Humphrey Davy. Biography. Actress Sri Devi: biography, personal life, family, films Devi's life and scientific activities

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FRANCOIS SERBET /1807-1866/ Servais was often called the "Paganini of the cello". This is not surprising, because in the 30s-40s of the 19th century the famous cellist made a real reform of cello playing. In the art of Servais, the cello "lost that sedate, important, calm and, to say

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(1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, 1826)
Rumfoord Medal (1816)
Royal Medal (1827)

Sir Humphrey Davy(or Humphrey Davy, (English) Humphry Davy, December 17, Penzance, - May 29, Geneva) - English chemist, physicist and geologist, one of the founders of electrochemistry. Known for the discovery of many chemical elements, as well as patronage of Faraday at the initial stage of his scientific activity. Member (since 1820 - President) of the Royal Society of London and many other scientific organizations, including a foreign honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1826).

Biography

Born in the small town of Penzance in the southwest of England. His father was a woodcarver, earned little, and therefore his family had difficulty making ends meet. In 1794, his father dies, and Humphrey went to live with Tonkin, his mother's father. Soon he became an apprentice pharmacist, began to be interested in chemistry.

One of the scientists with whom Devi corresponded on various questions of physics and chemistry, Dr. Beddo, struck by his great talent, became interested in the young researcher. Beddo decided to give Devi the opportunity to work in an environment where he could grow and develop his abilities to the fullest. The venerable scientist invites Devi to work as a chemist in his own, where Humphrey enters as a chemist in 1798. As an assistant, and with a professor. In 1803, Devi was elected a member of the Royal Society, and from year to year he works as the secretary of this society. During this period, Devi's research and teaching activities take on a special scope. Devi attaches great importance to research and experimental work in the field of chemistry and physics. In his notes he writes:

“It is much more difficult to collect facts than to engage in speculative speculation about them: a good experiment has more value than the thoughtfulness of a genius like Newton”

In 1812, at the age of 34, Davy was knighted for scientific work. He married a young wealthy widow, Jane Apries, a distant relative of Walter Scott. In 1813, Devi went to travel around Europe, refusing to be a professor and serve in the Royal Society, as inappropriate for his new social position. Returning to England, Devi is no longer engaged in serious theoretical work. He addresses exclusively the practical questions of industry.

In 1819 Davy was made a baronet.

In 1826, Davy was struck by the first apoplexy, which for a long time bedridden him. In early 1827, he left London for Europe with his brother: Lady Jane did not consider it necessary to accompany her sick husband. On May 29, 1829, on his way to England, Davy was struck by a second stroke, from which he died at the age of fifty-one in Geneva. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in London, at the burial place of prominent people of England. In his honor, the Royal Society of London established an award for scientists - the Davy Medal.

Scientific activity

Already at the age of 17, Davy made his first discovery, discovering that the friction of two pieces of ice against each other in a vacuum causes them to melt, on the basis of which he suggested that heat is a special type of motion. This experience disproved the existence of thermal matter, to which they were inclined to recognize then many scientists.

In 1799, while studying the effects of various gases on the human body at the Pneumatic Institute, Davy discovered the intoxicating effect of nitrous oxide, called laughing gas. Davy also noticed that when large amounts of the gas were inhaled, it acted like a drug. By chance, he also established the anesthetic property of nitrous oxide: inhalation of the gas stopped the toothache.

In the same year, after reading the work of Nicholson and Carlisle "The decomposition of water by an electric current of a galvanic cell", he was one of the first to carry out the electrochemical decomposition of water using a voltaic column and confirmed A. Lavoisier's hypothesis that water consists of oxygen and hydrogen.

In 1800, Davy put forward the electrochemical theory of affinity, later developed by J. Berzelius, according to which, during the formation of chemical compounds, the mutual neutralization of charges inherent in simple bodies occurs; the greater the charge difference, the stronger the bond.

