes that he may be able to
collect some information that may be useful in the lectures to be given
on Agriculture in the spring, and which may be in other ways connected
with the views of the Institution. He will take care that his absence
shall not interfere with the regular publication of the Journals, and
he will never be so far from town but that he can speedily return
whenever his presence may be necessary.’
He wrote to Davies Gilbert, October 26:
DEAR FRIEND,--The anxieties and hopes connected with a new
occupation have prevented me from paying sufficient attention even
to the common duties and affections of life.... Your correspondence
is to me a real source of pleasure, and, believe me, I would suffer
no opportunity to escape of making it more frequent and regular.
My labours in the theatre of the Royal Institution have been more
successful than I could have hoped from the nature of them. In
lectures the effect produced upon the mind is generally transitory;
for the most part they amuse rather than instruct, and stimulate
to inquiry rather than give information. My audience has often
amounted to four or five hundred and upwards, and amongst them some
promise to become permanently attached to chemistry. This science
is much the fashion of the day.
I mentioned to you in a former letter the great powers of
galvanism in effecting the combustion of metals. I have lately had
constructed for the laboratory of the Institution a battery of
immense size; it consists of four hundred plates of five inches in
diameter and forty of a foot in diameter.
I am now examining the agencies of it upon certain substances that
have not as yet been decomposed.
* * * * *
Have you seen the theory of my colleague, Dr. Young, on the
undulations of an ethereal medium as the cause of light? It is
not likely to be a popular hypothesis after what has been said by
Newton concerning it. He would be very much flattered if you could
offer any observations upon it, whether for or against it.
* * * * *
We are publishing at the Royal Institution a ‘Journal of Science,’
which contains chiefly abridged accounts of what is going on in
different parts of Europe, with some original papers; and, in hopes
that its diffusion may become more general, we have fixed its price
at one shilling.
* * * * *
I am beginning to think of my course of lectures for the winter.
In addition to the common course of the Institution, I have to
deliver a few lectures on Vegetable Substances, and on the
Connexion of Chemistry with Vegetable Physiology, before the Board
of Agriculture.
* * * * *
I am, dear Sir, with affection and respect, yours,
H. DAVY.
In April Davy joined Dr. Young in editing the eighth number of the
Journal. Count Rumford had edited the three first and Dr. Young the
four following numbers. In the third number Davy had given an account
of a new eudiometer, and in the fourth outlines of a view of galvanism.
In another number he gave an account of a method of copying paintings
upon glass, and of making profiles by the agency of light upon nitrate
of silver, invented by T. Wedgwood, Esq. He says, ‘Nothing but a method
of preventing the unshaded parts of the delineation from being coloured
by exposure to the day is wanting to render the process as useful as it
is elegant.’
On February 24, 1803, an account of some experiments and observations
on the constituent parts of certain astringent vegetables, and on their
operation in tanning, was read by Davy at the Royal Society.
He was proposed as a Fellow of the Royal Society on April 20, and
elected on November 17.
A letter from Coleridge to Mr. Purkis, dated February 17, 1803, from
Nether Stowey, thus speaks of Davy at this time:
I rejoice in Davy’s progress. There are three suns recorded in
Scripture--Joshua’s, that stood still; Hezekiah’s, that went
backward; and David’s, that went forth and hastened on his course
like a bridegroom from his chamber. May our friend prove the
latter! It is a melancholy thing to see a man, like the sun in
the close of the Lapland summer, meridional in his horizon, or
like wheat in a rainy season, that shoots up well in the stalk,
but does not kern. As I have hoped and do hope more proudly of
Davy than of any other man, and as he has been endeared to me
more than any other man by the being a thing of hope to me (more,
far more, than myself to my own self in my most genial moments),
so of course my disappointment would be proportionably severe.
It were a falsehood if I said that I think his present situation
most calculated of all others to foster either his genius or the
clearness and uncorruptness of his opinions and moral feelings. I
see two serpents at the cradle of his genius--dissipation with a
perpetual increase of acquaintances and the constant presence of
inferiors and devotees, with that too great facility of attaining
admiration which degrades ambition into vanity; but the Hercules
will strangle both the reptile monsters. I have thought it possible
to exert talents with perseverance, and to attain true greatness
wholly pure even from the impulses of ambition, but on this subject
Davy and I always differed.... My book is not, strictly speaking,
metaphysical, but historical. It, perhaps, will merit the title of
a history of metaphysics in England, from Lord Bacon to Mr. Hume
inclusive. I confine myself to facts in every part of the work,
excepting that which treats of Mr. Hume; _him_ I have assuredly
besprinkled copiously from the fountains of bitterness and
contempt. As to this and the other works which you have mentioned,
‘have patience, lord, and I will pay thee all.’
Mr. T. Wedgwood goes to Italy in the first days of May. Whether I
accompany him is uncertain; he is apprehensive that my health may
incapacitate me. If I do not go with him, I shall go off myself in
the first week of April if possible.
Davy himself wrote, on May 5, to his friend Mr. Thomas Poole:
Be not alarmed, my dear friend, as to the effect of worldly society
on my mind. The age of danger has passed away; there are in the
intellectual being of all men permanent elements, certain habits
and passions that cannot change. I am a lover of nature with an
ungratified imagination; I shall continue to search for untasted
charms, for hidden beauties.
My _real_, my _waking_ existence is amongst the objects of
scientific research; common amusements and enjoyments are necessary
to me only as dreams to interrupt the flow of thoughts too nearly
analogous to enlighten and to vivify. Coleridge has left London
for Keswick. During his stay in town I saw him seldomer than
usual; when I did see him it was generally in the midst of large
companies, where he is the image of power and activity. His
eloquence is unimpaired; perhaps it is softer and stronger. His
will is probably less than ever commensurate with his ability.
Brilliant images of greatness float upon his mind like the images
of the morning clouds upon the waters: their forms are changed by
the motions of the waves, they are agitated by every breeze, and
modified by every sunbeam. He talked in the course of one hour of
beginning three works, and he recited the poem of ‘Christabel’
unfinished and as I had before heard it. What talent does he not
waste in forming visions sublime, but unconnected with the real
world! I have looked to his efforts as the efforts of a creating
being, but as yet he has not even laid the foundation for the new
world of intellectual forms.
When my agricultural lectures are finished I propose to visit
Paris, and perhaps Geneva.
On May 10 the first lecture was given before the Board of Agriculture,
and five others on succeeding Fridays and Tuesdays. They were corrected
and published in 1813.
Later he wrote again to Mr. Poole:
Often, very often, in the midst of the tumults of the multitude
in this great city has my spirit turned in quietness and solitude
towards you.
I hope soon to see you in Somersetshire, where we may worship
nature and the Spirit that dwells in nature in your green fields
and under your tranquil sky. My communications with you, and
Coleridge, and Southey, and other ornaments of the great existing
Being have excited feelings which cheer me in the apathy of London,
and which make me love human nature.
In December 1803 Dr. Dalton gave a course of lectures at the Royal
Institution. Early in January he wrote to a friend from the Royal
Institution:
I was introduced to Mr. Davy, who has rooms adjoining mine;
he is a very agreeable and intelligent young man, and we have
interesting conversations in the evening; the principal failing in
his character as a philosopher is that he does not smoke. Mr. Davy
advised me to labour at my first lecture; he told me the people
here would be inclined to form their opinion from it. Accordingly
I resolved to _write_ my first lecture wholly; to _do_ nothing,
but to tell them what I would do and enlarge upon the importance
and utility of science. I studied and wrote for near two days,
then calculated to a minute how long it would take me reading,
endeavouring to make my discourse about fifty minutes. The evening
before the lecture Davy and I went into the theatre; he made me
read the whole of it, and he went into the farthest corner. Then he
read it, and I was the audience. We criticised each other’s method.
Next day I read it to an audience of about 150 or 200 people, which
was more than were expected. They gave a very general plaudit at
the conclusion, and several came up to compliment me upon the
excellence of the introduction. Since that I have scarcely written
anything; all has been experiment and verbal explanation. In
general my experiments have uniformly succeeded, and I have never
once faltered in the elucidation of them; in fact, I can now enter
the lecture room with as little emotion nearly as I can smoke a
pipe with you on Sunday or Wednesday evening.
Before Coleridge left for Malta Davy wrote to him:
Twelve o’clock, Monday (probably March 1804).
MY DEAR COLERIDGE,--My mind is disturbed and my body harassed
by many labours, yet I cannot suffer you to depart without
endeavouring to express to you some of the unbroken higher feelings
of my spirit, which have you at once as their cause and object.
Years have passed away since we first met, and your presence, and
recollections with regard to you have afforded me continued sources
of enjoyment.
Some of the better feelings of my nature have been elevated by your
converse, and thoughts which you have nursed have been to me an
eternal source of consolation.
In whatever part of the world you are you will often live with me,
not as a fleeting idea, but as a recollection possessed of creative
energy, as an imagination winged with fire, inspiring and rejoicing.
