Henry Cavendish

Cavendish, Henry 

Born Oct. 10, 1731, in Nice; died Feb. 24, 1810, in London. English physicist and chemist. Member of the Royal Society of London (from 1760).

Cavendish graduated from Cambridge University in 1753. His main works were devoted to the chemistry of gases and various branches of experimental physics. He developed a method of collecting, purifying, and investigating gases, which he used in 1766 to obtain hydrogen and carbon dioxide in pure form and to determine their specific gravities and other properties. He determined the composition of air (1781) and established the chemical composition of water (1784) by burning hydrogen. Cavendish obtained nitrogen oxides using an electric spark and investigated their properties (1785). Most of his works on heat and electricity were only published many years after his death (works on electricity in 1879, a collection of works in 1921). Cavendish introduced the concept of electric potential, investigated the relationship between the capacity of an electric condenser and the medium, and studied the interaction of electric charges (anticipating Coulomb’s third law). He was the first to formulate the concept of specific heat. In 1798 he determined the average density of the earth using the method of torsional balance. Cavendish was extremely wealthy and worked in his own laboratory to the end of his life. The physics laboratory at Cambridge University, which was founded in 1871, was named in his honor.

WORKS

The Scientific Papers, vols. 1–. Cambridge, 1921.

REFERENCES

Wilson, G. The Life of Honourable Henry Cavendish.London, 1851.
Berry, A. J. Henry Cavendish: His Life and Scientific Work. London, 1960.
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