Talk:Humphry Davy

Positioning of reference for a blockquote

Regarding this second revert. what does WP:MOS say about the positioning of a reference for a blockquote? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:10, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

"Cornish" (again)

Already extensively discussed previously (see Talk:Humphry Davy/Archive 1#Cornish? and Talk:Humphry Davy/Archive 1#Cornish in box and in lede?) When did any consensus to use "Cornish" emerge? Martinevans123 (talk) 17:17, 17 January 2019 (UTC)

And no clear consensus emerged, certainly not the last time. The first one was mainly about whether to have an ethnicity field in the infobox saying Cornish. I certainly do not believe the claims made that people will be confused by using Cornish, properly linked, in the text. To admit that they would be so confused would be to regard our readers as congenital idiots. What has happened recently is someone has turned up and changed Cornish to English without any discussion or explanation, and another editor and I have restored what it said before. DuncanHill (talk) 17:46, 17 January 2019 (UTC)

The encyclopaedia Britannica has him as English. Should it be changed to English.18:38, 4 December 2020 (UTC)— Preceding unsigned comment added by Halbared (talk • contribs)

EB also calls him British. DuncanHill (talk) 18:46, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

EB lists him under British chemists as a header, like all British chemists (scientists) and in his bio/lede puts him as an English chemist, like other English chemists.Halbared (talk) 18:56, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

I really don't see how changing it would improve the article. I'm slightly surprised that someone would resurrect a thread over a year old, instead of starting a new one under an appropriate header. DuncanHill (talk) 19:05, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

Depends if it's accurate or not. As it's the same topic, I didn't see why a new thread was needed as you two last discussed it. I looked at a few other good sites, and those who wrote bio's on Davy. A leaning towards English seems to be there.Halbared (talk) 19:27, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

A reasonable view point but you have to ask if the people writing the bios are truly neutral or if they are the same people who list famous Scottish inventors / scientists as British? I think its rather safe to say that Humphry Davy was fond of, and indeed influenced by his upbringing in Cornwall, much like Richard Trevithick. I don't find ethnicity being listed as Cornish particularly egregious. It's not like he was born in Cornwall and moved at a young age. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Elit3powars (talk • contribs) 19:29, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

Davy's geological theories

The In popular culture section correctly notes:

> Jules Verne refers to Davy's geological theories in his 1864 novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth

It would be great to speak more of his geological beliefs and studies. Some possible sources

• https://www.jstor.org/stable/4025808
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328441238_Negative_Geology_Humphry_Davy_and_forming_the_Royal_Institution's_Mineral_Collection_1803-1806
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/geological-theory
• https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/352749?journalCode=isis
• https://frenchquest.com/2021/11/09/jules-vernes-geological-paleontological-journey-to-the-center-of-the-earth%EF%BF%BC/
• https://digital.libraries.uc.edu/oesper/books/davy/index.html
• https://www.amazon.com/Humphry-Davy-Geology-Lectures-Audience/dp/0299080307 (if somebody wants to buy a copy...)
• https://www.nature.com/articles/288743a0

-- Dan Griscom (talk) 17:49, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

Proper Annunciation of his discovery.

Sir Humphrey Davey is known for many things including aluminum. The spelling and denunciation of this word is incorrect on his known for section. Sir Humphrey Davey patented his Discovery as aluminum originally spelling it alumium; and later deciding on aluminum. The person who discovers an isolates an element is the person who gets to name it; and no one else. A lot of Brits call it aluminum because a bunch of Humphreys colleagues later changed it in an article to aluminium having an extra I in it's spelling because they felt that it went better with the other elements that end in ium. Colleagues in a scientific journal do not get to change or rename your discovery. The reason that Americans still enunciated the right way is an homage to Mr Humphrey for all that his Discovery did for our country. Which is all the more reason I don't understand why Brits argue this because Humphrey Davey was also a Brit and yet British people still argue the Annunciation of this while America is paying homage. If people want to keep calling it aluminium that's fine but they are incorrect, it is aluminum. 2601:985:4301:9C0:C8F2:D487:AC26:E6D3 (talk) 14:49, 8 July 2022 (UTC)

What about Mr Mendeleev? Maybe an historical footnote would help. Martinevans123 (talk) 15:05, 8 July 2022 (UTC)

Isn't it sir Humphry DAVY, not Davey?

Only because I am a Davy and have been told of family connection 121.45.67.157 (talk) 05:04, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

Faraday

It seems an oversight to compose such a comprehensive article about Davy with only passing references to Michael Faraday, one of the foremost physicists of our time. Davy's attempts to repress Faraday seem, to me, worthy of a section rather than a hand-wave. Shabd sound (talk) 19:05, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

I agree. I have added a paragraph on this rivalry to the section 'Final Years', giving quotes from Cantor's Faraday bio referring to this topic, to counterbalance what seems to me an unduly charitable (to Davy) interpretation of that relationship in the existing first paragraph of that section. 67.249.83.179 (talk) 23:20, 21 September 2024 (UTC)

I gave no reference for "Davy's greatest discovery was Faraday" being said by others, not by Davy himself as stated by the existing paragraph #1, also without reference. It seemed fair to counter one unsourced anecdote with another one. I read this many years ago, in roughly the form, "it used to drive Davy crazy, that people said his greatest discovery was Faraday", but I don't now remember where I read this. I never heard this other, more Davy-favorable version that Davy said this himself, until reading it here, also unsourced. Given Davy's vanity and his overt rivalry with Faraday, the more charitable account also seems the less plausible. David Knight in Gooding and James (ed) 'Faraday Rediscovered' p. 33 says, "It has been said of Bergman and of Davy that their greatest discoveries were Scheele and Faraday. This is a rather backhanded kind of compliment. Davy at least would not have relished it ...." Still missing is a reference to someone saying this within the lifetimes of Davy or Faraday. Bhm1968 (talk) 01:28, 30 September 2024 (UTC)