The decomposition of the fixed alkalies and alkaline earths / H. Davy.

  • Davy, Humphry, Sir, 1778-1829.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The decomposition of the fixed alkalies and alkaline earths / H. Davy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PREFACE. The present reprint contains the Bakerian Lecture delivered by Davy before the Royal Society in 1807, and also part of a paper communicated by him to the same Society in the following year. The former is the first published record of the experi- ments by which Davy proved the compound nature of the alkalies, and prepared the metals potassium and sodium. Fuller details as to the properties and re- actions of the metals were given in subsequent papers. The second paper above mentioned is, for the most part, a description of similar experiments carried out upon the earths and alkaline earths. At first Davy had some difficulty in getting satisfactory results with these, but ultimately he succeeded in preparing moderate quantities of amalgams of the alkaline-earth metals and of magnesium. Only that section of the paper which describes these successful experiments is now reprinted.