The person who discovered the most chemical elements in history is a poet

Humphry Davy was not only a romantic poet, but also an outstanding chemist. As the latter, his contributions to mankind are outstanding: he discovered and named the anesthetic effect of laughing gas; he discovered a variety of chemical elements, the largest number of which has ever been discovered; he invented a safe mining lamp that would not cause gas explosions, saving the lives of countless miners; he invented the earliest electric light and arc lamp; he also helped and supported Faraday, so much so that some people say that this was the greatest discovery of his life. Unfortunately, the master and apprentice eventually turned against each other.

Written by | Yang Dun

May 29th this year will mark the 195th anniversary of the death of British romantic poet Humphry Davy (1778–1829). If he knew about this in his grave outside Geneva, he would surely be touched: the 75 manuscript notebooks with more than 11,000 pages he left behind were just read and transcribed at the beginning of the year. This was a huge project, led by Professor Sharon Ruston of Lancaster University in the UK, who brought together more than 3,400 volunteers from around the world and took four years to complete.

Figure 1: David's notebook that has traveled through time for 200 years | Source:
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/humphrydavy/davy-notebooks-project/about/research

David was active in the heyday of British Romanticism and had close contacts with many famous Romantic poets, but he was not the most prominent figure in the poetry circle. In 1798, the later very famous poets Coleridge and Wordsworth co-published a collection of poems, which was regarded as the starting point of the Romantic movement. The following year, another collection of poems selected by the poet Southey included five works by David. Coleridge was very impressed by it after reading it, and he became a close friend of David. Wordsworth, the British Poet Laureate, also had a great influence on David in his creation.

Professor Ruston of Lancaster University is the head of the school's English literature and creative writing department. Her main research direction is the relationship between literature, science and medicine in the Romantic period. The collection of David's letters that she participated in sorting out was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. The main purpose of this large-scale sorting of David's manuscripts is to explore the unpublished works of the poet. It is said that after the sorting is completed, they will publish the reading results and manuscript images online.

Since September last year, the "David Notebook Project" has held a touring exhibition across the UK. According to the plan, the last stop will be from January 16 to March 23 this year. Many of David's manuscripts will be exhibited at the Wordsworth Foundation on the shores of Lake Grasmere, where Wordsworth's former residence is located and where the "Lake Poet" got his name.

In the second stop, they held an exhibition and lecture at the town hall in Morpeth, Northumberland. Morpeth is a mining area where David visited 200 years ago and invented a safe mining lamp that would not cause gas explosions, saving the lives of countless miners.

The first stop of the entire tour is at 21 Albemarle Street, London, the Royal Institution, which was founded by physicist Earl Rumford in 1799 as an "institution for the dissemination of knowledge", not the Royal Society, which is much older than it. It is appropriate to choose this place as the first stop, after all, David worked full-time at the Royal Institution for more than a decade, and his career as a chemist was mainly spent here.

Yes, as many people have already muttered in their hearts, the romantic poet David is the chemist David who has been written into the middle school textbooks.

Figure 2: 43-year-old David | Source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_Humphry_Davy,_Bt_by_Thomas_Phillips.jpg

"If Davy is not the greatest chemist, he will certainly be the greatest poet of his time." Coleridge once commented.

Even though he was already somewhat famous for his poetry, David eventually became famous as a chemist. Thanks to the "David Notebook Project", those poems hidden in the corners of history have been reborn, which has also aroused people's curiosity and admiration, but a volunteer who participated in the sorting said bluntly: "As far as his poetry is concerned, I think he should still focus on science!"

What would David's attitude be towards this?

He had already given the answer with his life.

The Boy in the Book of Common Prayer

Among David's belongings was a 1771 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. Judging from the publication date, it seems that it should not be David's own, but there is his signature on the title page, which just happens to combine with the lead type to form the words "Book of David". People who know David's life will notice that the name that was crossed out is "John Tonkin".

This man was a surgeon. According to seniority, David should call him grandpa, but he was not his biological father. Some information said that he was the adoptive father of David's mother. According to David's younger brother, he was "the elder brother of a friend of our family."

Figure 3: Title page of David's Book of Common Prayer | Source:
https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/davynotebooks/category/dnp-blog/

In David's time, if a person wanted to engage in philosophical or scientific research, he had to be a nobleman, a gentleman with an independent income, or at least have a career that provided both money and leisure. Young David had nothing except the generous sponsorship of Tonkin.

