"Royal Institution Christmas Lectures The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are a series of lectures on a single topic each, which have been held at the Royal Institution in London each year since 1825, missing 1939–42 because of the Second World War. The lectures present scientific subjects to a general audience, including young people, in an informative and entertaining manner. Michael Faraday initiated the first Christmas Lecture series in 1825. This came at a time when organised education for young people was scarce. Faraday presented a total of nineteen series in all. The Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures were first held in"
"Philosophical Society. Many of the tickets for these lectures were given to Faraday by William Dance, who was one of the founders of the Royal Philharmonic Society. Faraday subsequently sent Davy a 300-page book based on notes that he had taken during these lectures. Davy's reply was immediate, kind, and favourable. In 1813, when Davy damaged his eyesight in an accident with nitrogen trichloride, he decided to employ Faraday as an assistant. Coincidentally one of the Royal Institution's assistants, John Payne, was sacked and Sir Humphry Davy had been asked to find a replacement; thus he appointed Faraday as Chemical"
"Assistant at the Royal Institution on 1 March 1813. Very soon Davy entrusted Faraday with the preparation of nitrogen trichloride samples, and they both were injured in an explosion of this very sensitive substance. In the class-based English society of the time, Faraday was not considered a gentleman. When Davy set out on a long tour of the continent in 1813–15, his valet did not wish to go, so instead, Faraday went as Davy's scientific assistant and was asked to act as Davy's valet until a replacement could be found in Paris. Faraday was forced to fill the role of"
"1790 - 24 Jan 1868) also was a chemist who spent some time (1808–1811) assisting Humphry in his chemistry research at the Royal Institution. John was the first to prepare and name phosgene gas. Edmund William Davy (born in 1826), son of Edmund Davy, became professor of medicine in the Royal College, Dublin, in 1870. That they cooperated in research is shown in a notice to the Royal Irish Academy on the manufacture of sulphuric acid which Edmund Davy ends with an acknowledgement of the assistance he received in his experiments given by his son, Edmund William Davy. Edmund Davy"
"Humphry Davy Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a Cornish chemist and inventor, who is best remembered today for isolating, using electricity, a series of elements for the first time: potassium and sodium in 1807 and calcium, strontium, barium, magnesium and boron the following year, as well as discovering the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine. He also studied the forces involved in these separations, inventing the new field of electrochemistry. In 1799 Davy experimented with nitrous oxide and became astonished that it made him laugh, so he nicknamed it ""laughing gas"", and wrote about"
"John Davy (chemist) John Davy FRS FRSE (24 May 1790 – 24 January 1868) was a Cornish doctor, amateur chemist, and brother of the noted chemist Sir Humphry Davy, and cousin of Edmund Davy. John Davy was born in Penzance, Cornwall, on 24 May 1790, the son of Robert Davy and his wife, Grace Millet. He assisted his older brother Humphry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain for two years before heading to Edinburgh University, where he earned his degree in medicine in 1814. Davy is perhaps most noted for his discovery of phosgene in 1812, a compound he"
"Davy wrote to Davies Gilbert on 8 March 1801 about the offers made by Banks and Thompson, a possible move to London and the promise of funding for his work in galvanism. He also mentioned that he might not be collaborating further with Beddoes on therapeutic gases. The next day Davy left Bristol to take up his new post at the Royal Institution, it having been resolved 'that Humphry Davy be engaged in the service of the Royal Institution in the capacity of assistant lecturer in chemistry, director of the chemical laboratory, and assistant editor of the journals of the"
"books are as follows: Davy also contributed articles on chemistry to ""Rees's Cyclopædia"", but the topics are not known. His collected works were published in 1839–1840: Humphry Davy Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a Cornish chemist and inventor, who is best remembered today for isolating, using electricity, a series of elements for the first time: potassium and sodium in 1807 and calcium, strontium, barium, magnesium and boron the following year, as well as discovering the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine. He also studied the forces involved in these separations, inventing the new field"
