James, F;
(2019)
Humphry Davy’s Early Chemical Knowledge, Theory and Experiments: An Edition of his 1798 Manuscript, “An Essay on Heat and the Combinations of Light” from The Royal Institution of Cornwall, Courtney Library, MS DVY/2.
Ambix
, 66
(4)
pp. 303-345.
10.1080/00026980.2019.1684080.
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Abstract
This paper publishes, for the first time, Humphry Davy’s June 1798 “An Essay on Heat and the Combinations of Light” written in Penzance. It is the manuscript that he sent to Thomas Beddoes which secured for him the position of Superintendent of the Medical Pneumatic Institution in Bristol while aged only nineteen. It is thus a crucial document that increases our understanding about how Davy made that move from Cornwall to Bristol, without which it is highly unlikely that he would have followed the spectacular career trajectory that he did. The “Essay” provides new insights into Davy’s very early chemical reading (especially the English translations of Antoine Fourcroy’s Elémens d’histoire naturelle et de chimie), the extent to which Davy read this (and other texts) in French, the chemical apparatus he used, the experiments he made and the development and retraction of his theory of phosoxyd (later phosoxygen).
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Humphry Davy’s Early Chemical Knowledge, Theory and Experiments: An Edition of his 1798 Manuscript, “An Essay on Heat and the Combinations of Light” from The Royal Institution of Cornwall, Courtney Library, MS DVY/2 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/00026980.2019.1684080 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2019.1684080 |
| 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. |
| 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/10083345 |
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