David's father was a carpenter who carved wood in his early years. After getting married, he worked as a farmer at home. The family was not short of money, but there was no spare money either. When he was six years old, David entered a grammar school. The principal was not very capable except for pulling the children's ears. David was happy and free, going up mountains and rivers, climbing trees and fishing all day, and taking time to help his classmates write love letters, etc., and he wandered around like this for eight years. After graduation, he was sent to Tang Jin.

A signature on the inside of the Book of Common Prayer indicates that it was dated 1793. On a blank page, Davy wrote a poem, which may be his earliest surviving poetic work.

Figure 4: Poems in the Book of Common Prayer | Source:
https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/davynotebooks/category/dnp-blog/

In the following years, David lived in the house of Tomkin, first went to another grammar school, and later transferred to a doctor and pharmacist as an apprentice. For this, Tomkin helped David pay 60 pounds for tuition. This amount was not small, after all, when David first entered the Royal Academy a few years later, his annual salary was only about 100 pounds.

The bright future that Tonkin planned for David was to study hard and then strive to be admitted to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. David did work hard. He plunged into Tonkin's library and became fascinated with philosophy and chemistry. The apprenticeship was agreed to be five years, but David only worked for three and a half years before running off to Bristol. This made Tonkin very angry. It is said that he amended his will and took back the house that was originally intended to be passed on to David.

What attracted David was the position of laboratory director of a gas sanatorium in the suburbs of Bristol. At that time, gas chemistry was at the forefront of chemical research, new gases were constantly emerging, and many people believed that they were good medicines for curing diseases.

In this way, starting from 1798, Davy, who was less than 20 years old, officially embarked on the path of chemical research.

Laughing Gas and Poets

In the gas sanatorium, David did all kinds of experiments. He drove healthy cows to the ward and let the patients breathe the cow's "breath" to see if it could have some effect. He personally inhaled large amounts of pure hydrogen until he suffocated, and even nearly died of poisoning when trying the effect of carbon monoxide.

These experiments were not rigorous or even serious, and were mainly repetitive, especially the discoveries of the British chemist Priestley. Therefore, the word Priestley often appeared in Davy's notebooks during that period.

Figure 5: Inside page of David’s notebook | Source:
https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/davynotebooks/category/dnp-blog/page/3/

Priestley and his mice were the first humans and mice in history to enjoy pure oxygen; but in terms of human experiments, "professionals" like David were braver, and his recklessness did pay off. At that time, Priestley had discovered nitrous oxide and named it "dephlogisticated nitrous gas." After David tried to inhale it, he found that this gas could make people's faces spasm, laugh involuntarily, and even produce a dizzy intoxication, so he called this gas "laughing gas."

After publishing his paper on laughing gas, David, who was only in his early twenties, became a world-renowned scientist. His gas sanatorium became crowded with people because the "curative effect" of laughing gas was very obvious. It not only made people "happy", but also relieved physical pain such as toothache. Looking back, laughing gas was one of the earliest anesthetics and is still used in surgical and dental operations today.

The strange properties of laughing gas also caused a sensation at the public level. Laughing gas parties became popular. Taking a puff of seemingly ordinary gas and then dancing and laughing for a while seemed to make people forget their worries better than drinking. So this new gas became a hallucinogen. Southey and Coleridge had tried laughing gas with David. Southey even described this hallucinogenic experience in his poems. Coleridge later became addicted to drugs and eventually died of heart failure, which was said to be related to opium smoking.

Fortunately, David did not fall into the anesthesia of laughing gas and could not extricate himself, because the time soon came to 1800.

New topics, new work

In 1800, Italian physicist Alessandro Volta invented the first battery that could provide a continuous current, the voltaic pile, and two British chemists quickly followed suit and successfully split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

This also allowed David to find a new field. In just six months, he published six electrical papers in one go.

However, it was his fame in the gas sanatorium and his excellent performance in the trial lecture at the Royal Institution that brought Davy a new job. In early 1801, Davy became an assistant lecturer at the Royal Institution in London, director of the laboratory, and assistant editor of the journal, with an annual salary of £105, free housing and coal candles.