"contributions to science were cut short in 1794 by the revolutionaries, who arrested him on grounds of being an enemy of the French people, and had him guillotined. In 1807, the Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution in London was the Cornishman Humphry Davy. He was investigating crystalline salts of potash because he was unconvinced potash was an element, but by the end of the previous century, Lavoisier had been unable to break it down further. Since then however, the first electric battery had recently been invented (rows of metal plates and cardboard soaked in saltwater). Although scientists were"
"Edmund Davy Edmund Davy FRS (1785 – 5 November 1857) was a professor of Chemistry at the Royal Cork Institution from 1813 and professor of chemistry at the Royal Dublin Society from 1826. He discovered acetylene, as it was later named by Marcellin Berthelot. He was also an original member of the Chemical Society, and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. Edmund Davy was a cousin of Humphry Davy, the famous chemist who invented the Davy lamp for the safety of miners. Edmund, the son of William Davy, was born in Penzance, Cornwall, and lived there throughout his teen"
"the health of men and animals."" Edmund Davy Edmund Davy FRS (1785 – 5 November 1857) was a professor of Chemistry at the Royal Cork Institution from 1813 and professor of chemistry at the Royal Dublin Society from 1826. He discovered acetylene, as it was later named by Marcellin Berthelot. He was also an original member of the Chemical Society, and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. Edmund Davy was a cousin of Humphry Davy, the famous chemist who invented the Davy lamp for the safety of miners. Edmund, the son of William Davy, was born in Penzance, Cornwall,"
"years. He moved to London in 1804 to spend eight years as operator and assistant to Humphry Davy in the Royal Institution laboratory, which he kept in order. For a large part of that time, Edmund was also superintendent of the Royal Society's mineralogical collection. When, in October 1807, Humphry accomplished the electrolytic preparation of potassium and saw the minute globules of the quicksilver-like metal burst through the crust and take fire, Edmund described that his cousin was so delighted with this achievement that he danced about the room in ecstasy. Humphry Davy's younger brother, Dr. John Davy, (24 May"
"and to physicist André-Marie Ampère. On December 6, 1813, Gay-Lussac announced that the new substance was either an element or a compound of oxygen. It was Gay-Lussac who suggested the name """"iode"""", from the Greek word ιώδες (iodes) for violet (because of the color of iodine vapor). Ampère had given some of his sample to Humphry Davy. Davy did some experiments on the substance and noted its similarity to chlorine. Davy sent a letter dated December 10 to the Royal Society of London stating that he had identified a new element. Arguments erupted between Davy and Gay-Lussac over who identified"
"also named, also concluding that chlorine was an element at the same time. He also discovered silicon tetrafluoride. Upon qualification as a doctor in 1815, Davy joined the British Army Medical Department as an Army Hospital Assistant. From 1816 until 1820 he worked as Staff Surgeon in the General Hospital in Brussels. After being posted to a number of the English colonies, including India, Ceylon, he was elevated to the rank of Inspector General of Army Hospitals in the West Indies in 1862, based around Barbados. In 1834 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. From 1836 to"
"Humphry Davy, a protégé of his uncle Bryan. Davy was one of William’s proposers to the Royal Society in 1806. William and Humphry’s relationship flourished from 1810 on, when Humphry promoted William’s claims to the discovery of the chemical atomic theory over those of their rival John Dalton. William’s claims to the discovery of the chemical atomic theory is found in ""Comparative View"". William sought to make clear the mechanisms of possible reactions between ultimate particles by using diagrams of the reacting particles and the affinity forces between them. Evidence has recently been presented that Dalton may have been aware"
"Charles Heycock Charles Thomas Heycock FRS (21 August 1858 – 3 June 1931) was a British chemist and soldier who was awarded the Royal Society's Davy Medal in 1920. Born on 21 August 1858, Charles Heycock was educated at Bedford School, Oakham, and at King's College, Cambridge. He was lecturer and Assistant Tutor at King's College, Cambridge, and Goldsmiths' Reader in Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. He was awarded the Royal Society's Davy Medal in 1920, ""on the ground of his work in physical chemistry and more especially on the composition & constitution of alloys"". He was lieutenant-colonel in"
"Cyclopædia"" he contributed articles about Chemistry, but the topics are not known. John Davy (chemist) John Davy FRS FRSE (24 May 1790 – 24 January 1868) was a Cornish doctor, amateur chemist, and brother of the noted chemist Sir Humphry Davy, and cousin of Edmund Davy. John Davy was born in Penzance, Cornwall, on 24 May 1790, the son of Robert Davy and his wife, Grace Millet. He assisted his older brother Humphry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain for two years before heading to Edinburgh University, where he earned his degree in medicine in 1814. Davy is perhaps"
