Humphry Davy Biography

Sir Humphry Davy was a British chemist who made major contributions to the discoveries of chlorine and iodine. He discovered several alkali and alkaline earth metals, and isolated and named them. Born to middle-class parents in Cornwall, England, Davy was an intelligent, curious and artistic minded individual. He lost his father while he was just in his teens and was apprenticed to a famous surgeon with a large practice. As a young boy he dreamed of becoming a poet and had composed several verses which displayed his artistic nature. However, after starting to work in the apothecary of the surgeon, he realized that he loved science more than poetry and abandoned the latter in favor of the former. He eventually became a chemist and attracted the attention of Gregory Watt and Davies Giddy. Impressed by the young man’s talents, Giddy gave him a well-equipped chemistry laboratory where Davy could perform his experiments. He was then appointed the chemical superintendent of the Pneumatic Institution and in this position he studied the possible therapeutic uses of various gases and suggested the anesthetic use of nitrous oxide in human surgery. He was also an inventor who invented the Davy lamp, which allowed miners to work safely in close contact with flammable gases