David was 22 years old at that time, thin but handsome. His careful preparation before class made him free to express himself on the stage. He spoke passionately and operated skillfully. He also inserted some metaphors and jokes unexpectedly. The scientists, poets, college students, gentlemen, ladies and young ladies in the audience were fascinated and praised him highly. Among them were Coleridge and Mrs. Shelley. Mrs. Shelley wrote "Frankenstein" a few years later, which was the first science fiction novel in Western history. The reason why she paid attention to the development of science from a literary perspective was largely related to David's influence.

Davy's performance pleased Earl Rumford very much. Six weeks after he started working, Davy was promoted to associate professor, and the following year he was promoted to professor. He was soon elected a member of the Royal Society of London, and later became the secretary of the society. In 1804, Earl Rumford married the widow of the famous French chemist Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, and moved to Paris. Davy became the soul of the Royal Academy.

David's speeches often attracted hundreds of people, sometimes even thousands. In order to ease the traffic of the Royal Institution, Albemarle Street in front of the Royal Institution had to be made one-way. Thus, London had the first one-way street.

Figure 6: Apart from cars, the building and one-way streets of the Royal Academy in London are not much different from 200 years ago. Source:
https://livinglondonhistory.com/a-fascinating-visit-to-the-royal-institution-in-mayfair/

At the Royal Academy, David was very hardworking, both at work and in his spare time. He usually got up very early, spent two hours reading and writing, and then had breakfast. He went to the laboratory to work at around 10 a.m. and worked until 4 p.m. He had lunch at 5 p.m. and then went to the Academy to give a speech. If he didn't give a speech, he would attend tea parties in high society, watch plays, play billiards, and probably find time to discuss poetry with poets, just as he always found time to rehearse and study his speeches.

In 1802, Davy used a "huge battery" and platinum metal strips to make the first electric light in history - it was not bright enough and did not last long, but the electric light was certainly not invented by Edison later.

In 1806, Davy proposed the electrochemical hypothesis, which holds that "the binding force in chemical changes is generated by the electrical interaction between substances", which is of course correct.

On October 6, 1807, Davy isolated metallic particles of potassium through electrolysis. This is a magical metal that burns violently in the air and reacts violently in water. A few days later, he isolated the element of sodium.

The following year, Davy used electrolysis to obtain several alkaline earth metals: magnesium, calcium, strontium, and barium. Obviously, these discoveries must have added new material to his speech. The discovery of alkali metals and alkaline earth metals verified Lavoisier's view that some soils are metal oxides, which is of great significance in the history of science. Davy also pioneered a new method for discovering new elements.

The "David Notebook Project" found that in David's manuscripts, poems and experimental results were always mixed together, and sketches or doodles about landscapes and people were always mixed with business records such as buying candlesticks. Even though they were prepared, they were still a little surprised when they found the record of David's discovery of potassium. Among the lines of descriptions of experimental phenomena, there was a name and an address.

"That's David's tailor," said Professor Ruston. "We think he was thinking about how he should announce his amazing discovery at the Royal Society, and he needed a new suit."

rewrite

The most original records will definitely contain the latest historical information, such as this change discovered by volunteers:

Figure 7: A symbolic alteration in the sixth line from the bottom | Source:
https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/davynotebooks/category/dnp-blog/

The manuscript clearly shows that the result of Davy's modification is chlorine. This word is familiar to everyone. It is the name of the element named by Davy, "chlorine" - derived from the Greek "yellow-green" (chlorós), which is the color of chlorine. The word in front of chlorine was blacked out and we can't see it clearly, but the volunteers can recognize it, that is oxymuriatic. In today's dictionary, this word is difficult to find. In fact, it means "oxidized hydrochloric acid gas", that is, "oxide of hydrochloric acid gas."

This smear symbolizes another contribution of Davy to chemistry.

Historically, chlorine was first prepared by Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele. However, he was superstitious about the phlogiston theory and regarded this gas as "hydrochloric acid gas without phlogiston". Lavoisier had a different view. He established the oxidation theory and advocated that oxygen is the key element in acid formation - the word "oxygen" originally means "acid-forming element". He believed that there must be oxygen in hydrochloric acid, and chlorine should be a compound of hydrochloric acid and oxygen, so he named it "oxidized hydrochloric acid gas".

Around 1810, Davy and other chemists discovered that no matter how chlorine reacted, oxygen could not be separated from it. Davy concluded that chlorine was a single element, which overturned Lavoisier's conclusion that all acids contained oxygen. He argued that hydrogen was the key to the acidity of substances. Now we know that Davy was right.

