The chemist I did my project on is Humphry Davy. He was born on December 17, 1778. His birthplace was Penzance, Cornwall. Then, at the age of 19, he became an apprentice surgeon and went to Bristol to study science. There he investigated the gases. There, he prepared and inhaled nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and published the results of his work in 1800 in “Chemical and Philosophical Research”. Davy gave his first lecture at the Royal Institution in 1801 and instantly became a popular figure there. His tenure as speaker was a huge success. At his second baker's lecture at the Royal Society in 1807, he made public his tremendous achievement: the galvanic decomposition of fixed alkalis. He demonstrated that these alkalis are simply metal oxides. These discoveries are considered the most important contribution to the "Philosophical Transactions" since Sir Isaac Newton. There he enjoyed great success and his lectures soon became a draw for fashionable London society. Then he became a follower of the Royal Society in 1803 and received the Copley Medal in 1805. In 1800, the Italian scientist Alessandro Volta had introduced the first battery. Davy used it for what is today called electrolysis and was able to isolate for the first time a series of substances: potassium and sodium in 1807 and calcium, strontium, barium and magnesium l next year. He also studied the forces involved in these separations, inventing the new field of electrochemistry. Davy was then considered one of Britain's greatest scientists and was knighted in 1812. In 1813, Davy left on a two-year trip to Europe. He visited Paris - even though Britain and France were at war, where he gathered...... middle of paper...... 828, he left England again for Illyria and, during the winter, fixed his residence in Rome, from where he sent to the Royal Society his "Remarks on the Electricity of the Torpedo", written in Trieste in October. This, with the exception of a posthumous work, Consolations en voyage ou les jours d'un philosopher, was the final production of his pen. On February 20, 1829, he suffered a second attack of paralysis which rendered his right side totally powerless. Like many chemists of the time, Davy's health was compromised by his exposure to compounds and chemicals. During one experiment, he nearly lost his life when he inhaled water gas, a combustible mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. These experiences left him weakened in 1827, when he resigned from the various scientific positions he held. Two years later, in 1829, he suffered a stroke in Geneva, Switzerland, and died..