DAVY, HUMPHRY.

Some experiments and observations on the colours used in painting by the Ancients. Read February 23, 1815.

(London, W. Bulmer and Co., 1815). 4to. No wrappers as extracted from "Philosophical Transactions" 1815 - Part I. Pp. 97-124. Clean and fine.

First printing of this investigation of the chemical compounds used in Classical times to obtain colours by pigments.

He also analysed the colours of the so-called "Aldobrandini marriage," all the reds and yellows of which he discovered to be ochres; the blues and greens, to be oxides of copper; the blacks all carbonaceous; the browns, mixtures of ochres and black, and some containing oxide of manganese; the whites were all carbonates of lime.

"Humphry Davy was one of the most brilliant chemists of the early nineteenth century. His early study of nitrous oxide brought him his first reputation, but his later and most importent investigations were devoted to electrochemistry. Following Galvani's experiments and the discovery of the voltaic pile, interest in galvanic electricity had become widespread. The first electrolysis by means of the pile was carried out in 1800 by Nicholson and Carisle, who obtained oxygen and hydrogen from water. Davy began to examine the chemical effects of electricity in 1800, and his numerous discoveries were presented in his Bakerian lectures."

Order-nr.: 42334