The Davy Notebooks Project has been digitising and transcribing 83 volumes of diaries written by the influential 19th-century chemist Humphry Davy. Over five years, thousands of volunteers have worked to make Davy’s thoughts and findings available to the public. The diaries paint a complex picture of one of chemistry’s leading figures: from his scientific discoveries to his interests in the arts, his experiments with nitrous oxide, his views on his contemporaries and his thoughts on race. 

These excerpts of pages from his diaries show some of the different aspects of his life, his work and his character. 

Observations and calculations

Davy’s diaries record his ideas and experiments on a wide range of topics across various scientific disciplines.

Humphry Davy notebook

Source: Courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain

The cover of one of 83 of Humphry Davy’s notebooks. Davy was a prolific writer and used his notebooks to record everything from his most important scientific experiments to his thoughts and doodles

Humphry Davy notebook

Source: Courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain

The reference to the tailor at the head of the page suggest Davy was preparing to purchase a new suit to celebrate his discovery of sodium and potassium. At the bottom of the page Davy writes ‘20 times lighter than quicksilver’, a reference to the mass of sodium (23) compared with mercury (200)

Humphry Davy notebook

Source: Courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain

On this page Davy was solving a trigonometry problem around 1795-97

The Davy Notebooks project

This long-running citizen science project has uncovered new insights into Davy’s life. Jamie Durrani talks to the people who led the project about what they’ve learned.

Ellie Bird, a historian on the project discusses her thoughts on how we should curate Davy’s legacy.

Well versed

The diaries also contain many examples of Davy’s creative side, including poems inspired by his own experiments with nitrous oxide.

Humphry Davy notebook

Source: Courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain

A number of poems were found in the notebooks such as this Ode to the Setting Moonlight written pre-1800

Humphry Davy notebook

Source: Courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain

Davy’s poem written on the use of nitrous oxide starts halfway down the page:
’On breathing the Nitrous Oxide
Not in the ideal dreams of wild desire
Have I beheld a rapture wakening form
My bosom burns with no unhallowed fire
Yet is my cheek with rosy blushes warm
Yet are my eyes with sparkling lustre filled
Yet is my mouth replete with murmuring sound
Yet are my limbs with inward transports thrilled
And clad with new born mightiness around’

Humphry Davy notebook

Source: Courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain

Davy’s poem on using nitrous oxide

Scientific sketches

The pages are also illustrated with many drawings and figures that reveal Davy’s skill in capturing the natural world.

Humphry Davy notebook

Source: Courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain

Davy didn’t just record the results of his work in the notebooks. He doodled and noted his thoughts on all sorts of topics

Humphry Davy notebook

Source: Courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain

His drawings of animals also show a keen eye for anatomical detail such as this one from some time between 1813 to 1826 of what appears to be a European perch

Self experimentation

Davy is well known for his experiments with nitrous oxide, which he nicknamed laughing gas, and on several pages of his diaries he records his own experiences of its effects on the human body. 

Humphry Davy notebook

Source: Courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain

Apprently high on nitrous oxide Davy pairs himself with Isaac Newton. ‘The feeling produced by breathing about 7 quarts of nitrous phosoxyd mingled with 7 [quarts of] atmospheric air was indeed most delightful’

Humphry Davy notebook

Source: Courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain

Davy noting the ill effects of a night of excess drinking and inhaling nitrous oxide, as well as oxygen. ‘I breathed after a terrible drunken fit a large quantity of gas … it made me sick’

Views on race

In the 18th century, Davy’s contemporaries used seemingly scientific approaches to justify subdivisions of humans, and attitudes of racial inferiority and superiority were common. Excerpts from his diaries show that Davy shared at least some of these views.

Humphry Davy notebook

Source: Courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain

As a teenager Davy had a dismissive attitude towards other cultures writing in 1795-96 that ‘The nations between the tropics are not only distinguished by their peculiar physiognomy but as well for indolence and barbarous manner. They have never made the least efforts towards civilization and seem almost incapable of improvement.’

Davy Notebooks Project in numbers

  • 83 – the number of notebooks transcribed by the Davy Notebooks Project. The notebooks contain around 11,500 pages of Davy’s writings dating from when he was in his teens in the 1790s right up until his death in 1829.
  • 3500 – the number of volunteers who helped to transcribe Davy’s notebooks using the citizen science platform Zooniverse.
  • 5 years – the period of time since the notebooks project first kicked off back in March 2019.
  • £1 million – the project team were awarded a substantial grant to carry out the work, which has revealed unparalleled insights into the mind of one of the most famous 19th-century chemists.
  • 3 – the number of notebooks, mostly relating to Davy’s fishing exploits, that are still missing. Davy’s name does not appear in them and the project is appealing for librarians and archivists to check their collections.

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