You must not live much longer without giving to all men the proof
of power which those who know you feel in admiration. Perhaps, at
a distance from the applauding and censuring murmurs of the world,
you will be best able to execute those great works which are justly
expected from you; you are to be the historian of the philosophy of
feeling. Do not in any way dissipate your noble nature. Do not give
up your birthright. May you soon recover perfect health, the health
of strength and happiness! may you soon return to us confirmed
in all the powers essential to the exertion of genius! You were
born for your country, and your native land must be the scene of
your activity. I shall expect the time when your spirit, bursting
through the clouds of ill-health, will appear to all men, not
as an uncertain and brilliant flame, but as a fair and permanent
light, fixed, though constantly in motion, as a sun which gives its
fire not only to its attendant planets, but which sends beams from
all its parts into all worlds.
May blessings attend you, my dear friend! Do not forget me; we live
for different ends and with different habits and pursuits, but our
feelings with regard to each other have, I believe, never altered.
They must continue; they can have no natural death. I trust they
can never be destroyed by fortune, chance, or accident.
H. DAVY.
In October Davy thus wrote to a friend on the death of Gregory Watt,
the son of James Watt:
We are deceived, my dear Clayfield, if we suppose that the human
being who has formed himself for action, but who has been unable
to act, is lost in the mass of being. There is some arrangement of
things which we can never comprehend, but in which his faculties
will be applied.
The caterpillar, in being converted into an inert scaly mass, does
not appear to be fitting itself for an inhabitant of the air, and
can have no consciousness of the brilliancy of its future being.
We are masters of the earth, but perhaps we are the slaves of some
great but unknown beings. The fly that we crush with our finger or
feed with our viands, has no knowledge of man and no consciousness
of his superiority. We suppose that we are acquainted with matter
and with all its elements, and yet we cannot even guess at the
cause of electricity or explain the laws of the formation of the
stones which fall from meteors.
There may be beings--thinking beings--near us, surrounding us,
which we do not perceive, which we can never imagine. We know
very little, but, in my opinion, we know enough to hope for the
immortality--the _individual immortality_--_of the better part of
man_.
I have been led into all this speculation, which you may well think
wild, in reflecting upon the fate of Gregory; my feeling has given
erring wings to my mind. He was a noble fellow and would have been
a great man.
His letters to me only three or four months ago were full of
spirit, and spoke not of any infirmity of body, but of an
increasing strength of mind. Why is this in the order of nature,
that there is such a difference in the duration and destruction
of her works? If the mere stone decays, it is to produce a soil
which is capable of nourishing the moss and the lichen; when the
moss and the lichen die and decompose, they produce a mould which
becomes the bed of life to grass and to a more exalted species of
vegetables. Vegetables are the food of animals, the less perfect
animals of the more perfect, but in man the faculties and intellect
are perfected; he rises, exists for a little while in disease and
misery, and then would seem to disappear without an end and without
producing any effect.
Another mention of Coleridge occurs in February, when Davy wrote to Mr.
Poole:
There has been no news lately from Coleridge; the last accounts
state that he was well in the autumn and in Sicily. On that poetic
ground we may hope and trust that his genius will call forth some
new creations, and that he may bring back to us some garlands of
never-dying verse. I have written to urge him strongly to give a
course of lectures on Poetry at the Royal Institution, where his
feeling would strongly impress and his eloquence greatly delight.
In January 1805 Davy presented his collection of minerals to the Royal
Institution. They were valued at one hundred guineas.
On February 4, as Director of the Laboratory, he received an addition
of 100_l._ to his salary.
He had two papers read at the Royal Society, one on a ‘New Mineral,
consisting of Alumine and Water,’ and the other on a ‘New Mode of
Analysing Minerals containing Fixed Alkali by Boracic Acid,’ and for
these and his other papers he received the Copley medal.
In September he thus wrote to Davies Gilbert:
I came from Ireland by the Western Road about a fortnight ago.
The Irish are a noble race degraded by slavery and bearing
the insignia of persecution--extreme savageness or the lowest
servility. Yet they are ingenious and active, and seem to me to
possess all the elements of power and usefulness; but amongst the
lower orders there is a most unfortunate equality, destructive of
all great and efficient exertion, and amongst the higher classes
the greatest degree of activity is awakened only by the desire of
imitating the English, and that not so much in their virtues as in
their luxuries and follies.
And to his friend Poole he wrote, October 9:
I have very much to say about Ireland. It is an island that might
be made a new and a great country. It now boasts a fertile soil,
an ingenious and robust peasantry, and a rich aristocracy, but the
bane of the nation is the equality of poverty amongst the lower
orders. All are slaves without the probability of becoming free.
They are in the state of equality which the sans-culottes wished
for in France, and until emulation and riches and the love of
clothes and neat houses are introduced amongst them there will be
no permanent improvement.
Changes in political institutions can at first do little towards
serving them; it must be by altering their habits, by diffusing
manufactures, by destroying middle men, by dividing farms, and by
promoting industry, by making the pay proportioned to the work.
But I ought not to attempt to say anything on the subject when my
limits are so narrow.
Up to 1806 the lectures given by Davy had brought to him repute and to
the Royal Institution success. To his high reputation as a lecturer he
was now about to add that of a great original discoverer. As early as
July 3, 1800, he wrote to Davies Gilbert, ‘We have been repeating the
galvanic experiments with success.’ (See p. 316.) These experiments
led him to think that all chemical decompositions might be polar. He
electrised different compounds at the different poles of the battery,
but he made no great discovery for five years. The assertion that acid
and alkali were generated by the action of the voltaic pile in the
decomposition of water led him to undertake fresh galvanic experiments
in 1806. Before long he was rewarded by his great discoveries regarding
chemical electricity, the decomposition of the alkalies, and the
composition of chlorine.
It appears from the Laboratory Books that in September he first made
experiments on phosphorus with the galvanic spark, and in the last week
of October he ‘tried to decompose phosphorus by the galvanic fluid.’ He
fused the phosphorus into a tube through which a platinum wire passed.
This was the form of the experiment which he made a year afterwards to
compel potash to give up its oxygen.
On November 20 his first Bakerian lecture was given at the Royal
Society. It had this long title: On the ‘Chemical Agencies of
Electricity;’ on the ‘Changes Produced in Water by Electricity;’
on the ‘Agencies of Electricity;’ on the ‘Decomposition of various
Compound Bodies;’ on the ‘Transfer of certain Constituent Parts of
Bodies by the Action of Electricity;’ on the ‘Passage of Acids,
Alkalies, and other Substances through various Attracting Chemical
Menstrua by Means of Electricity;’ ‘Some General Observations on these
Phenomena, and on the Mode of Decomposition and Transition;’ on the
‘General Principles of the Chemical Changes Produced by Electricity;’
on the ‘Relations between the Electrical Energies of Bodies and their
Chemical Affinities;’ on the ‘Mode of Action of the Pile of Volta,
with Experimental Elucidations;’ on ‘Some General Illustrations and
Applications of the Foregoing Facts and Principles.’
This was the first dawn of light regarding the inseparable union
between chemical and electrical motions. The two ends of the pile
of metals gave in quantity and quality different chemical results,
and the chemical products varied with the variations of the liquid
into which the poles were put. The identity of chemical affinity and
electricity was imagined, and a new division of elements was made into
electro-positive and electro-negative, according as the one or other
end of the pile attracted them. The kind of polarity of each matter was
thought to determine the electrical and chemical actions shown by it.
Napoleon had founded a prize of 2,400_l._ for a discovery comparable
to that of Franklin or Volta, and at the same time he founded with
the interest a medal, of 120_l._ value yearly, for the best experiment
on the galvanic fluid. This medal for the year 1807 was given to Davy
for this paper, which was then printed. Davy wrote to Mr. Poole,
‘Some people say I ought not to accept this prize, and there have
been foolish paragraphs in the papers to that effect; but if the two
countries or governments are at war, the men of science are not. That
would indeed be a civil war of the worst description; we should rather,
through the instrumentality of men of science, soften the asperities of
national hostility.’
On January 22, 1807, Davy was elected secretary of the Royal Society.
Dr. Young wrote to a friend:
I believe your pheasants have assisted in bringing my friend Davy
into a hundred a year and the office of secretary of the Royal
Society. It had never occurred to him to offer himself till I
suggested it to him one day when he dined with me. The next day he
heard of poor Gray’s death, and, upon applying to the President,
he was, after some deliberation, approved, although another person
had before been encouraged. If I had not been a member of an
_illiberal_ profession I should have liked the situation myself,
but perhaps the public is right in discouraging a divided attention.
At the end of August Davy wrote to Mr. Poole:
I am obliged to be in the neighbourhood of town during the greater
part of the summer for the purpose of correcting the proofs for the
‘Philosophical Transactions.’
If Coleridge is still with you, be kind enough to say to him that
I wrote nearly a week ago two letters about lectures, and, not
knowing where he was, I addressed them to him at different places.
I wish very much he would seriously determine on this point. The
managers of the Royal Institution are very anxious to engage him,
and I think he might be of material service to the public and
of benefit to his own mind, to say nothing of the benefit his
purse might also receive. In the present condition of society his
opinions in matters of taste, literature, and metaphysics must have
a healthy influence; and, unless he soon becomes an active member
of the living world, he must expect to be hereafter brought to
judgment for hiding his light.
