biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1778–1829)
|
| biography:
| Chemist, born in Penzance, Cornwall, SW England, UK. In 1795 he was apprenticed to a Penzance surgeon, and in 1797 took up chemistry. He investigated the respiration of gases, and discovered the anaesthetic effect of laughing gas. In 1801 he became a lecturer at the Royal Institution. His fame chiefly rests on his discovery that chemical compounds could be decomposed into their elements using electricity. In this way he discovered potassium, sodium, barium, strontium, calcium, and magnesium. In 1815 he invented the miner's safety lamp. In 1812 he was knighted, made a baronet in 1818, and in 1820 became president of the Royal Society. |
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