HENRY CAVENDISH (1731 – 1810)
Cavendish was born in the month of October, 1731. His father was Lord Charles, Mother Lady Anne Cavendish. Lord Charles made maximum and minimum thermometers and was the recipient of Kople medal.
Cavendish went to Cambridge at 18 and studied for four years. But he had to study religion. It was a difficult task for him. So he left. Cavendish and his brother fredrich studied mathematics and physics in London and Paris. Both of them elected members of the Royal Society.
Cavendish began his career as an assistant in his father’s laboratory. He was the pioneer to discover the separate existence of nitrogen and synthesise water from hydrogen and oxygen. He attempted to produce nitric acid from a mixture of hydrogen, oxygen and water vapour. He discovered that nitrogen was a constituent of nitric acid. He said that every charged body was surrounded by an electric atmosphere. This helped scientists to formulate the electric field theory. He added iron, zinc and tin separately into sulphuric acid and stored that produced gas in separate balloons. When these were burnt they found burning with light blue flame. He did the same experiment with hydrochloric acid also. The result was same. He weighed them and found the weight being same.
The quantity of gas produced depended on the quantity of metal used. But Cavendish decided wrongly that the gas comes out because of metal and not from acid. Cavendish felt that he had separated phlogiston and he submitted a report to the Royal Society.
The torsion balance that is widely used bears his name. He determined that value of the gravitational constant using it.
Cavendish was always shy. He was rich but he did not marry. He never liked to have contact with others. He used to be alone always. He never spoke to women. To him all men were strangers.
Cavendish died in 1810. he was buried in Durby, England. A cathedral was built in his memory. He had left a lot of wealth which was distributed to establish Cavendish laboratories.
Cavendish went to Cambridge at 18 and studied for four years. But he had to study religion. It was a difficult task for him. So he left. Cavendish and his brother fredrich studied mathematics and physics in London and Paris. Both of them elected members of the Royal Society.
Cavendish began his career as an assistant in his father’s laboratory. He was the pioneer to discover the separate existence of nitrogen and synthesise water from hydrogen and oxygen. He attempted to produce nitric acid from a mixture of hydrogen, oxygen and water vapour. He discovered that nitrogen was a constituent of nitric acid. He said that every charged body was surrounded by an electric atmosphere. This helped scientists to formulate the electric field theory. He added iron, zinc and tin separately into sulphuric acid and stored that produced gas in separate balloons. When these were burnt they found burning with light blue flame. He did the same experiment with hydrochloric acid also. The result was same. He weighed them and found the weight being same.
The quantity of gas produced depended on the quantity of metal used. But Cavendish decided wrongly that the gas comes out because of metal and not from acid. Cavendish felt that he had separated phlogiston and he submitted a report to the Royal Society.
The torsion balance that is widely used bears his name. He determined that value of the gravitational constant using it.
Cavendish was always shy. He was rich but he did not marry. He never liked to have contact with others. He used to be alone always. He never spoke to women. To him all men were strangers.
Cavendish died in 1810. he was buried in Durby, England. A cathedral was built in his memory. He had left a lot of wealth which was distributed to establish Cavendish laboratories.
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