Cavendish, Henry

Henry Cavendish was born on October 10 in 1731. He was an English natural philosopher and scientist who was an important experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist.

In 1766, Henry Cavendish isolated pure hydrogen and carbon dioxide and determined their density. In 1772 he discovered nitrogen. In 1781 Cavendish determined the chemical composition of air.

His works on electricity were published in 1879. Henry Cavendish was the first to establish the law of interaction of electric charges, known today as "Coulomb's law", and the first to introduce the concept of electric potential into science.

A shy man, Cavendish was distinguished for great accuracy and precision in his researches into the composition of atmospheric air, the properties of different gases, the synthesis of water, the law governing electrical attraction and repulsion, a mechanical theory of heat, and calculations of the density (and hence the mass) of the Earth. His experiment to measure the density of the Earth (which, in turn, allows the gravitational constant to be calculated) has come to be known as the Cavendish experiment.

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