In 1801-1802, Davy was invited to, where he worked as an assistant in chemistry to B. Rumford, director of a chemical laboratory and assistant editor of journals; in 1802 he became professor of chemistry at the Royal Institute. During these years he gave public lectures on pneumatic chemistry, agrochemistry and galvanic processes. According to eyewitnesses, lectures gathered up to five hundred listeners and received enthusiastic responses. In November 1804 Davy became a Fellow of the Royal Society, of which he later became chairman.

In 1808-1809 he described an electric arc discharge between two carbon rods connected to the poles by a powerful electric battery of 2 thousand galvanic cells.

In 1803-1813 he taught a course in agricultural chemistry. Davy expressed the idea that mineral salts are necessary for plant nutrition, and pointed out the need for field experiments to resolve issues of agriculture. The lectures he gave on agricultural chemistry were published as a separate book, which served as a generally accepted textbook in this discipline for more than half a century.

In 1815, Davy designed an explosion-proof mine lamp with a metal grid, thereby solving the problem of dangerous "firedamp". Davy refused to patent the lamp, thereby making his invention publicly available. For the invention of the lamp, he was awarded the title of baronet and in 1816 was awarded the Rumfoord medal, and in addition to this, the wealthy mine owners of England presented him with a silver service.

In he established the dependence of the electrical resistance of the conductor on its length and cross section and noted the dependence of electrical conductivity on temperature.

Relationship with M. Faraday

In 1812, Davy's 22-year-old bookbinder's apprentice, Michael Faraday, came to Davy's public lectures and recorded and bound four of Davy's lectures in detail. Davy received them along with a letter asking him to take him to work at the Royal Institute. This, as Faraday himself put it, “ bold and naive step had a decisive influence on his fate. Davy, who himself began his life as an apprentice pharmacist, was delighted with the young man's extensive knowledge, but at that moment there were no vacancies at the institute. Michael's request was granted only a few months later: in early 1813, Davy, due to vision problems, invited the young man to the vacant position of a laboratory assistant.

Faraday's duties included mainly helping professors and other lecturers of the Institute in preparing lectures, accounting for material values ​​and caring for them. But he himself tried to use every opportunity to replenish his education, and first of all, he carefully listened to all the lectures he prepared. At the same time, Faraday, with the benevolent assistance of Davy, conducted his own chemical experiments. Faraday performed his official duties so carefully and skillfully that he soon became Davy's indispensable assistant.

In the years 1813-1815, traveling with Davy and his wife in Europe, Faraday visited the laboratories of France and Italy (moreover, Faraday served not only as an assistant, but also as a secretary and servant). Davy, as a world-famous celebrity, was welcomed by many outstanding scientists of that time, including A. Ampère, M. Chevrel, J. L. Gay-Lussac and A. Volta. During a stay in Florence, in a series of experiments carried out with the assistance of Faraday, Davy succeeded in burning a diamond with the help of sunlight, proving that it consists of pure carbon. After returning to England, Faraday's scientific activity proceeded within the walls of the Royal Institute, where he first helped Davy in chemical experiments, and then began independent research, eventually becoming a famous and influential scientist, which allowed Davy to name Faraday " his greatest discovery».

In 1824, despite the opposition of Davy, who claimed the discoveries of his assistant, Faraday was elected a member of the Royal Society, and in 1825 became director of the laboratory at the Royal Institute. The student's success aroused Davy's jealousy and Faraday's accusations of plagiarism, as a result of which he was forced to stop all research on electromagnetism until the death of his mentor.

Bibliography

• Davy H. Researches, Chemical and Philosophical. Bristol: Biggs and Cottle, 1800.
• Davy H. Elements of Chemical Philosophy. London: Johnson and Co., 1812.
• Davy H. Elements Of Agricultural Chemistry In A Course Of Lectures. London: Longman, 1813.
• Davy H. The Papers of Sir H. Davy. Newcastle: Emerson Charnley, 1816.
• Davy H. Discourses to the Royal Society. London: John Murray, 1827.
• Davy H. Salmonia or Days of Fly Fishing. London: John Murray, 1828.
• Davy H. Consolations in Travel or The Last Days of a Philosopher. London: John Murray, 1830.

