Henry Cavendish

He was a British natural philosopher, scientist, and an important experimental and

theoretical chemist and physicist. Cavendish is noted for his discovery of hydrogen or what
he called "inflammable air". He described the density of inflammable air, which formed water
on combustion, in a 1766 paper. Antoine Lavoisier later reproduced Cavendish's experiment
and gave the element its name.
Cavendish found that a definite, peculiar, and highly inflammable gas, which he referred to
as "Inflammable Air" was produced by the action of certain acid on certain metals. This gas
was in fact hydrogen, which Cavendish correctly guessed was proportioned to two in one
water

Born-10 October 1731 Nice, kingdom of Sardinia

Died-24 February 1810(aged 78) London, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland

Henry Cavendish was one of the great scientists of the 18th century. Cavendish was born on
10 October 1731 in Nice in France.

Henry Cavendish was passionately interested in science (or natural philosophy as it was
called then) and he devoted his life to experimenting. Henry experimented with gases and in
1766 he discovered hydrogen, which he called inflammable air. Henry also showed that
hydrogen is made of oxygen and water.

In 1785 he published a paper showing the Earth's atmosphere consists of 4 parts nitrogen to
1 part oxygen. (Henry also realized there was a tiny amount of another gas present, a
fraction of not more than 1/120. This gas was identified as argon in 1894).

Then in 1797-1798 Henry Cavendish measured the density of the Earth. Henry Cavendish
died on 24 February 1810.