Chemist Sir Humphry Davy is known for his work with nitrous oxide, or laughing gas. That early part of his career is the focus of part one of this two-parter.

Research:

"Britons take laughing gas merrily. Tories take it more seriously." The Economist, 27 Sept. 2023, p. NA. Gale OneFile: Business, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A766770794/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=c0888abb. Accessed 3 Apr. 2024.
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“Sir Humphrey Davy’s Harmful Emissions – November 2015.” Newcastle University Special Collections. 11/30/2015. https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/speccoll/2015/11/30/sir-humphrey-davys-harmful-emissions/
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Buslov, Alexander BSc; Carroll, Matthew BSc; Desai, Manisha S. MD. Frozen in Time: A History of the Synthesis of Nitrous Oxide and How the Process Remained Unchanged for Over 2 Centuries. Anesthesia & Analgesia 127(1):p 65-70, July 2018. | DOI: 10.1213/ANE.0000000000003423
Cantor, Geoffrey. “Humphry Davy: a study in narcissism?” The Royal Society. 4/11/2018. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.2017.0055#FN95R
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Jacob, Margaret C. and Michael J. Sauter. “Why Did Humphry Davy and Associates Not Pursue the Pain-Alleviating Effects of Nitrous Oxide?” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences , APRIL 2002, Vol. 57, No. 2. Via https://www.jstor.org/stable/24623678
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James, Louis. “’Now Inhale the Gas’: Interactive Readership in Two Victorian Boys' Periodicals, 1855–1870.” Victorian Periodicals Review, Volume 42, Number 1, Spring 2009. https://doi.org/10.1353/vpr.0.0062
Jay, Mike. “‘O, Excellent Air Bag’: Humphry Davy and Nitrous Oxide.” 8/6/2014. Public Domain Review. https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/o-excellent-air-bag-humphry-davy-and-nitrous-oxide/
Jay, Mike. “The Atmosphere of Heaven: The 1799 Nitrous Oxide Researches Reconsidered.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London , 20 September 2009, Vol. 63, No. 3, Thomas Beddoes, 1760-1808 (20 September 2009). https://www.jstor.org/stable/40647280
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Lacey, Andrew. “Humphry Davy and the ‘safety lamp controversy’.” 7/22/2015. https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2015/jul/22/humphry-davy-lamp-controversy-history-science
Neve, Michael. "Beddoes, Thomas (1760–1808), chemist and physician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. October 03, 2013. Oxford University Press. Date of access 11 Apr. 2024, https://proxy.bostonathenaeum.org:2261/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-1919
Polwhele, Richard. “Poems; Chiefly, The Local Attachment; The Unsex'd Females; The Old English Gentleman; the Pneumatic Revellers; and The Family Picture, Etc: Volume 5.” 1810.
Roberts, Jacob. “High Times: When does self-experimentation cross the line?” Science History Institute Museum and Library. 2/2/2017. https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/high-times/
Slosson, Edwin E. “A New Path to Oblivion.” The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Sep., 1923). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3693060
Thomas, John Meurig. “Sir Humphry Davy and the coal miners of the world: a commentary on Davy (1816) ‘An account of an invention for giving light in explosive mixtures of fire-damp in coal mines’.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 4/13/2015. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2014.0288
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West, John B. “Humphry Davy, nitrous oxide, the Pneumatic Institution, and the Royal Institution.” American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology. Volume 307, Issue 9. Nov 2014. https://journals.physiology.org/doi/epdf/10.1152/ajplung.00206.2014
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