Translations into Russian

• Devi G. Fundamentals of agricultural chemistry. SPB. 1832.
• Devi G. On some chemical actions of electricity. Moscow, 1935.

Memory

Named after Humphrey Davy:

• Medal of the Royal Society of London, awarded "for extremely important discoveries in any field of chemistry"
• Crater on the Moon (diameter 34 km, coordinates 11.85S, 8.15W)
• University College building in Plymouth (England)
• Humphry Davy Street is in the German city of Cuxhaven (Humphry) [ ]
• Mineral Davin was opened in 1825 in Italy

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Literature

• Mogilevsky B.L. Humphrey Devi. Series "Life of Remarkable People" (Issue 112). - Journal and newspaper association, Moscow, 1937. - 168 p.
• Volkov V. A., Vonsky E. V., Kuznetsova G. I. Outstanding chemists of the world. - M.: Higher School, 1991. - 656 p.
• // Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. XVIII-XXI centuries: Geology and mining sciences. M.: Science. 2012. C. 74-77.
• Khramov Yu. A. Davy Humphry // Physicists: A Biographical Guide / Ed. A. I. Akhiezer. - Ed. 2nd, rev. and additional - M .: Nauka, 1983. - S. 108. - 400 p. - 200,000 copies.(in trans.)

see also

Notes

Excerpt characterizing Davy, Humphrey

The French attributed the fire of Moscow to au patriotisme feroce de Rastopchine [Rastopchin's wild patriotism]; Russians - to the fanaticism of the French. In essence, there were no such reasons and could not be. Moscow burned down due to the fact that it was placed in such conditions under which any wooden city must burn down, regardless of whether or not there are one hundred and thirty bad fire pipes in the city. Moscow had to burn down due to the fact that the inhabitants had left it, and just as inevitably as a pile of shavings should catch fire, on which sparks of fire would fall for several days. A wooden city, in which there are fires almost every day in the summer with residents, owners of houses and with the police, cannot help but burn when there are no inhabitants in it, but troops live, smoking pipes, laying fires on Senate Square from Senate chairs and cooking themselves two times a day. In peacetime it is necessary for troops to settle down in apartments in villages in a certain area, and the number of fires in this area immediately increases. To what extent should the probability of fires increase in an empty wooden city in which a foreign army is stationed? Le patriotisme feroce de Rastopchine and the savagery of the French are not to blame for anything here. Moscow caught fire from pipes, from kitchens, from bonfires, from the slovenliness of enemy soldiers, residents - not the owners of houses. If there were arson (which is very doubtful, because there was no reason for anyone to set fire, and, in any case, troublesome and dangerous), then arson cannot be taken as a reason, since without arson it would be the same.
No matter how flattering it was for the French to blame the atrocities of Rastopchin and for the Russians to blame the villain Bonaparte or then to put the heroic torch into the hands of their people, one cannot help but see that there could not be such a direct cause of the fire, because Moscow had to burn down, as every village, factory should burn down , any house from which the owners will come out and into which they will be allowed to host and cook their own porridge of strangers. Moscow is burned down by the inhabitants, it is true; but not by those inhabitants who remained in it, but by those who left it. Moscow, occupied by the enemy, did not remain intact, like Berlin, Vienna and other cities, only due to the fact that its inhabitants did not bring bread of salt and keys to the French, but left it.

