FROM “THE LIFE OF THE SPINOSIST” TO “LIFE”: HUMPHRY DAVY, CHEMIST AND POET

Humphry Davy (1778-1829) was the foremost chemist in Britain in the nineteenth century. He is most famous for his invention of the miner’s safety lamp, though he also isolated more chemical elements – including chlorine, potassium, and magnesium – than any other individual in history. He became President of the Royal Society in 1820, the highest honour for a natural philosopher of his day. While Davy remains a household name for British people over a certain age who remember him because of his “Davy lamp”, few people know that he also wrote poetry. In fact, he wrote more than a hundred poems