scholarly journals Sir Humphry Davy and the coal miners of the world: a commentary on Davy (1816) ‘An account of an invention for giving light in explosive mixtures of fire-damp in coal mines’

2015 ◽  
Vol 373 (2039) ◽  
pp. 20140288 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Meurig Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Coal Mines ◽  
Coal Industry ◽  
Coal Miners ◽  
Literary Expression ◽  
The North ◽  
Royal Institution ◽  
Humphry Davy ◽  
Michael Faraday ◽  
Newcastle Upon Tyne

In the period between 1815 and 1818, Sir Humphry Davy read four papers to the Royal Society and published a monograph dealing with a safety lamp for coal miners, all of which record in detail the experimental work that he carried out, with his assistant Michael Faraday, so as to determine how to prevent catastrophic accidents in coal mines by the explosion of fire-damp (methane) in the presence of a naked flame. This article describes the key experiments that he performed at the Royal Institution and some of the subsequent trials made in the coal mines of the north of England. It begins, however, with an account of Davy's prior achievements in science before he was approached for help by the clergymen and doctors in the Gateshead and Newcastle upon Tyne areas. There is little doubt that the Davy lamp, from the 1820s onwards, transformed the coal industry worldwide. It also profoundly influenced the science of combustion, and in the words of a pioneer in that field, W. A. Bone, FRS, ‘There is no better model of logical experimental procedure, accurate reasoning, philosophical outlook and fine literary expression.’ It is a remarkable fact that it took Davy essentially only two weeks from the time he was given samples of fire-damp to solve the problem and to devise his renowned miner's safety lamp. A brief account is also given of the contemporaneous invention of a safety lamp by George Stephenson, and of some of Davy's subsequent accomplishments. This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society .

Relics of Davy and Faraday in New Zealand

1998 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Tee
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Place Names ◽  
Royal Institution ◽  
Humphry Davy ◽  
Michael Faraday ◽  
Royal Society Of London

In April 1997 Sir John Meurig Thomas, F.R.S., toured New Zealand, as the 1997 Rutherford Lecturer of the Royal Society of London. He delivered his Rutherford Lecture on Sir Humphry Davy, P.R.S. (1778–1829), and Michael Faraday, F.R.S. (1791–1867), the first and second Directors of the Royal Institution. Many place–names in New Zealand commemorate scientists. There is Mount Davy (1012 m) at 42°23'S, 171°23'E, between Greymouth and Blackball. Mount Faraday, at 42°03'S, 171°30'E, is the highest peak (1485 m) in the Paparoa Range (south of Westport), whose successive peaks from south to north are named Mounts Lodge, Ramsay, Dewar, Priestly, Faraday, Curie, Einstein, Euclid and Kelvin. And Mount Copernicus and Mount Galileo are 10 km east of the Paparoa Range.

Humphry Davy, nitrous oxide, the Pneumatic Institution, and the Royal Institution

2014 ◽  
Vol 307 (9) ◽  
pp. L661-L667 ◽  
Author(s):  
John B. West
Keyword(s):  
Nitrous Oxide ◽  
William Wordsworth ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Samuel Taylor Coleridge ◽  
Royal Institution ◽  
History Of ◽  
Humphry Davy ◽  
Respiratory Gases ◽  
Joseph Black ◽  
Michael Faraday

Humphry Davy (1778–1829) has an interesting place in the history of respiratory gases because the Pneumatic Institution in which he did much of his early work signaled the end of an era of discovery. The previous 40 years had seen essentially all of the important respiratory gases described, and the Institution was formed to exploit their possible value in medical treatment. Davy himself is well known for producing nitrous oxide and demonstrating that its inhalation could cause euphoria and heightened imagination. His thinking influenced the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, and perhaps we can claim that our discipline colored the poetry of the Romantic Movement. Davy was also the first person to measure the residual volume of the lung. The Pneumatic Institution was the brainchild of Thomas Beddoes, who had trained in Edinburgh under Joseph Black, who discovered carbon dioxide. Later Davy moved to the Royal Institution in London formed, in part, to diffuse the knowledge of scientific discoveries to the general public. Davy was a brilliant lecturer and developed an enthusiastic following. In addition he exploited the newly described electric battery to discover several new elements. He also invented the safety lamp in response to a series of devastating explosions in coal mines. Ultimately Davy became president of the Royal Society, a remarkable honor for somebody with such humble origins. Another of his important contributions was to introduce Michael Faraday (1791–1867) to science. Faraday became one of the most illustrious British scientists of all time.