On the day of September 2, the French invasion, spreading like a star across Moscow, reached the quarter in which Pierre now lived, only in the evening.
Pierre was in a state close to insanity after the last two, solitary and unusually spent days. His whole being was seized by one obsessive thought. He himself did not know how and when, but this thought now took possession of him so that he remembered nothing of the past, did not understand anything of the present; and everything he saw and heard happened before him as in a dream.
Pierre left his home only in order to get rid of the complex confusion of the demands of life that had seized him, and which he, in his then state, but was able to unravel. He went to Iosif Alekseevich's apartment under the pretext of going through the books and papers of the deceased, only because he was seeking solace from life's anxiety - and with the memory of Iosif Alekseevich, a world of eternal, calm and solemn thoughts was associated in his soul, completely opposite to the disturbing confusion in which he felt drawn in. He was looking for a quiet refuge and indeed found it in the office of Joseph Alekseevich. When, in the dead silence of the office, he sat down, leaning on his hands, over the dusty desk of the deceased, in his imagination, calmly and significantly, one after another, the memories of the last days began to appear, especially the Battle of Borodino and that indefinable feeling for him of his insignificance and falsity in comparison with the truth, simplicity and strength of that category of people who are imprinted in his soul under the name they. When Gerasim woke him from his reverie, Pierre had the idea that he would take part in the alleged - as he knew - people's defense of Moscow. And for this purpose, he immediately asked Gerasim to get him a caftan and a pistol and announced to him his intention, hiding his name, to stay in the house of Joseph Alekseevich. Then, in the course of the first solitary and idle day spent (Pierre tried several times and could not stop his attention on Masonic manuscripts), several times he vaguely imagined the thought that had previously come about the cabalistic meaning of his name in connection with the name of Bonaparte; but this thought that he, l "Russe Besuhof, is destined to put an end to the power of the beast, came to him only as one of the dreams that run through his imagination for no reason and without a trace.
When, having bought a caftan (with the aim of only participating in the people's defense of Moscow), Pierre met the Rostovs and Natasha told him: “Are you staying? Oh, how good it is! - the thought flashed through his head that it would really be good, even if they took Moscow, he would stay in it and fulfill what was predetermined for him.
The next day, with one thought not to feel sorry for himself and not to lag behind them in anything, he went with the people beyond the Trekhgornaya outpost. But when he returned home, convinced that Moscow would not be defended, he suddenly felt that what had previously seemed to him only a possibility had now become a necessity and inevitability. He had to, hiding his name, stay in Moscow, meet Napoleon and kill him in order to either die or end the misfortune of all of Europe, which, according to Pierre, came from Napoleon alone.
Pierre knew all the details of the attempt on the life of a German student by Bonaparte in Vienna in 1809 and knew that this student was shot. And the danger to which he exposed his life in the fulfillment of his intention excited him even more.
Two equally strong feelings irresistibly attracted Pierre to his intention. The first was the feeling of the need for sacrifice and suffering in the consciousness of general misfortune, that feeling, as a result of which he went to Mozhaisk on the 25th and drove into the heat of battle, now ran away from his house and, instead of the usual luxury and comforts of life, slept without undressing on hard couch and ate the same meal with Gerasim; the other was that indefinite, exclusively Russian feeling of contempt for everything conventional, artificial, human, for everything that is considered by most people to be the highest good of the world. For the first time, Pierre experienced this strange and charming feeling in the Sloboda Palace, when he suddenly felt that wealth, and power, and life, everything that people arrange and cherish with such diligence - if all this is worth something, then only for the pleasure with which all this can be thrown.

Humphrey Davy (1778-1829) was born in the small town of Penzance in the southwest of England. There is an old saying about this area: "The south wind brings showers there, and the north brings them back."

Humphrey's father was a woodcarver who "couldn't count money," and so the family struggled to make ends meet, and his mother was the adopted daughter of a local doctor, Tonkin.

Humphrey as a child surprised everyone with his extraordinary abilities. After the death of his father, he became an apprentice pharmacist and was able to fulfill his old dreams, to do his favorite thing - chemistry.

In 1798, Davy, who gained a reputation as a good chemist, was invited to the Pneumatic Institute, where he studied the effect on the human body of various gases - hydrogen, methane, carbon dioxide. Davy owns the discovery of "laughing gas" (diazot oxide) and its physiological effects on humans.