Davy also discovered that chlorine can support combustion like oxygen, which further proves that oxygen's role in combustion and "acidification" is not unique. It is worth mentioning that if Davy instead of Lavoisier named the oxidation reaction, he would definitely not use the word "oxidation". Today, middle school students do not have to be confused about why chlorine has "oxidizing properties".

It took more than 30 years from the preparation of chlorine to the confirmation of its nature. Some scientific historians believe that among all of Davy's achievements, the discovery of chlorine is the "most scientifically valuable". The few strokes Davy made in his notebook not only rewrote history, but also rewrote the textbooks of later generations.

Figure 8: Inside page of the first volume of the People's Education Press's high school chemistry course. The portrait belongs to Scheler and the "data card" belongs to David

Image source:
https://book.pep.com.cn/1442001121191/mobile/index.html

In the current high school chemistry textbooks published by the People's Education Press, Davy's name appears in the compulsory first volume, and the corresponding statement is related to the discovery and naming of chlorine.

The greatest discovery

In 1812, major changes occurred in both Davy's work and his life.

On April 8 of that year, he was knighted. Two days later, he married a widow named Jane. Jane David was said to have assets of 60,000 pounds and an annual income of 4,000 pounds. In contrast, the Royal Academy, which had a star professor like David, only had an annual income of 3,000 to 5,000 pounds.

With such a strong financial backing, David no longer wanted to show up on stage. He hoped to concentrate on scientific research. Coincidentally, an experimental accident in the same year injured his eyes. With his head and hands wrapped in bandages, David could not help but feel a lingering fear. After all, a French chemist lost two fingers and an eye due to the explosion of nitrogen trichloride.

In June, David resigned from his teaching position at the Royal Institution.

At the end of the year, an apprentice in a bookbinding factory named Michael Faraday sent him a copy of Sir David's Speeches, which contained the contents of David's last four speeches, neatly written and bound together, totaling nearly 400 pages. He also proposed to work under David so that he could engage in the scientific research he had long admired. David was deeply moved but reluctantly said that he could not help.

Soon, by chance, David found a position for this young man in his early twenties as a laboratory assistant at the Royal Institution, which was actually his assistant, with a weekly salary of 25 shillings, about one or two pounds, plus housing on the top floor of the institute.

In 1813, after Davy recovered, he and his wife traveled to the European continent, bringing Faraday and a small portable experimental box. In Paris, he determined that iodine was a single substance and had properties similar to chlorine. In Florence, he and Faraday confirmed the chemical composition of diamond.

By this point, Davy had discovered or participated in the discovery of 9 elements, while only about 25 elements were discovered in the first half of the 19th century.

In the history of science, Davy's main role is as a chemist, while Faraday is a physicist, and the latter's position is more important.

This can also be seen from our country's middle school textbooks. Davy appeared in the chemistry textbook only once, and did not directly involve major chemical principles - of course, this is only the literal meaning of the book. If we talk about ideas, there are still many places related to Davy. Faraday's historical contribution is much more important. His name first appeared in the first chapter "Electrostatic Field" of the third volume of the compulsory physics textbook of the People's Education Press. In the following chapter "Electromagnetic Induction and Electromagnetic Waves", Faraday's discovery of electromagnetic induction was introduced in more detail. In fact, Faraday laid the foundation for electricity, magnetism, and electromagnetic induction.

Davy was a genius, so he could naturally feel the gap between him and Faraday. In his heart, jealousy overcame his fatherly love for Faraday. So when there was a priority dispute over the electromagnetic rotating device invented by Faraday, he chose to stand against Faraday; when many members of the Royal Society nominated Faraday to join, he cast the only vote against it. The mentor and the disciple finally turned against each other.

Figure 9: In 1821, Faraday invented the electromagnetic rotating device, which was essentially the first electric motor

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Faraday_magnetic_rotation.jpg

When discussing Davy's contributions, some people will say that Faraday was the greatest discovery of his life. There are even sources that often believe that this was Davy's own lament in his later years. If reliable written records are used as evidence, this is probably just wishful thinking of later generations.

Since matter is indestructible, the human heart should not die either.