VI. Fifth letter on voltaic combinations, with some account of the effects of a large constant battery. Addressed to Michael Faraday, Esq. D. C. L. F. R. S., Fullerian Prof. Chem. Royal Institution, &c. &c. &c. By J. Frederic Daniell, Esq. F. R. S., Prof. Chem. in King's College, London

1839 ◽  
Vol 129 ◽  
pp. 89-95 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Conducting Surface ◽  
Conducting Sphere ◽  
Active Point ◽  
King's College ◽  
Royal Institution ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Michael Faraday

My dear Faraday, In my last letter to you, which the Royal Society have done me the honour to publish in the Philosophical Transactions for 1838, I observed, that “the principal circumstance which might be supposed to limit the power of an active point within a conducting sphere, in any given electrolyte, is the resistance of that electrolyte, which increases in a certain ratio to its depth or thickness.” The superficial measure of the conducting sphere, and the distance of the generating metal, or the depth and resistance of the electrolyte, are, in fact, the variable conditions in a voltaic combination upon which its efficiency depends; and their relations require further investigation before we shall be able to determine what may be the proper proportions for the economical application of the power to useful purposes. I shall venture, therefore, to trouble you with the results of some further experiments upon the subject, and upon different combinations of the constant battery, before I proceed to communicate some observations upon Electrolysis, which I trust you will find not without interest, and to which, according to my plan, my attention has been lately exclusively directed. Looking, for a moment, upon the affinity which circulates in the battery as a radiant force, it seemed desirable to ascertain what would be the result of intercepting the rays by the conducting surface nearer to their centre than in the arrangements which have been previously described, as the relation of the generating and conducting metals to each other might be thereby more clearly ascertained.

scholarly journals XI. Second letter on the electrolysis of secondary compounds. Addressed to Michael Faraday, Esq. D. C. L. F. R. S., Fullerian Prof. Chem. Royal Institution, &c. &c. &c. By J . Frederic Daniell, Esq. F. R. S. For. Sec. R. S., Prof. Chem. in King's College, London

1840 ◽  
Vol 130 ◽  
pp. 209-224
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Chemical Elements ◽  
Pure Water ◽  
Secondary Compounds ◽  
King's College ◽  
Usual Manner ◽  
Royal Institution ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Michael Faraday ◽  
Epsom Salt

My dear Faraday, You will not, I think, be surprised or displeased at my addressing you again upon the Electrolysis of Secondary Compounds . The whole of my very limited leisure, since my last Letter which the Royal Society did me the honour to publish in the Philosophical Transactions for 1839, has been occupied with experiments upon the subject; and I have obtained some results which I trust will not be found unworthy of the continued attention of yourself and the Society. The mode of investigation which I have adopted seems to me calculated not only to throw light upon the nature of electrolytes, but upon the mode in which the chemical elements group themselves together to constitute Radicles or Proximate Principles , the question which now seems universally to occupy the attention of chemists. I feel more than ever satisfied that the laws of electrolysis will be found to lead to the solution of this great problem. Upon reflecting upon the constitution of the oxyacid salts, as developed in my last Letter, I conceived that it might be possible to obtain further evidence that the simple cathion travelled as a metal to the platinode, while the compound anion was passing in the opposite direction; and that means might be devised of stopping it, as it were, in transitu . Your beautiful experiment, which I have often repeated with success, of precipitating the magnesia from a solution of Epsom salt against a surface of pure water, in the course of a voltaic current, suggested the mode of proceeding. According to my view of that experiment, the first electrolyte was resolved into the compound anion, sulphuric acid + oxygen, which passed to the zincode; and the simple cathion, magnesium, which on its passage to the platinode was stopped at the surface of water, from not finding any ion , by temporarily combining with which it could be further transferred according to the laws of electrolysis. At this point, therefore, it gave up its charge to the hydrogen of the water, which passed in the usual manner to the platinode; and the circuit was completed by the decomposition of this second electrolyte. The corresponding oxygen, of course, met the magnesium at the point where it was arrested in its progress, and, combining with it, magnesia was precipitated.