Seven months afterwards Davy again wrote to Mr. Poole:
Coleridge, after disappointing his audience twice from illness,
is announced to lecture again this week. He has suffered greatly
from excessive sensibility, the disease of genius. His mind is
a wilderness in which the cedar and the oak, which might aspire
to the skies, are stunted in their growth by underwood, thorns,
briars, and other parasitical plants. With the most exalted
genius, enlarged views, sensitive heart, and enlightened mind he
will be the victim of want of order, precision, and regularity. I
cannot think of him without experiencing the mingled feelings of
admiration, regard, and pity.
Why do you not come to London? Many would be happy to see you, but
no one more so than your very sincere Friend, my dear Poole,
H. DAVY.
The Laboratory Books show that the last week in September 1807 he
exposed magnesia upon a glass plate at the positive pole with distilled
water. Four days afterwards he put oxide of zinc in a coagulated state
round the positive pole.
On October 6 he began ‘a new series of experiments on polarity.’
From the account he gives of one experiment, it appears that he exposed
different substances on a glass plate to the action of the platinum
wires from a galvanic battery of 100 plates of 6 inches.
He tried the following substances: oxalic acid, dry; succinic acid;
oxalic acid; soap; alcohol; water; carbonate of ammonia; nitrate of
potash. He wrote, ‘Pure potash, as dry as it can be made, discharges
the negative in a remarkable degree and insulates the positive.’
‘_Remarkable Phenomena with Potash._ It soon--’ Here the laboratory
note ends, but his paper in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’
says--‘fused, became a conductor, and gave brilliant light with
the appearance of flame at the negative wire. When it was slightly
moistened, to make it a better conductor, the potash began to fuse
at both its points of electrisation; there was a violent effusion at
its upper or positive surface, while at the lower or negative surface
there was no liberation of an elastic fluid, but a formation of
small granules resembling quicksilver, which occasionally burst with
explosion.’
He then tried carbonate of ammonia, sulphuric acid and water, soap, and
the flame of a candle.
The following day carbonate of ammonia and oxalic acid were tried,
sulphuric acid, water, and alcohol.
From the 7th to the 16th no experiments were entered in the Laboratory
Book; but to the substance that produced the gas and globules he
gave the name first of alkaligen; for on the 16th he says, ‘Gas from
alkaligen in alcohol;’ also ‘gas from ether and gas from oil of
turpentine.’
On the 17th he again experimented on this gas from the alkaligen in
ether and turpentine, and says, ‘The gas which had been collected from
the globules under oil of turpentine by the action of water burnt in
contact with the air. Does it (the matter of the globules) not form
gaseous compounds with ether, alcohol, and the oils?’
Then he notes the action of the alkaligen on mercury. ‘Forms with it
a solid amalgam, which soon loses its alkaligen in the air.’ ‘This
amalgam amalgamates with platina and iron, but soon flies off on
exposure to the air.’ ‘Query, Does it amalgamate with phosphorus?’
‘Probably whenever it meets with hydrogen it dissolves in it.’
‘Probably forms an æriform compound with ether.’
[Illustration]
On October 19 he made his famous experiment by which he showed
beyond question that potash can give up its oxygen. ‘When potash
was introduced into a tube having a platina wire attached to it, so
(fig.), and fused into the tube so as to be a conductor--_i.e._ so as
to contain just water enough, though solid--and inserted over mercury,
when the platina was made negative, no gas was formed and the mercury
became oxydated, and a small quantity of the alkaligen was produced
round the platina wire, as was evident from its quick inflammation by
the action of water. When the mercury was made the negative, gas was
developed in great quantities from the positive wire, and none from
the negative mercury, and this gas proved to be pure oxygen--a capital
experiment, proving the decomposition of potash.’ ‘A small quantity of
alkaligen was produced round the platina wire.’
‘The gas produced from alkaligen confined under mercury by the contact
of water seemed to be hydrogen nearly pure. Soda decomposed with
different phenomena.’
Davy made no more notes on that day.
On the 20th he worked on the gas obtained from sodagen and potagen, and
writes, ‘Barytes gave at the oxygen side, when touched with the wire,
an appearance like combustion--a bright rose-coloured light. Mem.: To
try what effect the hydrogen side will have upon it.’
On the 21st he again worked on the gas, and says the gas from ether,
when properly washed, seemed to be pure hydrogen.
He then says, ‘Examined the effect of heat this day and last night
of the peculiar substance.’ Then he notes the results, and then
he continues, ‘what can be the reason if the metallic globule is
composed of A and H (alkaligen and hydrogen)--What is the reason that
water and ether and alcohol saturated with potash still act on it so
energetically?’
On the 24th he tried the substance with sulphur and phosphorus.
On the 25th, 26th, and 27th he worked on barytes, &c.
On the 27th barytes heated to whiteness did not become a conductor.
On October 30 he was still at work on the gas.
On October 31 he says, ‘When the substance amalgamated with mercury,
was distilled in a glass retort, and the contents received over
mercury, no air was generated; nor over water till the sublimed
substance came in contact with the water, when hydrogen was evolved.’
On November 2 he was still working on potagen.
‘Probably this substance combines with oxygen in two proportions, the
_red colour_ owing to this; and it is owing to this that it acts upon
plate-glass.’
‘The first oxide a peculiar substance capable of being procured with
much difficulty, the second potash.’
In the midst of his discovery the condition of the laboratory made him
write in the book ‘some regulations with regard to the state of the
laboratory.’
‘1. Everything is to be put in its proper place in the evening, and
everything to be arranged for the next day’s operations.
‘2. The fire to be lighted at eight o’clock, and the apparatus for the
experiments to be prepared by nine.’
On November 4 he writes, ‘The result of the distillation of as pure a
piece (of potagen) as I could obtain seemed to be hydrogene nearly pure.
‘The gas given out from an amalgam of it with mercury likewise
hydrogene.’
On November 5 many experiments were made.
On November 6 he still worked on the gas. His notes say ‘on the
combustion of sodagen and potagen with oxygen.’
‘Potagen certainly sublimes unaltered at a temperature below red heat.
It is twenty times lighter than mercury.’
On November 13 he wrote to his friend Mr. Pepys:
I have decomposed and recomposed the fixed alkalies and discovered
their bases to be two new inflammable substitutes very like
metals, but one of them lighter than ether and infinitely [more]
combustible; so that there are two bodies decomposed and two new
elementary bodies found.
The Bakerian lecture was read on November 19, only four days before
Davy was obliged to take to his bed by illness. The first sketch of
this famous paper was thus made in the Laboratory Book:
‘The substance is analogous to some of those imagined to exist by the
alchemical visionaries.
‘Possessing all the physical properties of metals except high specific
gravity, it seems to combine with all of them, and form with them truly
metallic amalgams; but in all cases it is capable of being separated
from them by its greater facility of oxidation.’
Then he gives the action on water and ice.
The theory of its operation upon water is extremely simple.
3. ‘When,’ he says, ‘the peculiar substance was brought in contact with
a thin piece of phosphorus and pressed upon, there is a considerable
action.’
4. ‘When it was brought in contact with sulphur in fusion in tubes
filled with the vapour of naphtha, they combine with varied ignition.’
5. ‘The new substance produces some beautiful results with mercury.’
Then he describes the alloys.
‘The basis of potash, when thrown into the strong mineral acids,
inflames and burns on the surface.’
Then he describes the effects with sulphuric acid, and nitrous acid.
‘The action of the basis of potash on fat and volatile oils, and on
various bodies, is less violent than on any other class of compound
substances containing oxygen, as might have been expected from the
small quantity of this principle which they hold in combination.
‘The application of naphtha to its preservation I have already
mentioned. On the colourless and perfectly transparent naphtha
distilled from petroleum or from brown naphtha at a low heat, and
defended from air, it has scarcely any action at common temperatures.’
Then he describes the further action on naphtha.
‘The fat and volatile oils closely related to naphtha in composition
resemble it likewise in their habitudes with the basis of potash.
The lightest naphtha that I have been able to procure by double
distillation was of spec. gr. 770, water being 1,000, and was almost
colourless. In this fluid, confined in close vessels, the globules swam
for hours without apparently affecting it, but by degrees a yellow film
formed upon them, the naphtha became brown at its point of contact,
and the globules sank to the bottom of the vessel. After some days the
fluid surrounding the globule appeared black and turbid.
‘The fat and volatile oils approach to naphtha in their habitudes with
respect to the basis of potash.
‘The fat oils follow naphtha in the order of bodies that slightly act
upon it; and the volatile oils, the fat oils; but they all contain
sufficient oxygen to render the basis of potash alkaline, if it is
exposed to them for a sufficient time and in proper quantities,
and that more or less rapidly, according to the circumstances.
