A new online archive allows members of the public to browse Humphry Davy’s lab notebooks. As well as recording Davy’s numerous scientific experiments, the notebooks contain poems, shopping lists and gossip – providing unique insights into the mind of one of chemistry’s influential figures.
The archive is hosted on Lancaster University’s Digital Collections platform and is the result of a years-long citizen-science project led by Lancaster’s Sharon Ruston. Since 2019, almost 4000 volunteers have helped to transcribe over 13,000 pages of lecture notes and notebooks.
Speaking to Chemistry World earlier this year, Ruston noted that as well as highlighting quirks of Davy’s character, the project had also revealed a darker side to his legacy. Further research stemming from the Notebooks project uncovered ‘derogatory language’ used by Davy about African people and has highlighted his family links to the slave trade.
Davy was born in the late 18th century and is famed for his work on a miner’s safety lamp. He also carried out early work on galvanism and discovered more chemical elements than any other person before or since.
Davy is also believed to be the first person to inhale laughing gas or nitrous oxide, a topic that he wrote about extensively in his notebooks.
‘The Davy Notebooks Project is a testament to the incredible things that can happen when you invite the public to contribute to historical research,’ said Samantha Blickhan, the humanities research lead at the citizen science platform Zooniverse. ‘A shared curiosity, interest in Davy, and commitment to making these notebooks widely available brought thousands of people together who may otherwise have had no reason to connect and communicate.’