Henry Cavendish
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Henry Cavendish was an English scientist and natural philosopher who lived from 1731 to 1810 and made important contributions to the study of chemistry and physics. His work helped establish fundamental scientific principles, though he was known for being reclusive and published little during his lifetime, with many of his discoveries only becoming widely known after his death.
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Henry Cavendish (/ˈkævəndɪʃ/ KAV-ən-dish; 10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810) was an English experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist. He is noted for his discovery of hydrogen, which he termed "inflammable air". He described the density of inflammable air, which formed water on combustion, in a 1766 paper, On Factitious Airs. Antoine Lavoisier later reproduced Cavendish's experiment and gave the element its name.
A shy man, Cavendish was distinguished for great accuracy and precision in his researches into the composition of atmospheric air, the properties of different gases, the synthesis of water, the law governing electrical attraction and repulsion, a mechanical theory of heat, and calculations of the density (and hence the mass) of the Earth. His experiment to measure the density of the Earth (which, in turn, allows the gravitational constant to be calculated) has come to be known as the Cavendish experiment.
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1731 births1810 deaths18th-century English chemists19th-century English chemistsAlumni of Peterhouse, CambridgeBritish fellows of the Royal SocietyCavendish familyDiscoverers of chemical elementsEnglish agnosticsEnglish physicistsFrench fellows of the Royal SocietyPeople educated at Newcome's School