When naphtha or the oils are exposed to air they soon alkalise the
basis. Oxygen is absorbed from the air, and a soap is formed, brown
from the decomposition of the compound fluid during the time of the
alkalisation. If air be excluded the process is a much longer time in
taking place; no gas is emitted in the fixed oils or in naphtha; but
in the volatile oils hydrocarbonate is produced in small quantities,
and in all these cases charcoal is deposited. In oil of turpentine the
process is more rapid than in any other oil I have tried, and this oil
contains either water or the elements of water, and perhaps a larger
proportion of oxygen to its inflammable matter.
‘Nor ought we to be surprised that these substances have never been
produced in nature. Their strong attraction for oxygen renders it
impossible.’
‘The division into two poles:
‘The basis of potash, by its strong attraction for oxygen, decomposes
all the metallic oxides which I _have_ exposed to it by a gentle heat.
‘The oxides of lead it instantly acts upon, and the metal is revived
and alkali formed. In consequence of this operation it cannot be
preserved in tubes of flint glass.
‘Are the bases of the fixed alkalies simple bodies? I perhaps shall be
asked.
‘But are these singular bodies themselves compounds? Have we reached
the limits of our analysis--More capable of combining with oxygene than
the basis of water?
‘The basis of potash serves almost as an accurate indication of the
proportion of oxygene in bodies and exactly in proportion--camphor,
spermaceti, wax, volatile oils.
‘In the course of my inquiries many circumstances arose at first
anomalous, but which soon were capable of being explained, and which,
when understood, seemed to extend the general facts which had been
detailed.’
A long break here occurs in the Laboratory Notes. On November 23, 1807,
Davy was taken ill with fever.
On December 7 the Managers’ Minutes say, ‘Mr. Davy having been confined
to his bed for the last fortnight by a severe illness, the managers are
under the painful necessity of giving notice that the lectures will not
commence until the first week in January next.’
On January 18 the managers of the Royal Institution ordered 500 copies
of the following paper to be printed:
NEW DISCOVERY IN CHEMISTRY.
January 18, 1808.
For the satisfaction of those proprietors who were not present
at the opening of the Rev. Mr. Dibden’s introductory lecture on
Wednesday last the managers have obtained and printed the following
note of it:
‘Before I solicit your attention to the opening of those lectures
which I shall have the honour of delivering in the course of the
season, permit me to trespass upon it for a few minutes by stating
the peculiar circumstances under which this Institution is now
again opened, and how it comes to pass that it has fallen to me
rather than to a more deserving lecturer to be the first to address
you.
‘The managers of this Institution have directed me to impart to you
that intelligence which no one who is alive to the best feelings
of human nature can hear without the mixed emotions of sorrow and
delight.
‘Mr. Davy, whose frequent and powerful addresses from this place,
supported by his ingenious experiments, have been so long and so
well known to you, has for the last five weeks been struggling
between life and death. The effects of those experiments recently
made in illustration of his late splendid discovery, added to
consequent bodily weakness, brought on a fever so violent as to
threaten the extinction of life. Over him it might emphatically be
said, in the language of the immortal Milton, that--
Death his dart shook, but delayed to strike.
If it had pleased Providence to deprive the world of all _further_
benefit from his original talents and intense application there
has certainly been sufficient _already_ effected by him to entitle
him to be classed among the brightest scientific luminaries of
his country. That this may not appear to be unfounded eulogium I
shall proceed, at the particular request of the managers, to give
you an outline of the splendid discovery just alluded to, and I do
so with the greater pleasure as that outline has been drawn in a
very masterly manner by a gentleman of all others perhaps the best
qualified to do it effectually (Cavendish?)
‘In the course of the last twenty-five or thirty years the science
of chemistry has undergone great changes and has been astonishingly
augmented by various important discoveries, amongst which the most
remarkable have been the decomposition and recomposition of water
and of nitric acid, discovered by Mr. Cavendish, and the consequent
knowledge of the nature of metallic calces (now called oxides) with
that of acids in general.
‘But although the two fixed alkalies called soda and potash were
attacked by the most eminent chemists with every known chemical
agent and by every method which the improved state of science
could suggest, not the smallest effect could be produced on
them; so that the nature of these two common substances remained
totally unascertained and became a grand desideratum of chemical
science. When, however, M. Volta had communicated to the Royal
Society his great discovery of the galvanic pile, and when this
had been modified into the more convenient form of troughs by
Crookshank of Woolwich, the electro-galvanic power was found by
various philosophers to produce surprising effects when applied
to different substances, and Mr. Davy in particular distinguished
himself in these researches and made a number of valuable
experiments and observations, some of the more remarkable of which
he communicated to the Royal Society in the Bakerian lecture read
in November 1806. Mr. Davy conceived, however, from what he had
then accomplished, that much more might be done; and with equal
skill and perseverance he performed a new series of experiments, in
the course of which, by various means, he again tried the effect of
the powerful galvanic batteries belonging to the laboratory of the
Royal Institution, and particularly devoted his attention to the
two fixed alkalies (soda and potash), with the view of effecting
their decomposition and of ascertaining the nature of them by means
of that powerful agent galvanism.
‘This great discovery he at length effected; and, to the high
gratification of all men of science, he proved that soda and potash
are compound bodies, each consisting of a peculiar metal, which
has so great a tendency to combine with oxygen that no agent but
galvanism can separate them. The two metals, therefore, of soda
and potash have always hitherto been presented to us in this state
of combination with oxygen, forming the two alkalies. But some of
the primitive earths (as they are called), such as barytes and
strontites, have many alkaline properties, which induced Mr. Davy
to subject them to similar experiments; and in like manner he
discovered that these consisted of metallic bases united to oxygen,
forming compound bodies analogous to the two fixed alkalies. These
may justly be placed amongst the most brilliant and valuable
discoveries which have ever been made in chemistry, for a great
chasm in the chemical system has been filled up; a blaze of light
has been diffused over that part which before was utterly dark;
and new views have been opened so numerous and interesting that
the more any man who is versed in chemistry reflects on them,
the more he finds to admire and to heighten his expectation of
future important results. Mr. Davy’s name, in consequence of these
discoveries, will be always recorded in the annals of science
amongst those of the most illustrious philosophers of his time.
His country, with reason, will be proud of him; and it is no small
honour to the Royal Institution that these great discoveries
have been made within its walls, in that laboratory and by those
instruments which, from the zeal of promoting useful knowledge,
have with so much propriety been placed at the disposal and for the
use of the Professor of Chemistry.
‘This recital [said Dr. Dibden] will be sufficient to convince
those who hear of the celebrity which the author of such a
discovery has a right to attach to himself; and yet no one, I am
confident, has less inclination to challenge it. To us and to every
enlightened Englishman it will be a matter of just congratulation
that the country which has produced the two Bacons and Boyle has in
these days shown itself worthy of its former renown by the labours
of Cavendish and Davy.
‘The illness of the latter, severe as it has been, is now beginning
to abate,[35] and we may reasonably hope, from present appearances
at least, that the period of convalescence is not very remote.’[36]
The recovery of Davy was slow.
On February 22 he attended at the request of the Committee of Managers,
and informed them that he should be able to commence his course of
lectures on Electro-Chemical Science on Saturday, March 12, at two
o’clock, and those on Geology on Wednesday evening, the sixteenth of
that month. In his opening lecture he thus spoke of electro-chemistry
and its power of analysis: ‘In this it will be seen that Volta has
presented to us a key which promises to lay open some of the most
mysterious recesses of nature. Till this discovery our means were
limited; the field of pneumatic research had been exhausted, and little
remained for the experimentalist except minute and laborious processes.
There is now before us a boundless prospect of novelty in science, a
country unexplored but noble and fertile in aspect, a land of promise
in philosophy.’
In the Laboratory Book, probably about this time, he wrote, ‘An
instrument for procuring those metals that have not yet been
reduced--_for decomposing muriatic acid gas_, fluoric, &c., and
_boracic acid gas_.’
On April 19 and 20 Davy was again at work with the battery of 520 pair
of plates.
He began thus: ‘Indications of the decomposition of muriatic acid. To
use every effort to ensure accuracy in the results.’
‘A given quantity of muriatic acid gas was acted upon by dry charcoal;
there was continued vivid light in the galvanic circuit. The action was
continued for ten minutes; when a little water was added no absorption
took place, so that all the muriatic acid gas was decomposed. Some
other experiments were made with dry muriate of lime and mercury and
with a solution of muriate of lime, strontium, and soda.’
On June 30 he had a paper read at the Royal Society on the
‘Decomposition of the Earths Strontia, Lime, Magnesia, by Means of Iron
at the Negative End of the Battery.’ Berzelius having mentioned in a
letter that he had succeeded by using mercury as the negative pole,
Davy repeated Berzelius’s experiment, and decomposed alumina and silica
by an amalgam of mercury and potassium at the negative end of the
battery.
On July 11 he laid before the managers of the Royal Institution the
following paper:
A new path of discovery having been opened in the agencies of
the electrical battery of Volta, which promises to lead to the
greatest improvements in chemistry and natural philosophy and the
useful arts connected with them; and since the increase of the
size of the apparatus is absolutely necessary for pursuing it to
its full extent, it is proposed to raise a fund by subscription
for constructing a powerful battery, worthy of a national
establishment and capable of promoting the great objects of science.
