Humphry Davy:
Humphry Davy was a British chemist and inventor.
Birth:
December 17, 1778 in Penzance, Cornwall, England
Death:
May 29, 1829 in Geneva, Switzerland
Claim to Fame:
Davy was a British chemist and inventor who isolated or discovered several alkali and alkaline earth metals. He discovered sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, barium, strontium and boron and investigated the properties of the elements chlorine and iodine. He also invented the Davy lamp that was vitally important to coal miners. The lamp used a fine mesh to burn a heavy oil without allowing it to spread to various flammable gases present in coal mines that would cause explosions. It could also be used to detect carbon dioxide.
