Sir Humphry Davy: Influencing The World

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Introduction
Creating a new field of science by the time he was thirty, Sir Humphry Davy began influencing our world at an early age, changing and expanding the realm of science. He is considered to be one of the finest scientists Great Britain has ever produced. Davy has accomplished a vast variety of awards and discoveries, including earning a Copley Medal and being knighted in 1812; as well as being known for his work with alkali and alkaline earth metals, and making discoveries with other elements such as chlorine and iodine.
Early Life and Education Born in Penzance, Cornwall, England on the seventeenth of December 1778, Humphry Davy was the first of five children. In 1794, Davy’s father, Robert Davy, died unexpectedly. Soon after, Gregory Watt, …show more content…

During this time he studied ethics, metaphysics (the branch of philosophy that studies the relationship between mind and matter), and mathematics in preparation to enter the field of medicine. Soon becoming intrigued by these studies, Davy dropped his focus on medicine and took on chemistry in 1797. At this time, at the age of nineteen, he moved to Bristol to study science. In 1800, at the young age of 22, he published his work of investigating gases and testing them in “Researches, Chemical and Philosophical”. On the ninth of April 1799 Davy made his first influential discovery at the Pneumatic Instituion; that nitrous oxide (commonly known as laughing gas) was completely safe to the body. This experimentation and turning point in the world of anesthetics built Davy the foundation to an extremely positive reputation. The next year, he was hired as an assistant lecturer in chemistry at the Royal Institution, (where his lectures were extremely successful) drawing in high London society. On the thirty-first of May 1802, he was promoted to professor at the Institution. Davy became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1803 proceeded to earn a Copley Medal in

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