"and ""in recognition of their distinguished joint work on the elucidation of the biosynthetic pathway to polyisoprenoids and steroids"". Source: Royal Society Davy Medal The Davy Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London ""for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry"". Named after Humphry Davy, the medal is awarded with a monetary gift, initially of £1000 (currently £2000). The medal was first awarded in 1877 to Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff ""for their researches & discoveries in spectrum analysis"", and has since been awarded 140 times. The medal is awarded annually, and unlike"
"Davy Medal The Davy Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London ""for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry"". Named after Humphry Davy, the medal is awarded with a monetary gift, initially of £1000 (currently £2000). The medal was first awarded in 1877 to Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff ""for their researches & discoveries in spectrum analysis"", and has since been awarded 140 times. The medal is awarded annually, and unlike other Royal Society medals, such as the Hughes Medal, it has been awarded annually without ever missing a year. The medal has"
"claimed that the honour should go to Humphry Davy who, in 1808, became the first to isolate the pure element. Adair Crawford Adair Crawford FRS FRSE (174829 July 1795), a chemist and physician, was a pioneer in the development of calorimetric methods for measuring the specific heat capacity of substances and the heat of chemical reactions. In his influential 1779 book """"Experiments and Observations on Animal Heat"""", Crawford presented new experiments proving that respiratory gas exchange in animals is a combustion (two years after Antoine Lavoisier's influential """"On combustion in general""""). Crawford also was involved in the discovery of the"
"foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1810 and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1822. Davy was a pioneer in the field of electrolysis using the voltaic pile to split common compounds and thus prepare many new elements. He went on to electrolyse molten salts and discovered several new metals, including sodium and potassium, highly reactive elements known as the alkali metals. Davy discovered potassium in 1807, deriving it from caustic potash (KOH). Before the 19th century, no distinction had been made between potassium and sodium. Potassium was the"
"Edward Charles Howard Edward Charles Howard FRS (28 May 1774 – 28 September 1816) the youngest brother of Bernard Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk, was a British chemist who has been described as ""the first chemical engineer of any eminence."" In January 1799 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1800 awarded their Copley medal for his work on mercury. He discovered mercury fulminate, a powerful primary explosive. In 1813 he invented a method of refining sugar which involved boiling the cane juice not in an open kettle, but in a closed vessel heated by steam"
"(1750–1848), were dedicated to the study of the stars; they changed the public conception of the solar system, the Milky Way, and the meaning of the universe. Sir Humphry Davy was ""the most important man of science in Britain who can be described as a Romantic."" His new take on what he called ""chemical philosophy"" was an example of Romantic principles in use that influenced the field of chemistry; he stressed a discovery of ""the primitive, simple and limited in number causes of the phenomena and changes observed"" in the physical world and the chemical elements already known, those having"
"1804 to 1806 and for Bodmin from 1806 to 1832. Giddy was an intimate friend of physician Thomas Beddoes, had attended Beddoes' lectures at Oxford when Beddoes had become University Reader in Chemistry in 1788 and had been a confidant of Beddoes in his plans for the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol. He noticed and encouraged Humphry Davy and convinced Beddoes that Davy was the man to work in the laboratory at the Institution. The ""Dictionary of National Biography"" article says of him: ""Gilbert's importance to the development of science in the early nineteenth century lay in his faith that science"
"the Goldsmiths Institute as head of the Chemistry Department and in 1909 became Senior Lecturer in Inorganic and Physical chemistry at the University of Manchester. In 1913 he was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry and in 1922 the Sir Samuel Hall professor (of inorganic and physical chemistry) and Director of Laboratories. He was a pioneer of the field of physical organic chemistry. His proposal for the reaction mechanism for the benzoin condensation is the basis for our modern-day understanding of organic chemistry. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 1910, and was awarded their Davy Medal"
