Humphry Davy : science & power
David Knight draws upon Humphry Davy's poetry, notebooks, and informal writings to introduce us to one of the first professional scientists. Davy is best remembered for his work on laughing gas, for the arc lamp, for isolating sodium and potassium, for his theory that chemical affinity is electrical, and, of course, for his safety lamp. His lectures on science made the fortunes of the Royal Institution in London, and he taught chemistry to the young Faraday. He is also recognized for his poetry and was the friend of Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Byron. By investigating Davy's life Knight shows what it was like to be a creative scientist in Regency Britain, demonstrating the development of science and its institutions during this crucial period in history
Print Book, English, 1998
1st pbk. ed View all formats and editions
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998
Biographies
xiv, 218 pages ; 24 cm
9780521563093, 9780521565394, 0521563097, 0521565391
39192842
Beginning
the meaning of life; growing up; Clifton; the bright day; electric affinity; forces, powers and chemistry; a chemical honeymoon, in France; the safety lamp; a son in science
Davy and Faraday; president; Salmonia; consolations
Originally published: Oxford, UK : Cambridge, USA : Blackwell, 1992