In the early years of the 19th century, Davy became interested in studying the effect of electric current on various substances, including molten salts and alkalis. A thirty-year-old scientist managed to obtain six previously unknown metals in free form within two years: potassium, sodium, barium, calcium, magnesium and strontium. This was one of the most outstanding events in the history of the discovery of new chemical elements, especially considering that alkalis at that time were considered simple substances (of the chemists of that time, only Lavoisier doubted this).

This is how Davy described his experience in which metallic potassium was first obtained: pole, was brought into contact in the upper surface of the alkali ... Kali began to melt at both points of electrification, and at the upper surface there was a vigorous evolution of gas; at the lower, negative surface, no gas was released, instead small balls with a strong metallic sheen appeared, outwardly no different from mercury. Some of them, immediately after their formation, burned out with an explosion and with the appearance of a bright flame, others did not burn out, but only dimmed, and their surface was eventually covered with a white film.

Once, during experiments with unknown metals, a misfortune occurred: molten potassium fell into the water, an explosion occurred, as a result of which Devi was severely injured. The carelessness resulted in the loss of his right eye and deep scars on his face.

Davy tried to decompose many natural compounds, including alumina, by electrolysis. He was sure that this substance also contained an unknown metal. The scientist wrote: "If I were lucky enough to get the metallic substance that I am looking for, I would suggest a name for it - aluminum." He managed to obtain an alloy of aluminum with iron, and pure aluminum was isolated only in 1825, when Davy had already stopped his experiments, by the Danish physicist H.K. Oersted.

Best of the day

During his life, Humphrey Davy repeatedly returned to the problems of obtaining metals, although his interests were very diverse. So, in 1815, he designed a safe mine lamp with a metal grid, which saved the lives of many miners, and in 1818 he obtained another alkali metal in its pure form - lithium.

In 1812, at the age of thirty-four, Davy was made a Lord for his scientific services. At the same time, he also showed his poetic talent, he entered the circle of English romantic poets of the so-called "lake school". Soon his wife was Lady Jane Apriles, a relative of the famous writer Walter Scott, but this marriage was not happy.

Since 1820, Davy became president of the Royal Society of London - the English Academy of Sciences.

In early 1827, Davy, feeling unwell, leaves London for treatment in France and Italy with his brother. The wife did not consider it necessary to accompany her sick husband. In 1829, in Geneva, on his way back to England, Davy was struck by an apoplexy, from which he died at the age of 51. Next to him was only his brother. Davy was buried in Westminster Abbey in London, where the ashes of the eminent sons of England rest.

Humphry Davy went down in history as the founder of the new science of electrochemistry and the author of the discovery of many new substances and chemical elements.

Achievements

English chemist and physicist, member of the Royal Society of London (since 1803), its president in 1820-1827.

Born in Penzance (Cornwall). In 1795-1798. - an apothecary's apprentice, from 1798 - head of the laboratory at the Pneumatic Institute near Bristol, from 1802 - professor at the Royal Institute in London.

In 1807-1812. - Permanent Secretary of the Royal Society of London.

Scientific works in the field of chemistry relate to inorganic chemistry and electrochemistry, of which he is the founder.

He discovered (1799) the intoxicating and analgesic effect of nitrous oxide and determined its composition.

He studied (1800) the electrolysis of water and confirmed the fact of its decomposition into hydrogen and oxygen.

He put forward (1807) the electrochemical theory of chemical affinity, according to which, during the formation of a chemical compound, mutual neutralization, or equalization, of electric charges inherent in connecting simple bodies occurs; the greater the difference between these charges, the stronger the connection.

By electrolysis of salts and alkalis, he obtained (1808) potassium, sodium, barium, calcium, strontium amalgam and magnesium.

Independently of J. L. Gay-Lussac and L. J. Tenard, he discovered (1808) boron by heating boric acid.

