Humphry Davy's "Great Beattery", 1807

Humphry Davy's "Great Beattery", 1807

Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet (December 17, 1778 - May 29, 1829) was an English chemist, inventor and a pioneer in the field of electrolysis using the voltaic pile to split common compounds and thus prepare many new elements. He built a huge battery in the basement of the Royal Institution, hoping to use it to pry apart substances that were harder to break down. For his first experiment, he chose caustic potash, a substance derived from wood ashes collected in a pot. After several failed attempts, Davy succeeded in splitting potash apart, revealing the shining globules of a new metal: potassium. The very next day, he broke down soda to reveal another new element: sodium. By using his battery to discover potassium and sodium, Davy had turned electricity into a powerful new tool in the search for elements. The following year, he used his battery to isolate four more elements: barium, calcium, magnesium and strontium. And chemists all over Europe seized on his technique, discovering aluminum, boron, iodine, lithium and silicon.

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