On November 19, 1807, British chemist and inventor Humphry Davy reports to the Royal Society about the isolation of potassium and sodium from different salts by electrolysis. Davy was a pioneer in the field of electrolysis using the voltaic pile to split up common compounds and thus prepare many new elements.
Humphry Davy was born in 1778 in Great Britain as the son of a wood carver. His talents were soon detected, wherefore the young Davy was sent to adequate schools. He could perform several experiments, instructed by Robert Dunkin and was soon known to be a young and talented chemist, who frightened everyone with his experiments….
He was fired from the pharmacy he was working in. He was doing explosions. He also had the habit of breathing the gases he produced in the lab and died at the age of 33 after he became “invalid.”