Confirmed (1810) the elemental nature of chlorine.

Independently of P. L. Dulong, he created (1815) the hydrogen theory of acids.

Simultaneously with Gay-Lussac, he proved (1813-1814) the elemental nature of iodine.

Designed (1815) a safe mine lamp.

He discovered (1817-1820) the catalytic action of platinum and palladium. Received (1818) metallic lithium.

Scientific research in the field of physics is devoted to clarifying the nature of electricity and heat.

Based on the determination of the temperature of water formed by the friction of pieces of ice against each other, he characterized (1812) the kinetic nature of heat.

Established (1821) the dependence of the electrical resistance of the conductor on its cross section and length.

Foreign honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (since 1826).

Based on the materials of the biographical guide "Outstanding chemists of the world" (authors Volkov V.A. and others) - Moscow, "Higher School", 1991

Humphry Davy (1788-1829) was one of the most important explorers of the early 19th century. He did not receive a formal education. As a student of a doctor, since 1797 he independently studied chemistry using the textbook by A. Lavoisier. Then he worked as an assistant at the Pneumatic Institute. Here G. Davy made his first discovery, establishing the intoxicating effect on humans of nitric oxide (II) - laughing gas. This discovery made his name known throughout England. A year later, G. Davy was invited as an assistant and head of the chemical laboratory at the Royal Institute in London, "and a year later he took the place of professor of chemistry at this institute.

G. Davy's brilliant lectures at the Royal Institution attracted many listeners from various sections of London society. At the same time, he conducted major research at the institute. In 1803 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1820 he became president of that society and received many other scientific distinctions.

Electrochemical experiments G. Davy were devoted to the decomposition of water. He found that this produces twice as much hydrogen as oxygen. At the same time, he made some generalizations about the mechanism of electrolysis. In 1805, G. Davy began experiments on the decomposition of caustic alkalis. Initially, he unsuccessfully tried to isolate the metals contained in alkalis by electrolysis of solutions and melts. After that, he took a small piece of dried caustic potash, which for several seconds was exposed to moist air, placed it on a platinum disk of the negative pole of the battery and closed a current through this piece. Immediately he noticed the formation of a ball of metal, similar to mercury. In this way, metallic potassium (potassium) and sodium (sodium) were first obtained.

This discovery of G. Davy made a great impression on the scientists of Europe. It aroused a natural interest in the unusual properties of alkali metals and in the search for ways to obtain them by chemical methods. Continuing his research, G. Davy also obtained alkaline earth metals, somewhat modifying the conditions of the experiment and using mercury as a cathode so that an amalgam of these metals was obtained during electrolysis. He also tried to decompose boric acid using a voltaic column. But he did not succeed, and he attempted to isolate free boron by chemical means. In the end, he managed to get the "elementary principle" of boracid (boric) acid, and he called it boracium. J. Gay-Lussac and L. Tenard, who worked in the same direction, also received this "principle" and proposed to call it boron.

G. Davy spent a lot of effort and time on the isolation of free ammonium, which gives salts similar in properties to potassium and sodium salts. In 1808, J. Berzelius, together with M. Pontin, also made an attempt to obtain free ammonium. They managed to isolate only ammonium amalgam, which was later confirmed by G. Davy. At the beginning of the XIX century. it was believed that xAor is a product of the oxidation of muriic (hydrochloric) acid, and they called it oxidized muriic acid. By heating metal potassium in hydrochloric acid vapor, G. Davy obtained potassium chloride. The same result was also obtained by burning potassium in the vapors of oxymuric acid (chlorine). At the same time (1809) J. Gay-Lussac and L. Tenard, wishing to take away oxygen from oxymuric acid, passed the dehydrated gas through a porcelain tube with red-hot coal and came to the conclusion that this acid is possibly an elemental substance. However, decisive experiments in this direction were carried out by G. Davy. He obtained hydrochloric acid from a mixture of oxymuric acid and hydrogen (in the light with an explosion). He also tried to decompose oximuric acid in a voltaic arc flame between carbon electrodes. Based on the results of these experiments, G. Davy came to the conclusion (1810) that oximuric acid is an elemental substance. G. Davy called the new element chlorine (Gay-Lussac shortened this name to chlorine) and also tried to isolate free fluorine. In 1812, he expressed the opinion that boron fluoride and silicon fluoride are compounds of an unknown element, similar to chlorine and also contained in hydrofluoric acid. His attempts to isolate this element ended in failure. But the element unknown in free form was called "fluorine".

