The 10th October 1731 saw the birth of Henry Cavendish in Nice, France, where his family were living at the time. When he was 11, young Henry was attending school in London and then moved on to Peterhouse College, Cambridge when he was 18. Three years later, he left Cambridge, having studied chemistry but without taking a degree, and set up home with his father in London.
He lived at 11 Bedford Square, where a plaque on the wall bears his name. Why? Well, the Honourable Henry Cavendish was a bit of a scientist, experimenting to produce and investigate hydrogen. He found that if you burned hydrogen, some dew was produced. He is also known for the Cavendish Experiment, which was the first to measure the force of gravity between masses and to produce an accurate value for the density of the Earth. Heady stuff, eh?
Henry died today, 24th February 1810 but not before working out that the formula for water was H2O.
HIJKLMNO
Blog entry posted in 'HIJKLMNO', Feb 24, 2020.
Findem, mugwortismy cat, Sandiep and 11 others like this.