scholarly journals X. Further observations on voltaic combinations. In a letter addressed to Michael Faraday, Esq. D. C. L. F. R. S., Fullerian Prof. Chem. Royal Institution, Corr. Memb. Royal & Imp. Acadd. of Sciences, Paris Petersburgh, &c

1837 ◽  
Vol 127 ◽  
pp. 141-160 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Saturated Solution ◽  
Average Amount ◽  
Standard Acid ◽  
Royal Institution ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Principal Subject ◽  
Michael Faraday ◽  
Mixed Gases

My dear Faraday, I Had intended, ere this, to have addressed you upon the subject of the measure of affinity which the constant battery may be made to supply, as indicated by the con­cluding experiment of my last letter; but my attention has been diverted, and the whole of my leisure occupied by what I found to be a necessary preliminary investi­gation of the effects of changes of temperature upon the voltaic action. In the course of my experiments upon this principal subject, I have also been led to observe some curious disturbances and diversions of the battery current, from secondary combina­tions; and I now submit the results of the whole inquiry to your judgment, not without a hope that you may consider them of sufficient interest and importance to be communicated to the Royal Society. You may perhaps recollect that the standard charge, which I finally adopted in the use of the constant battery, was a mixture of eight parts of water with one of oil of vitriol on the side of the zinc, and a saturated solution of sulphate of copper in contact with the copper; and that the average amount of its work, as measured by the voltameter, was 11 cubic inches of mixed gases per five minutes. It occurred to me that the resistance to the current might again be reduced by dissolving the salt in the standard acid instead of water; and upon making the experiment I found the action increased from 11 cubic inches to 13 cubic inches, at which rate it steadily maintained itself; the following being the result of one series of observations.

scholarly journals James Swinburne, 1858-1958

1960 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 253-268 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Charles I ◽  
The Third ◽  
Académie Des Sciences ◽  
The World ◽  
Humphry Davy ◽  
Newcastle Upon Tyne

James Swinburne lived to be over one hundred years of age, the third Fellow of the Royal Society to do this. The first was Sir Moses Haim Montefiore who was born in Leghorn on 24 October 1784 and died in this country on 28 July 1885, having settled here as a young man. He was elected into the Society on 16 June 1836. He is still well remembered as an outstanding philanthropist and a fearless defender of his fellow Jews all over the world. The second was Henry Nicholas Ridley the botanist who died in 1956. One other Fellow who died a few days before his hundredth birthday might well be mentioned; he was Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, Secretary of the Académie des Sciences and later President of that body. Fie was born on 11 February 1657 and died on 9 January 1757. Family, Early Life and Background The Swinburne family is an ancient one as a glance at Burke's Peerage will show; they are essentially Northumbrian. The baronetcy dates from 1660. John Swinburne, father of the first Baronet, was promised a baronetcy by Charles I but the patent of creation never passed the seal. He died in 1652, eight years before the Restoration, His son, also John Swinburne, was created a Baronet in 1660 and is called in the patent ‘Virum patrimonio censu et morum probitate spectabilem’. Swinburne on his father’s side was descended from Flotspur, of whom he dryly remarks in his personal record ‘was a lively member of society but not noticeably scientific’. One of Swinburne’s ancestors (Sir John Swinburne, Bart.) was a Fellow of the Society elected 26 February 1818. Like so many of his contemporaries of the period he was an ardent antiquarian and F.S.A. Humphry Davy was his proposer for the Society. He founded the Antiquarian Society of Newcastle upon Tyne, closely modelled on the L.S.A., and during his lifetime maintained the most friendly intercourse between the two Societies. He, like our Swinburne, lived to a great age, dying a few weeks short of his entry into his hundredth year.

scholarly journals The Role of Patronage in early nineteenth-century science, as evidenced in letters from Humphry Davy to Joseph Banks

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Fulford
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Scientific Controversy ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Era ◽  
Scientific Institutions ◽  
Royal Institution ◽  
Humphry Davy ◽  
Century Science

