Henry Cavendish is a misanthropic scientist who cut himself off from the world. Exceptional we alth allowed him to live as he saw fit. And the scientist chose science and loneliness for himself. The life and research of this scientist for a long time remained a mystery to others - the essence of the experiments conducted by Henry Cavendish became clear only many years later. Below, readers are invited to familiarize themselves with some little-known facts from the life of Henry Cavendish and his work.
Biography of Henry Cavendish is stingy with the details of his personal life. He was a member of one of the most distinguished English families. He spent his considerable fortune on research and experimentation. Significant discoveries in the natural sciences belong to his mind, but only subscribers to the Philosophical Transactions, which described the latest research of members of the Royal Society, saw detailed publications of the discoveries. Henry Cavendish kept most of his scientific records in his own archive, which became available to researchers only two hundred years after his death.
Privacy
Most of all in life, Henry Cavendish valued solitude. He communicated with his servants through short notes, could not stand the presence of strangers in his house. Often he returned home through the back door, afraid of talking to his housekeeper. The scientist shunned women's society and sometimes climbed a ladder to his office only to avoid meeting with the fair sex working for him. Henry Cavendish valued privacy above all else and had little interest in reality. Such social upheavals as the French Revolution and its consequences left him indifferent - in any case, in the surviving correspondence there is no hint that the scientist knew about this social catastrophe of the late 18th century. But he was well versed in furniture and collected the most unique examples of carpentry - there is a record of his purchase of several chairs with expensive satin upholstery.
He valued his loneliness so much that he ordered to be buried in a closed coffin, and on the crypt with his ashes there should not have been inscriptions indicating that Henry Cavendish was buried there. Photos of the famous cathedral in Derby, where this remarkable scientist was buried, are available in every guidebook, but, unfortunately, not a single reliable portrait of him has survived.
Gas research
From his father, who was a successful meteorologist, Henry Cavendish took over the gift of observation and a penchant for scientific research. Enoughaccurate weighing of hydrogen suggested to him the idea of using it in aeronautics. His experiments with this gas (Cavendish called it phlogiston) helped him discover the composition of water, decompose air into its components: oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water vapor. The accuracy of his analyzes was so great that by repeating the scientist's experiments under almost the same conditions, W. Ramsay and J. Rayleigh were able to discover the inert gas argon.
Experiments with electricity
Henry Cavendish and his discovery of the law of interaction of electric charges remained in obscurity for more than two hundred years. Meanwhile, this basic law of electricity was discovered by Sir Henry Cavendish twelve years before Coulomb. In another work, the scientist studied the effect of substances that do not conduct electricity on the capacitance of capacitors. He is the author of the first sufficiently accurate calculations of dielectric constants for some substances.
Reaffirming Newton
Empirical discovery of Isaac Newton, although it struck the imagination of scientists, but needed practical confirmation. Henry Cavendish's experience with torsion balances made it possible to measure the force of attraction between two spheres using this simple design, thus confirming the law of universal gravitation. These studies made it possible to derive such constants as the gravitational constant, mass and average density of the planet Earth.
Charming
This very modest and reserved person was one of the biggest patrons of the time. Hefinancially supported the poor who sought to gain knowledge. There are records of a student who helped the scientist put in order the huge Cavendish library. Upon learning of the financial difficulties of his assistant, Henry Cavendish wrote out a whopping sum of 10 thousand pounds sterling to support him. And this is far from an isolated case.
Random Discovery
Few people know that the unique heritage of Henry Cavendish became available thanks to another famous scientist - James Maxwell. He managed to obtain permission to look through the archives of an eccentric researcher. And even now, most of it remains unassembled - the purpose of the designed devices and the complex language of the manuscripts are practically incomprehensible to modern scientists. It should be taken into account that the mathematical language at that time was not thoroughly developed, and the explanation of many functions was complex and incomprehensible.
Cavendish Laboratory
The famous English laboratory of Cavendish bears the name not of Henry Cavendish, but of his relative and namesake - Sir William Cavendish, the seventh Duke of Devonshire.
This pundit did not leave a mark in science, but was able to perpetuate his name by donating a large amount to the construction of a unique scientific laboratory, which is still successfully functioning today.
