Page:LA2-NSRW-2-0017.jpg



DAVY

509

DAYTON

SIR  HUMPHRY   DAVY

Da'vy, Sir Humphry, one of the greatest of chemists, was born Dec. 17, 1778, at Pen-z a n c e, Cornwall, England, where his father was a wood-carver. At school he got a taste for story-telling and for making scientific experiments. At 19 he settled down to the study of chemistry, soon becoming an assistant at a scientific school at Clifton. Here he became acquainted with Coleridge and Southey, and engaged in experiments on the breathing of gases, which several times nearly cost him his life. At 22 he was made lecturer to the Royal Institution of London, where his eloquence and novel experiments soon drew^ large and brilliant audiences. His discoveries in agricultural chemistry were important, but his fame chiefly rests on his advanced views of the science, first made known in his lecture On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity. Following out the principles laid down in this essay, he made the valuable discovery that the alkalies and earths are compound substances formed by oxygen combined with metals. It was potash that he first succeeded in decomposing. When he first saw the globules of the new metal, potassium, his delight was so great that he could not go on with the experiment. Davy was knighted in 1812; he was afterward made a baronet and president of the Royal Society. He discovered the talents of Faraday and obtained his appointment as assistant in the laboratory of the Royal Institution. In 1815 he began to study the nature of fire-damp, which is the cause of explosions in coal mines. This resulted in his invention of the safety-lamp, one of the most useful of modern inventions. Said the great naturalist Cuvier, at the time of Davy's death: "Davy, not yet 52 years old, occupied, in the opinion of all who could judge of such labors, the first rank among the chemists of any age." Davy died on May 29, 1829. See his Memoirs, by his brother, John Davy.

Dawes (daws), Henry Laurens, United States senator, was born in Cummington, Mass., Oct. 30, 1816. After graduating from Yale, he taught school, became a lawyer, a newspaper editor and a member of the state legislature. He was member of Congress from 185 7 until 1873, where he became one of the prominent men of the country. He was United States senator from Massachusetts from 1875 until 1893. Senator Dawes introduced most of the bills which were passed

with a view to bettering the condition of the Indians; he introduced the measure to complete the Washington monument and the weather-bulletin measure, by which weather-reports from all parts of the country are gathered and thus storms can be foretold with something like certainty. He died on Feb. 5, 1903.

Dawson (da'sun), the principal city in the Klondike region and capital of the Yukon District of Canada. It is situated on the eastern bank of Yukon River, where it is joined by the Klondike. It sprang into existence in September of 1896 at the time of the rush for gold in the Klondike, and by 1900 it had a population estimated at 25,000. The present population is about 10,000. Aside from furs, gold-mining is the only industry. The rich deposits of gold in the vicinity have given it world-wide fame. The gold is found in the beds of rivers and creeks. The area of the gold-fields is thought to be more than 100,000 square miles. The yield in 1905-6 amounted to $6,539,000. Since 1896 the district has produced $100,-000,000, and systematic scientific mining is only commencing. Dawson is reached by steamer to Skagway at the head of Lynn Canal, a deejp inlet into the coast of Alaska. The White-Pass and Yukon Railway is 90 miles long. Dawson is connected by telegraph with Skagway.

Dawson, George Mercer, son of Sir J. W. Dawson and late director of the geology survey of Canada, was born at Pictou, Nova Scotia, Aug. i, 1849; anci died at Ottawa, March 2, 1901. He was educated at McGill University, Montreal, and at the Royal School of Mines, London. In 1875, he was appointed to the geological survey, and explored largely in the Canadian northwest, British Columbia and the Yukon region. Much of the result of his investigations has been published in the annual reports of the geological survey of Canada. His work included the first detailed account of the surface, geology and glacial phenomena of the northern part of the American continent west of the lakes.

Daw'son, Sir John William, Canadian geologist and naturalist, was born at Pictou, Nova Scotia, October, 1820. He studied at Edinburgh, and made careful researches into the natural history and geology of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. His scientific papers and books, especially his Acadian Geology, made him well-known. His Devonian and Carboniferous Flora of Eastern North America told of the discovery of what is believed to be the lowest form of animal life, the Rozoon Canadense, as it is called. He was a member of many learned societies, and for many years was principal and chancellor of McGill University, Montreal. He retired in 1893, and died at Montreal on Nov. 19, 1890.

Dayton, a city and important railroaa-center of Montgomery County, CX, lies Ott