. With the aid of a small portable laboratory and of various institutions in France and Italy, he investigated the substance X (later called iodine), whose properties and similarity to chlorine he quickly discovered; further work on various compounds of iodine and chlorine was done before he reached Rome. Even leaving aside his experiments with nitrous oxide, Davy's research in respiratory physiology was visionary, and much of it would not be replicated for many decades. [20][21], During 1799, Beddoes and Davy published Contributions to physical and medical knowledge, principally from the west of England and Essays on heat, light, and the combinations of light, with a new theory of respiration. When Davy was 16 years old, his father died, and a year later he became a surgeon apprentice, with the hopes of one day having a career in medicine. Like many scientists whose early years were defined by prodigy, Davy's torrid pace of discovery slowed as he matured, but he remained an active public figure, serving as president of the Royal Society from 1820 to 1826, and he pursued an encyclopedic range of interests, producing important treatises on subjects as varied as soil analysis, leather tanning, and the chemical constituents of pigment samples from Roman frescoes. [54] They then traveled to Carniola (now Slovenia) which proved to become 'his favourite Alpine retreat' before finally arriving in Italy. These candidates embodied the factional difficulties that beset Davy's presidency and which eventually defeated him. Image courtesy of the Wellcome Image Library, London, England. He died on 29 May 1829 in Switzerland. In each of these areas Davy introduced new analytic methods that would clearly demarcate all research that followed from any that preceded his attention. He permitted Davy to use his laboratory and possibly directed his attention to the floodgates of the port of Hayle, which were rapidly decaying as a result of the contact between copper and iron under the influence of seawater. [62], Davy spent much time juggling the factions but, as his reputation declined in the light of failures such as his research into copper-bottomed ships, he lost popularity and authority. Most of his written poems were not published, and he chose instead to share a few of them with his friends. Davy became increasingly well known in 1799 due to his experiments with the physiological action of some gases, including laughing gas (nitrous oxide). By 1824, it had become apparent that fouling of the copper bottoms was occurring on the majority of protected ships. The house in Albemarle Street was bought in April 1799. Humphry Davy - Wikipedia Its completion, according to Swedish chemist Jns Jacob Berzelius, would have advanced the science of chemistry a full century.. [32], In June 1802 Davy published in the first issue of the Journals of the Royal Institution of Great Britain his An Account of a Method of Copying Paintings upon Glass, and of Making Profiles, by the Agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver. As a child he attended grammar school, but following the early death of his father he accepted an apprenticeship that he believed would help prepare him for a career in medicine. Robert Davy died in 1794, saddling his widow with a large debt as a result of his mining adventures. Humphry Davy - Biography Cited in David Philip Miller, "Between hostile camps: Sir Humphry Davy's presidency of the Royal Society of London". 3. It did not improve and, as the 1827 election loomed, it was clear that he would not stand again. Correspondence between L'Institut and the French Navy at the time reveals that the Channel blockade made it impossible to bestow the prize in person, and thus the medal still awaited Davy as he arrived in Paris 5 yr later..
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