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One of the old book shops in Chapel Street
Leaving Penzance harbour
The Tour Ends At A Haunted Pub
Borrowed portrait of Sir Humphrey DavySir Humphrey Davy
Humphrey Davy was born in Penzance, on 17th December 1776. The town has a statue of him and a pub named after him. There is also a chemists, once the apothecarys where he was apprenticed after his father died and where he gained his interest in chemistry. (see above tips.)
Davy went to Bristol University at the age of 19 to study science. He became interested in gases, experimenting particularly with the effects of laughing gas ( nitreous oxide). He was to discover several chemical elements including potassium and sodium.
He received a knighthood in 1812 and a special dispensation from Napolean ( The Napoleanic Wars were ongoing at this time) to travel through France. During these travels he discovered an element he called "X" and which is now known as iodine.
He became a professor of the Royal Institute and later a member of the Royal Society.
He took as his assistant the famous chemist and physicist Michael Faraday. In 1815 he received a letter from a group of Newcastle miners telling him the dangers they faced in their job. The problem was methane gas which often flooded the mines. In those days the only light a miner carried was a candle stuck to the brim of his hat. Many deaths were caused by the resulting fires and explosion.
Drawing on the earlier rather complicated ideas of an Irishman called Clanney, Davy invented a safety lamp for miners that emitted enough light to work by without the resulting explosion. He never got around to patenting the invention which is why George Stephenson is often accredited with it.
He died in Geneva in 1829 and his death was at the time attributed to the many gases he'd inhaled in his career.
http://step.sdsc.edu/projects95/chem.in.history/essays/davy.html to read more of Davy's works, there are many.
