In the early nineteenth century, mine disasters caused by accidental      ignition of methane gas were quite common. The fire lamps used for lighting the mines were responsible for such accidents which caused death of many miners. The    invention of safety lamp by Sir Humphry Davy in 1815 helped much to prevent these risks.

Born  on December 17, 1778 at Penzance, Cornwall, Great Britain, Davy was well known at that time as one of Britain’s leading chemists. His father Robert Davy was a wood-carver at Penzance. After being educated in Penzance and Truro, Davy was apprenticed to a Penzance surgeon. In 1797 he took up chemistry and was taken on by Thomas Beddoes, as an assistant at his Medical Pneumatic Institution in Bristol.

Davy realized that problems of  designing a safety lamp centred on the intake of oxygen and the dispersal of heat. A flame must need oxygen in order to burn, but the heat generated by  the flame will normally ignite any combustible gas around it. With characteristic ingenuity, Davy decided to enclose the flame of an oil lamp with a wall of wire gauze made up of conducting metal. The result was that where as air could reach the flame, the heat produced by burning was largely dissipated before the spent air came in contact with gases outside the lamp. The light of the flame though slightly dimmed by the wire gauzes, was still adequate for the miners. Safety lamps devised by Davy are still in use, though without doubt  the  advent of the electric bulb has reduced their importance as a means of lighting. Today, Davy lamps are used more as a means of detecting the presence of dangerous gases since the lamp flame is     affected by them.

The achievements of Sir Humphry Davy were by no means confined to the invention of safety lamp. Davy’s scientific career began in 1797. He carried out the investigations on the anaesthetic effects of nitrous oxide popularly known as the laughing gas. He prepared some quantities of the gas and inhaled it for half a minute. Soon he became unconscious. After inhaling for some more time he felt laughing sensation. It was a pleasant experience for him,  that is why it was named as laughing gas. The news regarding the pleasant experience of inhaling the laughing gas spread over. A lady volunteered to inhale the gas. After inhaling the gas for some time, she rushed out of the house and started running on the road. She even jumped over a dog which came in her way. Fortunately she was caught by a gentleman and saved.

The invention of this gas by Davy spread his fame even up to London. For this success, he was appointed a lecturer in the Royal Institution during  1800. He gave an impressive lecture regarding the properties of the gas.  Some people from the audience had the experience of inhaling the gas and enjoying its pleasant impact on their nerves.

For several years, this gas became a means of recreation in social parties. It was also used to control quarrel some wives. In one get-together, a dentist named Hauros Walse saw a man who after inhaling the gas collided with a bench and was hurt, but did not have any feeling of pain caused by the injury. Walse realized from this incident that this gas could be used on patients and their teeth could be removed without pain. Since then, the gas is being used by the dentists for painless removal of teeth. Later, surgeons also started using it on their patient’s for anaesthetic purposes. Even today, this gas is widely used as anaesthesia during surgical operations.

Davy became a widely respected researcher at the Royal Institution of London. His popular lectures and researches on  chemistry and voltaic cells won him further recognition.

Davy applied electrolysis to the decomposition of chemical compound and in this method isolated sodium and potassium in 1807 and alkaline earth metals in 1809. By heating borax with  potassium he obtained boron. He also  explained the bleaching action of chlorine and proved it to be an element.

In 1813, Michael Faraday became his assistant and accompanied Davy on a European tour during which they studied iodine and proved that diamond is a form of carbon. Together with Faraday, Davy published the first part of his research  papers on “Elements of Chemical Philosophy”. He also conducted useful work on volcanic action and corrosion of copper in salt water.

Davy received many honours and awards during his life time. He was awarded ‘Knighthood’ in 1812 and later became Baronet. The crowning scientific honour came to him in 1820, when he was elected as the President of the Royal Society of London.