Already in other countries public and ample means have been
provided for pursuing these investigations. They have had their
origin in this country, and it would be dishonourable to a nation
so great, so powerful, and so rich if, from the want of pecuniary
resources, they should be completed abroad.
An appeal to enlightened individuals on this subject can scarcely
be made in vain. It is proposed that the instrument and apparatus
be erected in the laboratory of the Royal Institution, where it
shall be employed in the advancement of this new department of
science.
The Managers’ Minutes then say:
The above paper having been laid before the board of managers, they
felt it their indispensable duty instantly to communicate the same
to every member of the Institution, lest the slightest delay might
furnish an opportunity to other countries for accomplishing this
great work, which originated in the brilliant discoveries recently
made at the Royal Institution.
Lord Dundas, W. Watson, Thomas Bernard, and C. Hatchett, the
managers present, agreed to subscribe to this undertaking, and
ordered that a book be opened at the steward’s office for the
purpose of entering the names of all those who may wish to
contribute towards this important national object.[37]
The sum wanted was soon raised, and Davy thus described the battery:
‘It consists of 200 instruments, connected together in regular order,
each composed of ten double plates, arranged in cells of porcelain, and
containing in each plate thirty-two square inches; so that the whole
number of double plates is 2,000, and the whole surface 128,000 square
inches. This battery was charged with sixty parts water and one part of
nitric acid. It gave a spark from charcoal points through four inches
of air.’
On July 12 the Laboratory Notes say, ‘Tried the experiments upon the
decomposition of the earths by iron wire with the happiest results.’
These were obtained with the battery of only twenty pair.
On July 18 he wrote, ‘In pursuit of the researches on the deoxygenation
of diamond and charcoal.
‘Is not diamond the 2-oxide of carbon, charcoal the 1-oxide, the
gaseous oxide of carbon a triple compound of hydrogen, nitrogen, and
charcoal?’
On September 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 experiments were tried on the
production of cold by induced electricity. He tried the decomposition
of sulphur ‘with success.’ He tried to decompose mercury in the
Torricellian vacuum ‘with success apparently.’
‘Sulphur, after giving out hydrogen by electricity, had lost its
yellow colour and _was became brownish_, but still non-conducting,
crystalline, and transparent.’
Numberless experiments were made on the action of potassium on ammonia
and on nitrogen.
In November he must have injured his right hand, for his notes are made
with his left hand on the 19th and 20th of this month.
On December 15 he gave another Bakerian lecture on New Analytical
Researches on Alkalies, Phosphorus, Sulphur, &c. In this paper he says
his chief object was to show that there was oxygen in ammonia, and
that potassium was not a compound of the metal and hydrogen. He made
further experiments also on the decomposition of boracic, fluoric, and
muriatic acids.
On December 27, 1808, Davy wrote to Coleridge:
Alas, poor Beddoes is dead! He died on Christmas Eve. He wrote to
me two letters on two successive days--22nd and 23rd. From the
first, which was full of affection and new feeling, I anticipated
his state. He is gone at the moment when his mind was purified and
exalted for noble affections and great works.
My heart is heavy. I would talk to you of your own plans, which I
shall endeavour in every way to promote; I would talk to you of
my own labours, which have been incessant since I saw you and not
without result; but I am interrupted by very melancholy feelings,
which, when you see this, I know you will partake of. Ever, my dear
Coleridge, very affectionately yours,
H. DAVY.
On December 28 he wrote in the Laboratory Book, ‘We have tried a number
of experiments within the last few days on the muriatic and fluoric
acids, heating them with potassium.’
Early in 1809 Davy sent an appendix to his last Bakerian lecture to the
Royal Society. In it he spoke ‘of the general results being decisive
with regard to a decomposition of nitrogen having been effected.’
In a letter at this time he told his friend Mr. Children ‘he hoped to
show him nitrogen as a complete wreck, torn to pieces in different
ways.’
On January 18 he wrote, ‘Capital result from the action of potassium
on ammonia. Nitrogen was lost. If the nitrogen is to be considered as
converted into oxygen and hydrogen, it must be regarded as containing
much more oxygen than water; and if we do not adopt this supposition,
the only alternative is that water is the ponderable matter which,
under different modifications of electro-chemical existence,
constitutes oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and the nitrous compounds.’
On February 15 he wrote in the Laboratory Book, ‘Were a description,
indeed, to be given of all the experiments I have made, of all the
difficulties I have encountered, of the doubts that have occurred, and
the hypotheses formed--’ The sentence was not finished, and more time
was lost on the investigation.
Throughout the spring and summer more experiments were made on ammonia
and nitrogen.
He ignited potassium by the voltaic spark in nitrogen, and found
that some hydrogen was evolved and some nitrogen lost; but when the
potassium was free from potash this did not occur, and at last he gave
up trying to show that nitrogen was a compound of oxygen and a metallic
basis.
At the end of August he was working on tellurium and made telluretted
hydrogen.
To his mother he wrote in August:
At present, except when I resolve to be idle for health’s sake,
I devote every moment to labours which I hope will not be wholly
ineffectual in benefiting society, and which will not be wholly
inglorious for my country hereafter; and the feeling of this is the
reward which will continue to keep me employed.
On September 13 he wrote in the Laboratory Book this verbal picture of
his laboratory:
Objects much wanted in the laboratory of the Royal Institution:
Cleanliness, neatness, and regularity.
The laboratory must be cleaned every morning when operations are
going on before ten o’clock.
It is the business of W. Payne[38] to do this, and it is the duty
of Mr. E. Davy to see that it is done and to take care of and keep
in order the apparatus.
There must be in the laboratory pen, ink, paper, and wafers, and
these must not be kept in the slovenly manner in which they usually
are kept. I am now writing with a pen and ink such as was never
used in any other place.
There are wanting small graduated glass tubes blown here and
measured to ten grains of mercury.
There are wanting four new stopcocks fitted to our air-pump.
There are wanting twelve green glass retorts.
There are wanting most of the common metallic and saline solutions,
such as acetate of copper, nitrate of silver, nitrate of
barytes--most of these made in the laboratory.
All the wine-glasses should be cleaned.
And, as all operation ceases at six o’clock in the evening, there
is plenty of time for getting things in order before night; but if
they are not got into order the same night, they must be by ten
o’clock the next day.
The laboratory is constantly in a state of dirt and confusion.
There must be a roller with a coarse towel for washing the hands
and a basin of water and soap, and every week at least a whole
morning must be devoted to the inspection and ordering of the
voltaic battery.
For Thursday--_i.e._ to-morrow--the experiments in the morning
are on the excitation of radiant heat and electricity in different
gases. For the experiments on Friday, which will be on tellurium,
there are wanting very pure hydrogen; two bottles of _new_, very
pure oxymuriatic gas; two new stopcocks cemented into retorts,
with stoppers, either green or white; some tubes of this bore
[Illustration] or near it, closed at one end and six inches long;
a spirit lamp made from a phial of large bore and the tube larger
than that at present used.
[Illustration]
On September 14 he tried various experiments on the excitation of
electricity. The Laboratory Book says, ‘Present in these and the former
experiments, Mr. Cavendish, Dr. Herschel, Mr. Herschel, Sir Charles
Blagden (not in the second set on electricity); Dr. Wollaston, Mr.
Warburton.’
The repulsion of the machine was compared to the repulsion in a partial
vacuum, in hydrogen, in carbonic acid, and in rarefied carbonic acid.
The former experiments the same day were on the rise of a thermometer
heated by a coil of platinum wire in different gases.
On September 21 the Note-Book says:
_An Experiment to Decompose Muriatic Acid Gas._--A balloon
having three openings, to one of which a stopcock was cemented,
and in the other two were corks containing wires, so adapted to
each other that a contact might be made. Pieces of well-burnt
charcoal were fastened to the ends of the wires. The apparatus,
being air-tight, was exhausted and filled with hydrogen; another
exhaustion being made, the balloon was filled with oxymuriatic
gas from a gas-holder, with which it was connected by means of a
stopcock. The two wires being joined to the voltaic apparatus and
a contact of the charcoal made, the ignition was brilliant without
any apparent combustion; white fumes were presently produced, which
in a short time disappeared again, and were afterwards, during the
remaining time the experiment was in hand, only formed when two new
points of charcoal came in contact, or when the flame played on the
copper wire which fastened the charcoal. The light emitted was a
brilliant yellowish colour, frequently assuming a fine lake. After
an hour’s time the gas appeared unaltered, of its original colour.
The higher parts of the pieces of charcoal were covered with a fine
greenish-yellow powder, otherwise unaltered.
Tin-leaf thrown in through one of the openings began immediately to
form with the oxymuriatic acid gas the fuming liquor of Libavius.
When shook it inflamed.
On September 23, 1809, in a letter to Mr. Children, he mentions
this experiment, and says ‘it is as difficult to decompose as
nitrogen, except when all its elements can be made to enter into new
combinations.’
