Category Scientist & Invensions

Michael Faraday was 19th century British chemist and physicist. He is often called the father of electricity with good reason.

       His work on electrochemistry and electromagnetism laid the foundation for many areas of science. It was in 1831 that Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, the principle behind the electric transformer and generator. This discovery was crucial in allowing electricity to be transformed from a curiosity, into a powerful new technology. He was partly responsible for coining many familiar words including ‘electrode’, ‘cathode’ and ‘ion’ Faraday laid the basis of the electromagnetic field concept in physics, discovered the laws of electrolysis, and invented electromagnetic rotary devices that were vital in the creation of electric motors. Faraday has thus played a key role in the development of electricity for use in, modern technology.

Sir Humphrey Davy was an English chemist who made many notable contributions to science, especially in electrochemistry. He is renowned for the invention, in 1815, of the Davy safety lamp that helped to prevent explosions in coal mines. Davy was the first to isolate several chemical elements, including sodium and potassium.

        He discovered boron, and found that nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, had anaesthetic properties that could be useful in surgery. Davy did many experiments on the effect of breathing in certain gases- and once, almost killed himself by inhaling a mixture of toxic gases.

      His research included work on early forms of electric batteries, and the use of electricity to isolate chemical elements. He also analyzed mineral, and completed many studies in tanning and agriculture chemistry.

    Did you know that in 1809, Humphrey Davy invented the very first electric light? He did this by connecting two wires to a single battery, and then attaching a charcoal strip between the other two ends of the wires. The charged carbon then glowed, making the very first arc lamp. Humphrey Davy was one of the greatest scientists, ever in the history of mankind.

Amedo Avogadro was an outstanding Italian physicist who lived in the 18th century.

    Although he had followed the family tradition by studying law, he gradually lost interest in legal matters. He found science was much more intellectually stimulating.

    Mathematics, and physics, in particular attracted his logical mind. Avogadro is chiefly remembered for his molecular hypothesis, first presented in 1811. He stated that equal volumes of different gases contain an equal number of molecules, provided they are at the same temperature and pressure.

     Amedeo Avogadro was a great scientist who made important contributions to physics. However, he never received any awards for his discoveries.

      Avogadro’s hypothesis gained acceptance only after his death as people did not recognize their significance. In honour of his contribution to molecular theory, the number of molecules in one mole was named Avogadro’s number.

Andre-Marie Ampere was a French physicist and mathematician, who made the revolutionary discovery that a wire carrying electric current, can attract or repel another wire next to it, that’s also carrying electric current. The attraction is magnetic, but no magnets are necessary for the effect to be seen.

      Ampere went on to formulate Ampere’s law of electromagnetism and produced the best definition of electric current of his time. He also proposed the existence of a particle we now recognize as the electron, discovered the chemical element fluorine, and grouped elements by their properties.

     In recognition of Ampere’s contribution to modern electrical science, the ‘ampere’ was established as a standard unit of electrical measurement, in 1881, forty-five years after his death

Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician, founded homeopathy.

        Hahnemann believed that the medicine he had been taught to practice some-times did the patient more harm than good.

       He carried out experiments on the curative power of bark, which was the source of quinine. He was the first person to observe that a remedy that produces symptoms in a healthy person will cure those same symptoms when manifested by a person in a disease state.

     This principle that ‘likes are cured by likes’ is the very foundation of homeopathy. Hahnemann is called the ‘father of experimental pharmacology’ because he was the first physician to prepare medicines in a specialized way, by first trying them on healthy human beings, to determine how the medicines acted to cure diseases.

Pierre-Simon Laplace was a French physicist and astronomer of the 19th century. He had a phenomenal natural mathematical faculty, and predicted many things, using only maths.

           These predictions were later confirmed with powerful telescopes. He wrote a book explaining his theory of the origin of the solar system.

           Laplace presented a steady stream of remarkable mathematical papers that spread his fame. Pierre-Simon Laplace is highly regarded for his influential, five-volume treatise which developed a strong mathematical understanding of the motion of the heavenly bodies. This work interpreted the geometric study of classical mechanics, starting up a wider range of problems.

          Laplace’s work, and the results he produced, made him one of the most important and influential scientists that the world has seen. The Laplacian differential operator that is named after him is widely used in mathematics.

           Laplace won many awards for his studies, and he was made a marquis, but he remained modest, saying, “What we know is little. What we know not is immense.”

         His work regarding the theory of probability and statistics is considered pioneering.