In 1815, G. Davy began to develop a safe lamp for miners. In those days, explosions in mines were the cause of the death of many miners.

The process of development of chemistry in the first decades of the XIX century. took place under the influence of the needs of a rapidly developing industry, in the conditions of the ongoing industrial revolution, which put forward new and important tasks for science.

To improve his system, Berzelius also used data from electrochemistry.

In 1780, the physician Luigi Galvani of Bologna observed that a freshly cut frog's leg would contract when touched with two wires of different metals connected to each other. Galvani decided that there was electricity in the muscles and called it "animal electricity".

Continuing the experiments of Galvani, his compatriot physicist Alessandro Volta suggested that the source of electricity is not the body of the animal: electricity arises as a result of the contact of different metal wires or plates. In 1793, Volta compiled an electrochemical series of metal voltages; however, he did not connect this series with the chemical properties of metals. This relationship was discovered by I. Ritter, who established in 1798 that the series of voltages of Volta coincides with the series of oxidation of metals - their affinity for oxygen or their release from solution. Therefore, Ritter saw the cause of the occurrence of an electric current in the course of a chemical reaction.

At the same time, Volta, in response to the distrust of his colleagues, who doubted the correctness of his explanations due to the fact that the discharges were too weak and the electrometer needle deviated only slightly, decided to create an installation that would allow registering stronger currents.

In 1800, Volta created such an installation. Several pairs of plates (each pair consisting of one zinc and one copper plate), stacked on top of each other and separated from one another by a felt pad soaked in dilute sulfuric acid, gave the desired effect: bright flashes and noticeable muscle contractions. Volta sent a message about the "electric pole" he had created to the president of the Royal Society of London. Before the President published this message, he introduced it to his friends W. Nicholson and A. Carlisle. In 1800, scientists repeated Volt's experiments and found that when a current is passed through water, hydrogen and oxygen are released. In essence, this was a rediscovery, because in 1789 the Dutch I. Deiman and P. van Trostwijk, using electricity generated by friction, obtained the same results, but did not attach much importance to this.

Invention Alessandro Volta immediately attracted the attention of scientists, because with the help of this battery he made other amazing discoveries, for example, he isolated various metals from solutions of their salts.

As we have already noted, in 1802 Berzelius and Hisinger discovered that alkali metal salts, when an electric current is passed through their solutions, decompose with the release of their constituent "acids" and "bases". Hydrogen, metals, "metal oxides", "alkalis", etc. are released at the negative pole; oxygen, "acids", etc. - on the positive. This phenomenon did not find a solution until in 1805 T. Grotgus created a satisfactory hypothesis. He used atomistic concepts and suggested that in solutions the smallest particles of substances (in water, for example, hydrogen and oxygen atoms) are connected to each other in a kind of chain. Passing through the solutions, the electric current acts on the atoms: they begin to leave the chain, and the negatively charged atoms are deposited on the positive pole, and the positively charged ones on the negative pole. When water decomposes, for example, a hydrogen atom moves to the negative pole, and an oxygen atom released from the compound moves to the positive pole. The Grotgus hypothesis became known almost simultaneously with the Dalton hypothesis. The rather rapid recognition by scientists of both hypotheses shows that chemists at the beginning of the 19th century. atomistic ideas became habitual.

The discoveries made with electricity in the following years created an even greater sensation than the galvanic pole created by Volta.