On October 3, among ‘the hints for experiments’ in the Note-Book is
this, to detonate together hydrogen and oxymuriatic acid.
Another Bakerian lecture was given, and then he continued his
researches on ammonia.
On November 24 ‘experiments to be in progress’ are thus entered in the
Laboratory Book:
1. To decompose sulphuretted hydrogen by electricity in an
apparatus by which the results can be accurately known.
2. To pass potassium through ignited powdered quartz.
3. To decompose muriatic acid gas by potassium, so as to ascertain
the quantity of hydrogen formed.
4. To weigh ammonia, hydrogen, and nitrogen, sulphuretted hydrogen
and gaseous fluoric acid, nitrous oxide, and oxymuriatic acid gas.
5. To make a series of experiments upon the ores and products of
cast iron.
6. To ascertain with greater precision than has been yet obtained
the nature of the acid matter formed in pure water, oxygenated or
not.
7. To decompose fluoric acid gas, and to ascertain the source of
the hydrogen which it gives by the operation of potassium.
8. To make various experiments on the amalgamation of ammonia,
using different amalgams of mercury and different modes of
excluding water.
9. To endeavour to bring the ὑδὼρ theory to a test of producing
oxygen from water without hydrogen.
10. To decompose muriate of soda and litharge and other bodies that
contain no water by electricity, and to see what happens.
In the early part of 1810 the experiments were chiefly on the action of
potassium on sulphur and phosphorus.
From analogy oxygen had been considered as the acidifying principle of
the muriatic acid, or spirit of salt. It was thought to combine with
more oxygen, and then was called oxygenated muriatic acid, although
its powers as an acid were weakened and it became more volatile and
bleached.
Davy sent two papers to the Royal Society, on this subject. The first
was on July 12, ‘Researches on Oxymuriatic Acid and the Elements of
Muriatic Acid; with Experiments on Sulphur and Phosphorus,’ and the
second, on November 15, was the ‘Bakerian Lecture on Some of the
Combinations of Oxymuriatic Gas and Oxygen, and on the Chemical
Relations of these Principles to Inflammable Bodies.’
In the first paper he says, ‘Scheele considered oxymuriatic acid as
more simple than muriatic acid, and that it became muriatic acid by
union with phlogiston. Berthollet said it contained oxygen. The vivid
combustion of many bodies in this gas has favoured the presumption
that it contained oxygen very loosely combined, and ready to exert its
utmost power of affinity; but it is mere presumption, since heat and
light result also from the intense agency of any other combination
without the presence of oxygen.’
On July 3 he wrote, ‘Equal parts of oxymuriatic acid and hydrogene,
both dried, were detonated. There was a diminution equal to about 1/12,
and muriatic gas was formed; and this was over mercury, and some of
the oxymuriatic acid burnt the mercury, and there was an excess of 1/4
hydrogene. Equal parts of oxymuriatic acid and sulphuretted hydrogene,
diminution about 1/12. Muriatic gas formed; sulphuretted hydrogene
apparently in excess.’
A most important experiment had been made on September 21, 1809, on the
resistance of oxymuriatic acid to galvanic decomposition; and as long
previously as April 19, 1808, he had decomposed muriatic acid with a
battery of 520 pair of plates.[39]
The experiments which were detailed in the Bakerian lecture read during
the absence of Davy on November 15, were made in July and August.
On August 30, after entering things wanted, he wrote in the Laboratory
Book:
‘No experiments are to be made or carried on in the laboratory without
the consent and approbation of the Professor of Chemistry. The attempt
at original experiment, unless preceded by knowledge, merely interferes
with the progress of discovery. There are a sufficient number of new
and interesting objects which a modest student would wish to pursue,
and in which the path is marked and distinct.’
On September 8 he was again experimenting on the decomposition of
nitrogen. He wrote, ‘And if it be said that no air and no water were
present (in the potassium, boracic acid, and ammonia), the experiment
is decisive as to the destruction of nitrogen and its containing the
same kind of elementary matter as water.’
To the like experiment, September 13, he wrote, ‘This experiment seems
almost decisive on the decomposition of nitrogen.’
Soon after he wrote, ‘Query, Does not the general tenor of the last
experiments lead to the suspicion of the decomposition of nitrogen?’
On September 16 he made this note: ‘Objects to be attempted during the
next week: To-morrow, oxymuriatic acid pure, to try absorption by two
grains of different metals--tin, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, copper,
platina, lead, zinc.’
On October 4, when he was about to start for Dublin, he wrote in the
Laboratory Book, ‘The principal thing, the laboratory in complete
order.’ He was absent from October 4 to the middle of December. No
experiments were entered until October 27; then there are some on
oxymuriatic acid by E. Davy.
On November 15 the action of oxymuriatic gas on dried nitrous gas was
repeated.
The next experiment was on November 24. ‘Two grains of silver were
entirely converted into horn-silver; the absorption of chlorine gas was
9/10 of a cubic inch.’ This was the first use of the word CHLORINE in
the Note-Book; it occurs daily afterwards. Oxymuriatic gas continued
the chief subject of the experiments in the laboratory up to the end of
February in the following year.
This year Davy was invited to deliver a course of lectures on
Electro-Chemical Science, and another course of six lectures on the
Application of Chemistry to Agriculture, in the new laboratory of the
Dublin Society. Having obtained permission as secretary to be absent
from the meetings of the Royal Society, he commenced his course on
November 8 and finished it on the 29th, and the Society requested his
acceptance of 500 guineas.
In 1811 he again delivered two courses, one on the Elements of
Chemical Philosophy and the other on Geology. For these he received
750_l._, and Trinity College made him a Doctor of Laws. Such
consideration for lectures on this side of the Atlantic sounds fabulous.
He wrote to his mother:
Balina, Ireland, October 24, 1811.
The laboratory in Dublin, which has been enlarged, so as to hold
550 people, will not hold half the persons who desire to hear my
lectures. The 550 tickets issued for the course by the Dublin
Society at two guineas each were all disposed of the first week,
and I am told now that from ten to twenty guineas are offered for a
ticket.
This is merely for your eye; it may please you to know that your
son is not unpopular or useless. Every person here, from the
highest to the lowest, shows me every attention and kindness.
I shall come to see you as soon as I can. I hear with infinite
delight of your health, and I hope Heaven will continue to preserve
and bless a mother who deserves so well of her children.
I am, your very affectionate Son,
H. DAVY.
During 1811 he made the acquaintance of Mrs. Appreece, the daughter
and heiress of Charles Carr, of Kelso, and about the end of the year
probably he wrote to his mother:
MY DEAR MOTHER,--You possibly may have heard reports of my intended
marriage. Till within the last few days it was mere report. It is,
I trust, now a settled arrangement. I am the happiest of men in the
hope of a union with a woman equally distinguished for virtues,
talent, and accomplishments.
* * * * *
You, I am sure, will sympathise in my happiness. I believe I should
never have married but for this charming woman, whose views and
whose tastes coincide with my own, and who is eminently qualified
to promote my best efforts and objects in life.
I am, your affectionate Son,
H. DAVY.
He wrote to his brother, at that time a medical student at Edinburgh:
MY DEAR JOHN,--Many thanks for your last letter. I have been
very miserable. The lady whom I love best of any human being has
been very ill. She is now well and I am happy. Mrs. Appreece has
consented to marry me, and when the event takes place I shall not
envy kings, princes, or potentates.
I am, my dear Brother, ever most affectionately yours,
H. DAVY.
The Laboratory Note-Book at this time contains very little work.
On February 21, 1811, he had a paper read to the Royal Society on a
‘Combination of Oxymuriatic Gas and Oxygen Gas, called Euchlorine.’
In July the action of chlorine on carbonic oxide, exposed for hours to
bright sunshine, was examined. He wrote, ‘The new gas seems to consist
of equal volumes of chlorine and carbonic oxide condensed to one
volume.’
On August 7 Davy wrote in the Laboratory Book, ‘To get nitrous oxide,
nitrous gas, and very pure chlorine for experiments. To try to
decompose nitrogen or to combine it with _chlorine_.’
On the 10th the exposure to the light had been continued two days
without result.
In the middle of August he experimented on the action of potassium on
silicated fluoric gas.
From September 2 to December 20 there are no entries in the Laboratory
Book. That day--the first after his return from Ireland--there are
experiments on the electrolization of water.
Early in the following year Sir Joseph Banks wrote to Sir George
Staunton (in China):
* * * * *
We are going on here as usual, but I think the taste for science
is on the increase. The Royal Society has been well supplied with
papers, and continues to be so. Davy, our secretary, is said to be
on the point of marrying a rich and handsome widow, who has fallen
in love with science and marries him in order to obtain a footing
in the academic groves; her name is Apreece, the daughter of Mr.
Carr, who made a fortune in India, and the niece of Dr. Carr, of
Northampton. If this takes place, it will give to science a kind of
new éclat; we want nothing so much as the countenance of the ladies
to increase our popularity.
Very little laboratory work was done in 1812. It appears from Davy’s
notes that a few experiments on euchlorine were made in January. In
February he was again working on sulphur and phosphorus and chlorine.
