James, F;
(2019)
Gas and Poetry: Humphry Davy in Bristol, 1798-1801.
Essays in Romanticism
, 26
(2)
pp. 131-157.
10.3828/eir.2019.26.2.5.
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Abstract
This paper is a contribution, historically grounded, to current discussions about how best to understand the relations of science and literature as cultural and social practices. It examines, in some detail, Humphry Davy’s activities during the two and a half years, from the autumn of 1798 to the spring of 1801, that he worked at Thomas Beddoes’s Medical Pneumatic Institution in Bristol. The loose and ever-changing circle of creative individuals who formed around Beddoes and his Institution involved a formidable array of savants including members of the Watt and Wedgwood families as well as Romantics such as Southey, Coleridge and Wordsworth. The micro-chronological approach adopted here reveals the importance of print culture and sociability in the production of texts and knowledge, as well as the striking number and variety of projects proposed by the circle that never came to fruition. Nevertheless, those successful projects, such as Davy’s work on nitrous oxide and the second edition of Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads, contributed to making this period one of the key moments in English cultural history.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Gas and Poetry: Humphry Davy in Bristol, 1798-1801 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3828/eir.2019.26.2.5 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3828/eir.2019.26.2.5 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Humphry Davy, Thomas Beddoes, Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Bristol, the Medical Pneumatic Institution, Jacobin Politics, Nitrous |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Science and Technology Studies |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10081441 |
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