Cavendish, Henry

Henry (1731-1810), a distinguished English scientific investigator of the eighteenth century. He belonged to a noble family. He studied at Cambridge, but did not take his degree. Cavendish was a lifelong bachelor. He used a fortune left him by an uncle to gratify his tastes in chemistry. He had a fine laboratory in which he shut himself off from the world completely. He was so unwilling to be interrupted that even his cook took orders from a note left in the hall. Cavendish made valuable discoveries in the composition of air and water, and, although he did not get the matter quite straightened out, he has high rank in the history of the development of chemistry. In 1766 he described inflammable air lighter than ordinary air, since recognized as hydrogen. This discovery was utilized at once in a series of efforts to construct balloons. He held to the phlogistic theory (see article on CHEMISTRY), but was puzzled to find that, after the outrush of "fire material" from substances burned in a receiver, the amount of air was diminished.