Davy became president of the Royal Society in 1820, when he was 42 years old. After that, he enjoyed his great reputation, but no major discovery could bring him new fame, especially after he fell out with Faraday. Faraday, on the other hand, remained strong over time, making his greatest contribution at the age of 40 - discovering electromagnetic induction, at the age of 54 he discovered diamagnetism, and at the age of 56 he was the first to report the properties of metal nanoparticles.

David's family life was not happy. His wife was a socialite who neither cared about nor was considerate of his scientific work. In his later years, David often traveled abroad alone. He died in Geneva in 1829. Fortunately, his brother and Mrs. David had already arrived there to be with him.

Of course, what David left to the world is not just the intellectual legacy contained in those 75 notebooks and chemistry textbooks.

Because of his invention of the safety lamp later known as the Davy lamp, many coal mine owners donated money to make a beautiful silver plate for Davy in 1817, worth 2,500 pounds. Davy arranged in his will to melt the plate and donate the silver to the Royal Society of London, which would award a medal every year for "the most important chemical discovery in Europe and the United Kingdom and America."

The Davy Medal was first awarded in 1877 to Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff, an appropriate arrangement given their inventions of spectroscopy—a technique that, like Davy’s electrolysis, led to the discovery of many new elements.

Today, the Davy Medal is still awarded every year, and the prize money has been increased from one thousand pounds to two thousand pounds. It is regarded as one of the indicators of the Nobel Prize.

The home ground of the British Sunderland Football Club is the Stadium of Light, which is built on the site of an old coal mine. At the entrance stands a huge David lamp - that was the equipment that the miners of that time would carry with them when they walked into the dark mines.

Figure 10: David Lamp Sculpture | Source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Miners_lamp_Stadium_of_Light_Sunderland.jpg

The David lamp has been replaced by a new one, but people have not forgotten its contribution. Before the 2012 London Olympics, Princess Anne received the Olympic flame on behalf of the United Kingdom, and her tool of delivery was a David lamp.

Figure 11: The British delegation chose the safest way to receive the Olympic flame. Source:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2145955/London-2012-Olympics-Princess-Anne-Boris-Becks-torch-Athens.html

Such a legacy and such a commemoration reminds me of a poem by David:

If matter cannot be destroy'd,

The living mind can never die;

If e'en creative when alloy'd,

How sure its immortality!

Then think that intellectual light,

Thou loved'st on earth is burning still,

Its lustre purer and more bright,

Obscured no more by mortal will.

In 1933, the "Universal Library" of the Commercial Press, headed by Mr. Wang Yunwu, published "The History of the Discovery of Chemical Elements" by American chemist John Weeks. Mr. Huang Sufeng translated this poem in the book:

Matter is indestructible.

The human heart should not die;

Mind and matter become one,

Eternal existence is certain;

And the light of wisdom,

Forever shining in the world;

The cleaner, the brighter.

How can human will be extinguished?

In the first two lines of the original poem, Davy used the chemical term "alloy" and the more abstract term "destroy" together, which reflects his unique style. Many titles of Davy's biographies also compare the identities of "poet" and "philosopher". A monograph on Davy's poetry is simply called "Poetry and Science of Humphry Davy". In the view of Ruston, who presided over the "Davy Notebook Project", Davy did not have the so-called "two cultures" separation in today's society. Poetry and chemistry were both his ways of exploring the world and finding himself.

Perhaps this is the choice David made after fifty years of life.

Reference Links

[1] https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/humphrydavy/davy-notebooks-project

[2] https://interestingengineering.com/science/3500-volunteers-spent-4-years-decoding-scientists-200-year-old-notes

[3] https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/rom.2012.0061?journalCode=rom

[4] https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/english-literature-and-creative-writing/people/sharon-ruston

[5] https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/arts-and-social-sciences/news/online-course-and-exhibition-shine-light-on-sir-humphry-davy

[6] https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/davynotebooks/category/dnp-blog/

[7] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/dec/30/reams-of-secret-poetry-by-a-sir-humphry-davy-british-scientist-finally-come-to-light

[8] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/let-the-flames-begin-beckham-gets-the-home-fires-burning-7767122.html

[9] https://archive.org/details/cu31924011476599/page/n7/mode/2up

This article is supported by the Science Popularization China Starry Sky Project

Produced by: China Association for Science and Technology Department of Science Popularization

Producer: China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd.

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