The recently published Collected edition of Davy's letters throws new light on the importance and modus operandi of Banksian patronage as a means of organizing and promoting science. It demonstrates how dependent on, and manipulative of, Banks's favour Davy's careerism was, despite his later fame as an original genius. Here, I select from the edition some examples that offer new perspectives on how the patronage relationship worked—how Davy fashioned himself to be patronized, as well as how Banks operated as patron. Discussing Davy's activities at the Royal Institution, at the Royal Society and for the Board of Agriculture, I show that his public success allowed him to shift the power balance in this relationship, so that he was able to call upon Banks's support over issues of his choice, and, during the safety lamp affair (1815–18), to cause Banks to take the rare step of entering a scientific controversy in the newspapers. This shift to a highly public medium heralded a significant change: in a new era of widespread industrialization, in which engineers operating outside scientific institutions had increasing scope to put their inventions into production, priority—and the general reputation of scientific knowledge—increasingly needed demonstration before a wider court of public opinion than hitherto. Davy pulled Banks into a new, exposed, position in an expanded and oppositional public sphere. After Banks died, and Davy was no longer a protégé of a powerful patron but was himself in a position to distribute patronage—Banks's successor as President of the Royal Society and Commissioner of the Board of Longitude—the letters reveal the strengths and limitations of Banksian governance in an era in which science was specializing and was increasingly discussed in the national press. Davy rejected some of his predecessor's policies but essentially retained Banks's method of directing science by privately exerting influence and controlling patronage. I suggest that this method was relatively successful at the Royal Society, where Davy managed (uneasily) to incorporate a generation of mathematical savants excluded by Banks; at the Board of Longitude it failed: Davy's efforts to emulate Banks as the promoter of exploration fell foul of institutional intransigence that he had neither power nor influence enough to shift.

XI. Additional observations on voltaic combinations. In a letter addressed to Michael Faraday, D. C. L. F. R. S., Fullerian Prof. Chem. Royal Institution, Corr. Memb. Royal & Imp. Acadd. of Science, Paris, Petersburgh, &c. By J. Frederic Daniell, F. R. S., Prof. Chem. in King's College, London

1836 ◽  
Vol 126 ◽  
pp. 125-129 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
King's College ◽  
Royal Institution ◽  
The Common ◽  
Michael Faraday

My Dear Faraday, The Council of the Royal Society having done me the honour to order the publication of my observations upon “Voltaic Combinations” in the Philosophical Transactions, I should wish to add the results of some further researches, which may render the account of the constant voltaic battery more complete and practically useful. My great object in this combination was to obtain an invariable current of force sufficient to effect chemical decompositions, after overcoming the resistance necessary to register its quantity by the voltameter; and having succeeded in this, it seemed to me almost a matter of indifference to the solution of the various important questions to which it might be applied, whether the quantity were large or small. I quickly, however, discovered that the battery might be rendered not only perfectly steady in action but very powerful; and that it would be extremely efficient and convenient for all the purposes to which the common voltaic battery is usually applied. I set myself therefore to perfect its construction with this view.

scholarly journals ‘A devotion to the experimental sciences and arts’: the subscription to the great battery at the Royal Institution 1808–9

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
PATRICK UNWIN ◽  
ROBERT UNWIN
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Research Funding ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Institutional Research ◽  
British Science ◽  
Royal Institution ◽  
History Of ◽  
Humphry Davy ◽  
The Individual

A significant but neglected theme in the history of British science in the nineteenth century is the funding of institutional research. The subscription to the ‘great battery’ at the Royal Institution in 1808 and 1809 provides the first instance of named individuals prepared to commit themselves to the provision of apparatus to be used for research in the new field of electrochemistry. This paper analyses the subscribers who were deemed to be ‘enlightened’ and whom Humphry Davy subsequently described as ‘a few zealous cultivators and patrons of science’. Using information from the subscription list, a distinction is made between the individual subscriptions pledged and the sums actually paid. In contextualizing the subscription, insights are provided into the Royal Society, the contemporary scientific community and the politics of metropolitan science. The voltaic subscription represents an early example of the repercussions of the nature of research funding for institutional finances and governance.

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