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Sir Humphry Davy Bt FRS MRIA FGS
Portrait by Thomas Phillips, 1821
Born	(1778-12-17)17 December 1778 Penzance, Cornwall, England
Died	29 May 1829(1829-05-29) (aged 50) Geneva, Switzerland
Known for	\n List \n Arc lamp Aluminum Cathodic protection Chlorine Cool flame Copper sheathing Davy lamp Electrochemistry Electrolysis Electrowinning Enlarger Discovery of potassium Isolation of barium Isolation of boron Isolation of calcium Isolation of magnesium Isolation of sodium Isolation of strontium Nitrous oxide \n
Awards	Copley Medal (1805) Bakerian Medal (1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, 1826) Galvanism Prize (1807) Rumford Medal (1816) Royal Medal (1827)
Scientific career
Fields	Chemistry
Institutions	Royal Society Royal Institution
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23rd President of the Royal Society
In office 1820\u20131827
Preceded by	William Hyde Wollaston
Succeeded by	Davies Gilbert
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Signature

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v t e

Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, FRS, MRIA, FGS (17 December 1778 – 29 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for the first time: potassium and sodium^[1] in 1807 and calcium, strontium, barium, magnesium and boron the following year, as well as for discovering the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine. Davy also studied the forces involved in these separations, inventing the new field of electrochemistry. Davy is also credited with discovering clathrate hydrates.\n

In 1799, he experimented with nitrous oxide and was astonished at how it made him laugh. He nicknamed it \"laughing gas\" and wrote about its potential as an anaesthetic to relieve pain during surgery.\n

Davy was a baronet, President of the Royal Society (PRS), Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA), a founder member of the Geological Society of London, and a member of the American Philosophical Society (elected 1810).^[2] Berzelius called Davy's 1806 Bakerian Lecture \"On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity\" \"one of the best memoirs which has ever enriched the theory of chemistry.\"\n

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Baronetage of the United Kingdom\n
New creation\n	Baronet (of Grosvenor Street) 1818\u20131829\n	Extinct \n
Preceded by Tierney baronets \n	Davy baronets of Grosvenor Street 30 November 1818\n	Succeeded by Maitland baronets \n
Professional and academic associations\n
Preceded by William Hyde Wollaston \n	23rd President of the Royal Society 1820\u20131827\n	Succeeded by Davies Gilbert \n

v t e Presidents of the Royal Society
17th century	\n Viscount Brouncker (1662) \n Joseph Williamson (1677) \n Christopher Wren (1680) \n John Hoskyns (1682) \n Cyril Wyche (1683) \n Samuel Pepys (1684) \n Earl of Carbery (1686) \n Earl of Pembroke (1689) \n Robert Southwell (1690) \n Charles Montagu (1695) \n Lord Somers (1698) \n
18th century	\n Isaac Newton (1703) \n Hans Sloane (1727) \n Martin Folkes (1741) \n Earl of Macclesfield (1752) \n Earl of Morton (1764) \n James Burrow (1768) \n James West (1768) \n James Burrow (1772) \n John Pringle (1772) \n Joseph Banks (1778) \n
19th century	\n William Hyde Wollaston (1820) \n Humphry Davy (1820) \n Davies Gilbert (1827) \n Duke of Sussex (1830) \n Marquess of Northampton (1838) \n Earl of Rosse (1848) \n Lord Wrottesley (1854) \n Benjamin Collins Brodie (1858) \n Edward Sabine (1861) \n George Biddell Airy (1871) \n Joseph Dalton Hooker (1873) \n William Spottiswoode (1878) \n Thomas Henry Huxley (1883) \n George Gabriel Stokes (1885) \n Lord Kelvin (1890) \n Joseph Lister (1895) \n
20th century	\n William Huggins (1900) \n Lord Rayleigh (1905) \n Archibald Geikie (1908) \n William Crookes (1913) \n J. J. Thomson (1915) \n Charles Scott Sherrington (1920) \n Ernest Rutherford (1925) \n Frederick Gowland Hopkins (1930) \n William Henry Bragg (1935) \n Henry Hallett Dale (1940) \n Robert Robinson (1945) \n Lord Adrian (1950) \n Cyril Norman Hinshelwood (1955) \n Howard Florey (1960) \n Patrick Blackett (1965) \n Alan Lloyd Hodgkin (1970) \n Lord Todd (1975) \n Andrew Huxley (1980) \n George Porter (1985) \n Sir Michael Atiyah (1990) \n Sir Aaron Klug (1995) \n
21st century	\n Lord May (2000) \n Lord Rees (2005) \n Sir Paul Nurse (2010) \n Venki Ramakrishnan (2015) \n Adrian Smith (2020) \n

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Early life: 1778\u20131798

Education, apprenticeship and poetry

Education

Apothecary's apprentice

Poetry

Painting

Materiality of heat

Early career: 1798\u20131802

Davy's gift for chemistry is recognised

Thomas Beddoes

Pneumatic Institution

Anna Beddoes

Non-existence of caloric

Nitrous oxide

Carbon monoxide

Early publications

Proofreading Lyrical Ballads

Royal Institution

Women's scientific education

Incandescent light and arc light

Full lecturer at the Royal Institution

Royal Society

Mid-career: 1802\u20131820

Photographic enlargements

Elements

Potassium and sodium

Barium, calcium, strontium, magnesium, and boron

Chlorine

Laboratory incident

Travels

European tour

Davy lamp

Acid studies

Herculaneum papyri

Later life: 1820\u20131829

President of the Royal Society

Election to the presidency

Protection of ships' bottoms

Presidency

Final years

Death

Honours

Geographical locations

Scientific and literary recognition

In popular culture

Novels and poetry

Publications

See also

References

Bibliography

Sources

Primary sources

External links

Humphry Davy

Media collections