"birthplace of the chemist Sir Humphry Davy. Davy was President of the Royal Society and invented the process of electrolysis; was the first person to isolate sodium; was the first person to discover Nitrous oxide; as well as proving (with Michael Faraday) that diamonds are made of pure carbon. Today he is possibly best known as the inventor of the Miner's Safety Lamp, or Davy lamp. There is a statue of Davy at the top of Market Jew Street, near the house in which he was born. One of Penzance's secondary schools is also named after the scientist, and runs"
"pathways provide even more counterevidence. Berzelius was a prolific correspondent with such leading scientists as Gerardus Johannes Mulder, Claude Louis Berthollet, Humphry Davy, Friedrich Wöhler and Eilhard Mitscherlich. After his long denial that chlorine is an element (as proposed by Humphry Davy in 1810), the dispute was ended by the discovery of iodine in 1812. In 1818 Berzelius was ennobled by King Carl XIV Johan; in 1835, at the age of 56, he married Elisabeth Poppius, the 24-year-old daughter of a Swedish cabinet minister, and in the same year was elevated to friherre. Berzeliusskolan, a school situated next to his"
"when Humphry Davy, in England, used electrolysis on a mixture of lime and mercuric oxide, after hearing that Jöns Jakob Berzelius had prepared a calcium amalgam from the electrolysis of lime in mercury. In 1790, physician Adair Crawford discovered ores with distinctive properties, which were named ""strontites"" in 1793 by Thomas Charles Hope, a chemistry professor at the University of Glasgow, who confirmed Crawford's discovery. Strontium was eventually isolated in 1808 by Sir Humphry Davy by electrolysis of a mixture of strontium chloride and mercuric oxide. The discovery was announced by Davy on 30 June 1808 at a lecture to"
"house at Hampton Court on 25 August 1867, aged 75. He had some years before turned down an offer of burial in Westminster Abbey upon his death, but he has a memorial plaque there, near Isaac Newton's tomb. Faraday was interred in the dissenters' (non-Anglican) section of Highgate Cemetery. Faraday's earliest chemical work was as an assistant to Humphry Davy. Faraday was specifically involved in the study of chlorine; he discovered two new compounds of chlorine and carbon. He also conducted the first rough experiments on the diffusion of gases, a phenomenon that was first pointed out by John Dalton."
"Institution"" (1802), titling it “An Account of a Method of Copying Paintings upon Glass, and of Making Profiles, by the Agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver, with observations by Humphrey Davy. Invented by T. Wedgwood, Esq.” The paper was published and detailed Wedgwood’s procedures and accomplishments, as well as Davy's own variations of them. In 1802 the Royal Institution was not the venerable force it is today and its Journal was: Nevertheless, the paper of 1802 and Wedgwood's work directly influenced other chemists and scientists delving into the craft of photography, since subsequent research (Batchen, p. 228) has shown"
"of Venus (1769), for the gravitational attraction of mountains (1774), and for the scientific instructions for Constantine Phipps's expedition (1773) in search of the North Pole and the Northwest Passage. In 1773, Henry joined his father as an elected trustee of the British Museum, to which he devoted a good deal of time and effort. Soon after the Royal Institution of Great Britain was established, Cavendish became a manager (1800) and took an active interest, especially in the laboratory, where he observed and helped in Humphry Davy's chemical experiments. About the time of his father's death, Cavendish began to work"
"a meeting of the Imperial Institute of France. On 6 December, Gay-Lussac announced that the new substance was either an element or a compound of oxygen. It was Gay-Lussac who suggested the name """"iode"""", from the Greek word (""ioeidēs"") for violet (because of the colour of iodine vapor). Ampère had given some of his sample to English chemist Humphry Davy (1778–1829), who experimented on the substance and noted its similarity to chlorine. Davy sent a letter dated 10 December to the Royal Society of London stating that he had identified a new element. Arguments erupted between Davy and Gay-Lussac over"
"of his customers, for Faraday to be given tickets to hear Humphry Davy lecture on Chemistry at the Royal Institution; Faraday took notes which he later showed to Davy and which led to his joining the RI, the start of his distinguished scientific career. Many years later Faraday dedicated a book to Riebau, writing: ""...you kindly interested yourself in the progress I made in the knowledge of facts relating to the different theories in existence, readily permitting me to examine those books in your possession that were in any way related to the subjects occupying my attention."" George Riebau George"