In March he was experimenting on borum with oxygen, and with chlorine.
In August an experiment was made to ascertain whether there is,
according to the received belief, a neutral part in the voltaic circle.
The battery consisted of forty double plates, thus arranged: Each
trough, excepting the end ones, was separately connected with a
glassful of mercury by polished copper wire, and each pair of glasses
was connected by very fine polished iron wire.
The effects took place at the moment of contact at all the wires, so
that there could have been no _neutral point_.
For the last time, after innumerable failures, he returned to the
decomposition of nitrogen.
On August 13 ‘experiment very cautiously made of the action of
potassium on nitrogene. Light green when mercury is employed, red when
potassium.’
On October 23 the Laboratory Book says:
‘A series of experiments to attempt to decompose hydrofluoric acid, and
to ascertain the constitution of the _fluoric combinations_.
‘1. To obtain pure hydrofluoric acid.
‘2. To obtain silicofluoric acid gas, and to decompose it by potassium
and by potash, and to ascertain the quantity of fluate of lime they
will give.
‘3. To make pure prussic acid.
‘4. To act upon pure prussic acid by chlorine.’
On November 5 a new detonating compound was formed; this was the
chloride of nitrogen.
This year Davy gave his last course of lectures on Chemical Philosophy
at the Royal Institution.
An account of four of these lectures ‘was taken off from notes by
Mr. Faraday.’ The subjects were Radiant Matter, Chlorine, Simple
Inflammables, and Metals. After the report of each lecture he gave the
experiments as a sequel, illustrated with drawings; the whole made a
small quarto of 386 pages, with an index of twenty-five pages. The
volume was bound by Mr. Faraday, and was sent to Davy as an evidence
of Faraday’s ‘knowledge, diligence, and order,’ when he asked for an
engagement at the Royal Institution.
Davy gave the lecture on Radiant Matter on February 29. He said, ‘With
respect to radiant or ethereal substances all our knowledge of it is
obtained from the effect it produces on us and terrestrial bodies when
in motion.
‘In our consideration of this subject it will be essentially necessary
that we distinguish between knowledge and speculation. These terms in
their meaning are palpably different, but yet have been intermixed and
_combined_ together in a very singular manner. The French chemists
in particular speak of the materiality of heat, and of the nature of
the compounds it forms, as confidently and as fluently as if they had
undeniably proved it to be a body. They have blended their knowledge
with speculation, and formed a theory that is very possibly untrue. The
most eminent phenomena of radiation are to be observed in light.’
And then he passed on to the laws of light and dwelt on Herschel’s
discovery that the heating power of red rays was to the green as
fifty-five to sixteen, and that he had himself found the thermometer
rose still higher beyond the red, and that heating rays are less
refrangible than light rays; then he showed a wire heated by the
voltaic battery in air and in vacuo, and said that he had proved ‘that
the radiating power is three times as strong in an exhausted receiver
as in the open air,’ and, ‘fully proves that radiation is not caused
by undulations in the atmosphere. It is strongest when no atmosphere
is present.’ He ends his account of the effects of radiant heat thus:
‘Were it not for this terrestrial radiation of earthly bodies, the heat
would accumulate from the rays of the sun until at last the whole world
would be uninhabitable.
‘But, besides the effects produced by the two species of
radiant matter--radiant light and radiant heat--there are other
effects--chemical effects--that take place caused by the action of
some radiant matter that comes to us from the sun, perhaps a single
substance that, independent of light and heat, causes effects by its
own power.’ And then he showed an experiment of chlorine and hydrogen
exposed to light.
He says, ‘There is a very singular analogy that exists between the
rays at the violet end of the spectrum, hydrogen gas, and the negative
pole of the voltaic battery; and opposed to it stands the analogy of
the rays at the red end of the spectrum to positive electricity; they
produce opposite effects to the first-mentioned arrangement, but act
similar to each other.
‘If that sublime idea of the ancients that there is only one species
of matter in the universe, and that its different properties depend on
the difference of size, shape and other qualities should be confirmed,
it would simplify the science in a most eminent degree, and at the same
time it would raise it to the acme of perfection.’
Opposing the view that oxygen gas contained light combined with it, and
gave light out in oxidation, he contrasted slowly oxidised iron with an
iron turning burnt in oxygen.
‘When the laws which govern in chemical science are fully known, there
is no doubt it will become a much more simple science. It cannot fail
to be so, since then it will be complete. Already it is one of the
most useful of the whole circle to man, and when in its utmost state
of improvement it will be one of the most sublime. It will, I have
no doubt, connect mechanical and chemical sciences together; it will
concentrate them into one and in that one comprehend the whole universe.
‘The first step to truth is the confession of ignorance. No man could
have made the immortal discoveries of Newton unless he had first thrown
up the ridiculous doctrines of Des Cartes. To attend to our errors and
own them, to sacrifice all selfishness to the science, not to support
errors for the sake of vanity, ought to be the leading precepts of a
philosopher. He should turn his endeavour to the advancement of science
and not to the increase of his reputation. Let him fix steps for others
to rise on, and he does more real good to science than if he had spent
years in controversy on an equivocal point. Let him turn his thoughts
to general views and try to contain the whole science in his grasp; he
will then be calculated to arrange it, improve it, and reform it and
place it in that order which tends so materially to its advancement.’
His lecture on Chlorine was given on Saturday, March 14; the previous
week he had given a lecture on Oxygen, which was not reported by
Faraday.
‘I will demonstrate what I affirm in a positive and satisfactory manner.
‘Accustomed for years to consider the chemical principles of the French
School of Physical Sciences as correct, I had adopted them and put
faith in them until they became prejudices, and I even felt unwilling
to give them up when my judgment was fully convinced by experiment
that they were erroneous. I know that this is the case in some degree
with almost every person; he is unwilling to believe that he is wrong,
and therefore feels averse to adopt what is right when it opposes his
principles.
‘Pelletier died from inhaling this gas (chlorine). It supports
combustion of a taper [experiment]; it does not contain oxygen.’
He showed by experiment that pure dry chlorine and hydrogen, when
exploded, caused no moisture; no water was formed. This was the
synthetical proof. Decomposition of muriatic acid gas by potassium was
shown as the analytical proof. Compounds with phosphorus, ammonia, and
sulphur all free from oxygen. ‘Oxygen does combine with chlorine. I
have ventured to name the compound euchlorine; it is of a very bright
yellow green colour. Names should represent things, not opinions, for
in the last case they often tend to misrepresent and mislead.
‘As chlorine contained no oxygen, it became an inquiry well worth
investigation to ascertain the part which chlorine acted in bleaching.
It decomposes water and forms hydrochloric acid.’
‘Had Mr. Berthollet obtained oxygen from chlorine there would have
been no error in his theory, but by not attending to the minute
circumstances of his experiment, by not ascertaining that the water
present acted no part and was not decomposed, he fell into an error,
and of course all the conclusions he drew were false and erroneous.
Nothing should be allowed but what can be proved by experiment, and
nothing should be taken for granted upon analogy or supposition.’
Faraday concludes this lecture thus: ‘Mr. Davy now proceeded to comment
and make observations on the former theory of chlorine gas. Here I
was unable to follow him. The plan which I pursue in taking of notes
is convenient and sufficient with respect to the theoretical and also
the practical part of the lecture, but for the embellishments and
ornaments of it it will not answer. Mr. Davy’s language at those times
is so superior (and indeed throughout the whole course of the lecture)
that then I am infinitely below him and am incapable of following him
even in an humble style. Therefore I shall not attempt it; it will be
sufficient to give a kind of contents of it.
‘He said that hypotheses should not be considered as facts and built
upon accordingly. Nevertheless, if cautiously pursued, they might
lead to mature fruit. That nothing should be taken for granted unless
proved. By considering oxygen as contained in chlorine the whole
chemical world had been wrapped in error respecting that body for more
than one-third of a century.
‘He noticed that all the truly great scientific men were possessed
of great humility and diffidence of their own opinions and powers.
He spoke of Scheele, the discoverer of chlorine; observed that he
possessed a truly philosophical spirit, gave up his opinions when he
supposed them to be erroneous, and without hesitation or reluctance
adopted those of others which he considered more correct; admired his
spirit and recommended it to all philosophers; compared it to corn,
which looked but simple and insignificant in blossom and asked for
little praise, yet was the support of man.’
In this lecture Faraday gives the details of twenty experiments.
On April 8 Professor Davy lectured on Simple Inflammable Bodies. ‘Their
number, excepting the metals, is six, which unite with oxygen and
chlorine, the subjects of the two last lectures.’ He showed a jet of
oxygen burning in hydrogen, and said, ‘In the burning of tallow, wax,
oil, and wood it is the hydrogen of their bodies that causes the flame;
though in most cases it is also combined with carbon, yet it is the
hydrogen that produces the flame....
‘I have here a bladder filled with nitrous oxide gas; I will breathe
it once or twice, but not so far as to incapacitate me from continuing
the lecture. It produces a very pleasing sensation (far superior to
the most exquisite liquors, such as champagne), and I have no doubt
that if I were to continue it a few minutes longer I should make a very
interesting exhibition to the company; but I would rather be excused....