In 1806, Humphrey (Humphrey) Davy began his experiments with electricity at the Royal Institution in London. He wanted to find out whether the decomposition of water under the action of an electric current, along with hydrogen and oxygen, also produces an alkali and an acid. Davy drew attention to the fact that during the electrolysis of pure water, the amounts of alkalis and acids formed fluctuate and depend on the material of the vessel. Therefore, he began to carry out electrolysis in vessels made of gold and found that in these cases only traces of by-products are formed. After that, Davy placed the installation in a closed space, created a vacuum inside and filled it with hydrogen. It turned out that under these conditions, under the action of an electric current, no acid or alkali is formed from water, and only hydrogen and oxygen are released during electrolysis.

Davy was so fascinated by the study of the decomposing force of the electric current that he began to study its effect on many other substances. And in 1807, he managed to obtain two elements from melts of caustic potash (potassium hydroxide KOH) and caustic (sodium hydroxide NaOH) - potassium and sodium! Before that, neither caustic potash nor caustic could be decomposed by any of the known methods. So the assumption was confirmed that alkalis are complex substances. Electric current turned out to be a strong reducing agent.

Humphrey Davy was born in 1778 in Penzance (Cornwell, England); his father was a wood carver. Davy attended school reluctantly and later considered it lucky that he spent many hours in his childhood not at a school desk, but watching nature. Davy attributed his subsequent successes in the natural sciences to the free development of his personality in childhood. Davy was interested in nature, poetry and philosophy.

After the death of his father in 1794, the sixteen-year-old Davy entered the training of a doctor, where he was engaged in the preparation of medicines. He devoted his free time to a thorough study of the Lavoisier system. Three years later, Davy moved to Clifton (near Bristol) to study the therapeutic effects of gases at the newly founded Pneumatic Institute of Dr. T. Beddois. Working at this institute with carbon monoxide, Davy almost died. With the "laughing" gas (nitric oxide N 2 O), the scientist was more fortunate: Davy discovered its intoxicating effect and gained popularity thanks to a witty description of this effect. Studying the effect of electric current on various substances, Davy discovered the alkaline elements potassium and sodium. The extraordinary properties of alkali metals contributed to the fact that their discovery attracted special attention.

On the recommendation of Count Rumford Davy in 1801 took the position of assistant, and a year later - professor at the Royal Institute. True, at first Rumfoord was disappointed by the very youthful appearance of the new employee and his rather clumsy manner. But he was soon captivated by Davy's erudition and provided him with excellent conditions for scientific work. Davy fully justified the concern of the leaders of the institute, having made sensational discoveries in the field of electrochemical isolation of new elements and the study of the properties of various compounds.

In London, Davy quickly adopted the manners of high society. He became a man of the world, but to a large extent lost his natural cordiality. In 1812 the English king granted him the nobility. In 1820, Davy became president of the Royal Society, but six years later, for health reasons, he was forced to resign this position. Davy died in Geneva in 1829.

Davy is famous not only for the results of his experiments, but also for the electrochemical theory he developed. He wanted to solve the problem of the affinity of substances, which had long preoccupied chemists. Some of them compiled the so-called tables of affinity, for example, E. Geoffroy (1718), T. Bergman (circa 1775) (who later proposed using the expression “kinship of souls” introduced by Goethe into literature), L. Giton de Morvo (circa 1789 d.) and R. Kirvan (1792).

Electricity seemed to Davy the key to understanding the tendency of substances to interact. In his opinion, chemical affinity is based on the different electrical states of the elements. When two elements react with each other, the atoms in contact become charged with opposite charges, causing the atoms to attract and bond. Thus, a chemical reaction is, as it were, a redistribution of electric charges of opposite signs between substances. This releases heat and light. The greater the difference between these charges between substances, the easier the reaction proceeds. According to Davy, the decomposing effect of current on matter consisted in the fact that the current returned to the atoms the electricity that they had lost during the formation of the compound.