228 



Lhi of' jS cw Works. 



[]Auo 



liower looms for wcaviug dotl}.— 8tb July; 6 

 niontlif. 



To M'illiam I.ecsoi), HirmiTisham, Warwick, 

 for liis iniprovcnients iii lianiess and saddlery, 

 part of wliich improvements aro applicalile to 

 other purposes. — 8tli July ; 6 months. 



To Moses Poole, Lineoln's-inn, Middlesex, sen- 

 tlemaii, for his improvements in the apparatus 

 for raising or generating steam and eiirrenls of 

 air, and lor tlie application thereof to locomotive 

 engines and other purposes.— 8th July ; <> months. 



i'o Thomas Salmon, Stolie-ferry, Nmlolk, 

 nialtter, for his improved malt-kiln.— 9th July ; 

 6 montlis. 



To Jami's Chesterman, Sheffield, York, me- 

 chanic, lor his improvements on machines or ap- 

 paratus for measuringlaud and other purposes. — 

 14th July; 6 months. 



Lht of Patents, which having been granlcd in 

 tfif iiionlh of August 1S15, expire in the pre- 

 >enl month of August 1829. 



.3. Pierre Pelletan, for his tiew method of 

 iiiuking sulphuric acid, coiumonly called oil of 

 vitriol. 



4. Josepli Harvey, Berraondsey./or a machine 

 for the letter stril:ing and finishing leather. 



— William Edridge,Rotherithe, /or his pump 

 or fire-engine. 



11. John Street, Clifton, Gloucester, for im- 

 provementsin his mode of making and working 

 Oclloies. 



— Ilichavd Di.son, Ijonion, for improvements 

 in the construction of trunks and portmanteaus , 

 in the application of materials hitherto unused 

 in the ronstrvclion thereof. 



12. Steplien Pjico, Stroud, Gloueester,/or an 

 i:nprovi:d machine for shearing or cropping 

 leoollen and other cloths. 



15. John Edwards, Lambeth, /or his method of 

 prerenting leakage in ships, boats, and other 

 Z'essels. 



21. John Chesholms, Ed-.nhuvgh,/i<r/iJ.vwe(/iorf 

 of constructing register and other stoves. 



23. Thomas Field Savory. liimaon, for com- 

 bined neutral salt, or Scidleitz powder, pos- 

 sessing alt the properties of the medicinal 

 sprang in Otifltanp. 



— Robert William Bemman, Eldersfield, 

 Worcester, for improvements in ploughs. 



— James Carpenter, Welleuhall, Stafford, for 

 an improvement to a eurry-eomb, hij inverting 

 the handle over the back of th:' comb. 



BIOGRAPHICAL ME3IOIRS OF E3IINENT PERSONS. 



SIR HUJirHftEY DAVY, BART. L.L. D.; 

 V. 11. S. ; M. H. I. A., &C. 



An extended memoir of the life of that 

 distinj^uished experimental philosopher, Sir 

 }iiun])hrey Davy, would be little else than 

 a record of the state of chemical science and 

 discovery for the last five-and-twenty or 

 thirty years. Very slight and cursory must 

 be our sketch. 



Humphrey Davy was bom at Penzance, 

 in Cornwall, on the 17th of December, 1779. 

 His family is ancient and respectable. He 

 received the rudiments of his education at 

 the grammar schools of Truro and Pen- 

 zance. At Penzance, he resided with ]\Ir. 

 Tomkins, a surgeon, a benevolent and in- 

 telligent man, who had been on terms of 

 intimate friendship witli his maternal grand- 

 father. The youth was remarkable for his 

 eariy talent : at nine years of age, he began 

 to compose verses ; an amusement to whdch 

 l!e was addicted till he was fifteen ; and 

 tlie Annual Anthology of that period may 

 be advant?.gcously consulted for specimens 

 of his ability. 



At tlie age of fifteen, young Davy was 

 placed as a pupil with 3Jr. Borlase, a de- 

 scendant from the celebrated Cornish anti- 

 quary of tliat name. 3Ir. Borlase was an 

 excellent surgeon, and a man of soimd, 

 general, and extensive information. It was 

 intended that, under his auspices, IMr. 

 Davy sb.oidd prepare liimself for graduating 

 at Edinburgh. In addition to the regular 

 studies of his profession, he was fond of 

 natural history ; and, residing in a part of 

 t)ie island ricli in mineralogy, he collected a 



number of fine specimens. lie aLso begati. 

 to extend his views to the various combina- 

 tions, decomposition, and recombinations of 



nature to examine the different systems 



of tlie pliilosophers, both ancient and 

 modern — and to form theories of his own. 

 At length, he laid down for himself a 

 course of study, which he followed with 

 such perseverance, that, by the time he was 

 eighteen, he was master of the leading 

 principles of botany, anatomy, and physi- 

 ology, the simple mathematics, metaphysics, 

 natural philosophy, and chemistry. At 

 this period, experimental chemistry was 

 just beginning to afford results honourable 

 to tlie genius of those by whom it was 

 ])ractised. The discoveries of Dr. Black, 

 Air. Cavendish, Dr. Priestley, and others, 

 were matter of notoriety in this country. 

 In France, too, Lavoisier had begun to 

 propound his new theory, and to form a 

 new nomenclature for the science. IVIr. 

 Davy's strongest predilections v.'cre for che- 

 mistry ; and an experiment which he made 

 pioved the fortunate means of drawing him 

 from obscurity. He had ascertained that 

 sea-weed performs tlie same part in purify- 

 ing the air contained in water that vegeta- 

 bles perform with respect to atmospheric 

 air. This fact he communicated to Dr. 

 Beddoes, of Bristol, who had projected the 

 publication of a course of pliilosophical con- 

 tributions from the west of England ; and 

 who w-as endeavouring to found an institu- 

 tion, the main object of which was, by 

 means of dephlogistigated air, or oxygen 

 gas, to cme, or at least to alleviate, the 