‘If we suppose that the diamond is pure carbon, and is therefore
the same as charcoal, we have a very strong presumptive reason to
suppose that all matter is alike in all substances. If substances so
opposite and so different as charcoal and diamond are in reality the
same kind of matter, then the difference in other bodies is no proof
that they also are not of the same kind of matter; and this would lead
us to suppose that there is but one matter in nature, and that the
difference in different bodies is owing to variety in the distance of
the particles, to shape, and to size....
‘In conclusion several of these six simple combustibles I suspect to be
compounds, and perhaps their nature may shortly be discovered....
‘What gives a strong colour to the idea of the compound nature of
nitrogen is the quantity of it that can be obtained from animal bodies,
whereas they imbibe none, they combine with none.
‘Sulphur and phosphorus both appear to be compound bodies when they
are subjected to the power of a voltaic battery. A great quantity of
hydrogen gas is evolved, so that it appears hydrogen is one of their
constituent parts....
‘Whether these bodies are compound or not, they are objects of new
research; they present new fields for the great, the industrious, the
scientific, and the penetrating mind. Our horizon extends the higher we
rise. The result of future inquiries will probably lay a foundation on
which future ages and future generations may erect an edifice that will
reach from earth to heaven.’
In this lecture Faraday noted twenty-two experiments.
The next day, April 9, Davy was knighted by the Prince Regent.
On April 10 Sir Humphry Davy gave his last lecture at the Royal
Institution; it was on the Metals.
‘All the volatile metals burn with flame, and all those that are not
volatile with sparks....
‘These, with the metals of the alkalies and the alkaline earths which
I have had the good fortune to discover, make up the number to about
forty.’
He shewed the mode of obtaining alkaline metals by voltaic
decomposition; and earths by potassium.
The mode of obtaining the alkaline metals by chemical action alone was
shown, but the experiment was not made. A quantity of potassium from
common potash by iron was on the table.
‘The combustion of metals is according to their electricity, those
containing the most electricity burning with the most energy. All those
metals that are positive to others are also more inflammable than those
others, and burn more readily....
‘That the metals of the earths and alkalies cannot exist at the surface
of our globe we are well assured, but they may exist in the interior,
and if so they will offer a very complete and a very probable solution
of the phenomena of earthquakes and volcanoes; and perhaps, considered
thus, they may lay the foundation of a new and perfect system of
geology.
‘We have here a small volcano formed of clay, &c., in the shape of
a mountain, and having two or three pieces of the alkaline metals
introduced here and there. Now by adding a little water to this volcano
I shall be able to inflame it and cause it to burn briskly....
‘Meteors consist of alkaline metals and iron; the iron burns last if it
be burnt at all.
‘What I conceive is, that there are certain bodies that revolve round
our earth--a kind of satellites--and are the same with respect to our
globe that comets are to the sun. Their orbits are ellipses, whose
longer diameters, like those of the comets, far exceed their shorter
ones. They must move with very great velocity to counteract the
attraction of the earth....’
Regarding transmutation of metals he said ‘the beginning was deceit,
the progress falsehood, and the end beggary, said Lemery.’
‘It was supposed till lately that the fixed alkalies were simple
bodies, but I have had the good fortune to prove them compounds; and
that pure potash should contain a metal, oxygen, and water is not
more probable than that the metals are compounds, yet it not only is
probable but it is possible, and in reality is so....
‘From the mercurial amalgam and from the quantity of hydrogen given out
by metals when exposed to the action of a vigorous voltaic battery,
either this hydrogen is combined with the metal or it is one of its
constituent parts....
‘If, then, we suppose that hydrogen constitutes a part of all metals,
they will be compounds of it and a base. The hydrogen will give them
their genuine characters and make them metals, and their base will
bestow on them their own peculiar properties.
‘I should wish particularly on this point to be understood rightly.
I am not an advocate for alchemy and its attendant frauds; that will
appear from the tenor of my discourse; but I conceive it to be a noble
and glorious object to follow up the paths trod by those chemists who
wish for the improvement of science to ascertain the compound nature
of metals. It is a subject well worthy of pursuit, and whenever the
discovery is made it will confer immortal honour on the discoverer, the
age, and the country that it is made in.’
Faraday then says, ‘Having thus given the general character of the
metals, Sir H. Davy proceeded to make a few observations on the
connection of science with the other parts of polished and social life.
Here it would be improper for me to follow him. I should merely injure
and destroy the beautiful, the sublime observations that fell from
his lips. He spoke in the most energetic and luminous manner of the
advancement of the arts and sciences, of the connection that had always
existed between them and other parts of a nation’s economy. He noticed
the peculiar congeries of great men in all departments of life that
generally appeared together, noticed Anaximander, Anaximenes, Socrates,
Newton, Bacon, Elizabeth, &c., but, by an unaccountable omission,
forgot himself, though I will venture to say no one else present did.
‘During the whole of these observations his delivery was easy, his
diction elegant, his tone good, and his sentiments sublime.’
Faraday ends his volume with the notes of eighteen experiments that
were made in this lecture.
The same day Davy wrote to his brother. It was the eve of his wedding.
Friday, April 10, 1812.
MY DEAR BROTHER,--You will have excused me for not writing to
you on subjects of science. I have been absorbed by arrangements
on which the happiness of my future life depends. Before you
receive this these arrangements will, I trust, be settled, and in
a few weeks I shall be able to return to my habits of study and
scientific research. I am going to be married to-morrow, and I have
a fair prospect of happiness with the most amiable and intellectual
woman I have ever known.
The Prince Regent, unsolicited by me or by any of my intimate
friends, was pleased to confer the honour of knighthood on me at
the last levée. This distinction has not often been bestowed on
scientific men, but I am proud of it, as the greatest of human
geniuses bore it; and it is at least a proof that the world has not
overlooked my humble efforts in the cause of science.
* * * * *
I am, my dear Brother, most affectionately yours,
H. DAVY.
On June 12 he published his ‘Elements of Chemical Philosophy.’ It is
dedicated to Lady Davy, ‘as a pledge that he shall continue to pursue
science with unabated ardour.’
Dr. Thomas Young, in the ‘Quarterly Review’ for September 1812, enables
us to see what was thought of Sir H. Davy and of his book at this time.
‘In attempting a review of this work we cannot avoid professing
that we are far from entertaining the impression of sitting down as
competent judges to decide upon the merits or demerits of the author;
on this point the public voice, not only within our own islands, but
wherever science is cultivated, has already pronounced too definite a
sentence to be weakened or confirmed by anything that we can suggest
of exception or approbation. Our humble labours on such an occasion
must be much more analytical and historical than critical; at the
same time we are too well acquainted with the author’s candour to
suppress any remark which may occur to us as tending to correction
or improvement. It has most assuredly fallen to the lot of no one
individual to contribute to the progress of chemical knowledge by
discoveries so numerous and important as those which have been made by
Sir Humphry Davy; and, with regard to mere experimental investigation,
we do not hesitate to rank his researches as more splendidly successful
than any which have ever before illustrated the physical sciences in
any of their departments. We are aware that the “Optics” of Newton
will immediately occur to our readers as an exception; but, without
attempting to convince those who may differ from us on this point, we
are disposed to abide by the opinion that for a series of well-devised
experiments and brilliant discoveries the contents of Davy’s “Bakerian
Lectures” are as much superior to those of Newton’s “Optics” as the
“Principia” are to those or to any other human work for the accurate
and refined application of a sublime and simple theory to the most
intricate and apparently anomalous results derived from previous
observation.
* * * * *
‘Until the year 1806 Sir Humphry Davy had been remarkable for the
industrious and ingenious application of those means of experiment only
which had been long known to chemists. He had acquired at a very early
period of his life a well-established celebrity among men of science
throughout Europe by the originality and accuracy of his researches,
and at the same time the fluent and impressive delivery of his lectures
had obtained him the most flattering marks of approbation from the
public of the metropolis. But it was in the summer of that year that,
in repeating some electro-chemical experiments of very doubtful
authority (the production of acid and alkali by the decomposition of
water), he was led into a new train of reasoning and investigation,
which enabled him to demonstrate the important laws of the connection
between the electrical affections of bodies and their chemical powers.
This was his first great discovery.... Our author’s next great step was
the decomposition of the alkalies, which he effected the succeeding
year; and this, though less interesting and important with regard to
the fundamental theory of the science, was more brilliant and imposing
from its capability of being exhibited in a visible, tangible form. The
third striking feature which distinguishes the system advanced in the
present work is the assertion of the existence of at least two empyreal
principles--oxygen and the elastic fluid called the oxymuriatic acid
gas (chlorine)....
‘A fourth peculiarity, which, however, is less exclusively and
originally a doctrine of Sir Humphry Davy, is the theory of the
simplicity of the proportions in which all bodies combine--a theory the
explicit illustration and general and minute application of which the
science is principally indebted to our countryman Mr. Dalton.’