Young Humphry Davy: The Making of an Experimental Chemist, Memoirs, American Philosophical Society (vol. 237)

Humphry Davy’s contemporaries bestowed on him their highest honors. Since Davy’s death in 1829, each scholarly generation has accrued info. about him & his colleagues. His startling discoveries of the scientifically novel, his isolation & identification of 7 new elements, & his association of electrical properties & chemical behavior coupled with his fame as a lecturer, made him a popular cultural hero. Others saw him as the man who had made agriculture “scientific.” Davy’s refusal to profi...