The Exceptional Experiments of the Solitary Scientist

n                        There have been explorers whonwent out into the wild parts of the world and walked there, recording what theynfound, saw and heard. But another class of explorer remained at home and made andifferent sort of discovery. One such was Henry Cavendish, who was born onnOctober 10^th 1731, at Nice, France (where, by the way, my late wife and Inspent our honeymoon). The Cavendish family had a long and illustrious heritage, datingnback to the Norman invasion of 1066, and had connections to many of England’snaristocratic families. Henry’s father was Lord Charles Cavendish, who was innturn the youngest son of the 2^nd Duke of Devonshire. Henry’s mother,nLady Anne Grey, died in 1733, three months after the birth of her second child,nFrederick, and just before Henry’s second birthday. 

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nYoung Henry was privatelyneducated before going up to Cambridge University, which he left in 1751, afternthree years study but without taking a degree (a normal practice at the time).nWe know very little about his life at this time, but from 1758 he began tonaccompany his father to the meetings and dinners of the Royal Society ofnLondon, to which he was elected a member in 1760. Henry spent his time as an‘natural philosopher’ as scientists were then called, being by turns anmathematician, electrician, astronomer, meteorologist, geologist, and chemist;nhe published his first paper On Factitious Airs in 1766. 

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nOver the nextnforty years, he continued his experimentations but published little (nineteennpapers in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, on a widenvariety of subjects), and it seems that for Cavendish the work itself wasnsufficient reward. He left a vast amount of unpublished papers behind after hisndeath, many of which were consequently edited and published by the physicistnJames Clerk Maxwell, and which were found to have either discovered ornanticipated many phenomena or discoveries attributed to later scientists. Muchnof Cavendish’s work is written using old-fashioned words and terms which,nalthough quaint, are nonetheless accurate. 

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nHe discovered that water was not annelement, as taught by the ancients, but was a compound of two gases, which wencall hydrogen and oxygen, but which Cavendish called ‘inflammable’ andn‘dephlogisticated’ airs – this same discovery also nullified the concept ofnfire as an element. By dissolving metals in acid, Cavendish isolated hisn‘inflammable air’, later named hydrogen by Lavoisier under his great ‘chemicalnrevolution’. He also made extremely accurate measurements of the proportion ofnthe gases constituting atmospheric air. 

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nCavendish’s reticence to publish may benrelated to his reticence to interact socially. He was an extremely private man,nto a point that puts him firmly in the autistic spectrum (Oliver Sachs, thenneurologist, speculates that he may have suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome, annopinion with which I agree). When attending the soirees of Sir Joseph Banks,nCavendish would stand transfixed on the stairs until another visitor arrivednbehind him, forcing him to flee forwards and into the party. At one meeting, DrnIngenhousz introduced Cavendish to a visiting Austrian scientist, the pair ofnthem describing poor Cavendish in florid, extravagant language, as he stood innmisery, staring at the floor. Spotting a gap in the crowd, Cavendish bolted fornthe door and ran to his carriage, which carried him home and to safety at highnspeed. 

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nDr Wollaston’s suggested the following method of conversation, 

nWhen he did reply,nwhich was not often, he mumbled and muttered in a high-pitched squeak, but whatnhe did say was always profound and relevant. His town-house, near the BritishnMuseum, was furnished with books and scientific equipment, although he alsonenjoyed fine, elegant furniture, but hated visitors. In a bid to discouragenthem, he kept the body of his books at another house in Soho, where he employedna librarian, and would go and ‘borrow’ his own books as and when he needed anparticular volume, leaving a receipt for it. He also had a villa at Clapham,nthe upper-rooms of which were an observatory, the drawing room was a laboratorynand in an ante-room was a forge. His heir, Lord George Cavendish, was allowednto visit, once a year, for a maximum of half an hour. 

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nHis scientific apparatusnwas built for purpose, not for beauty, quite often from cheap pine, rather thannthe ornate contraptions of brass and mahogany of other gentlemen scientists.nThe fashion of his dress never altered, being shabby and old-fashioned, leadingnmany of the villagers to assume he was a ‘magician’, and, of course, henwould not sit for a portrait, although we have one quick sketch,nsurreptitiously drawn by Mr Alexander at a Royal Society dinner. 

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nIt was saidnthat he had a second, hidden staircase installed at the Clapham villa, to allownthe servants to move about the house unseen, and if he ever caught sight of anhousemaid, she would be instantly dismissed. He communicated with hisnhousekeeper by means of notes, which were left on the hall table. Two ladiesnhad told a inquisitive gentleman of the path Cavendish took on his daily walksnand they set out to observe him, but their target, who saw them as he wasnclimbing a stile never used that route ever again. 

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nUp until the age of forty,nCavendish had an income of about £500 per year, but then his uncle died andnleft him an enormous fortune, which was further increased on the death of hisnfather, but as with most quotidian matters, Cavendish was utterly indifferentnto money. His bankers, concerned at the amount resting in his account, sent anmessenger to Clapham to seek an audience with Cavendish, who demanded to knownwhy he was being disturbed in this fashion. The messenger told him that he hadn£80,000 in his account, doing nothing, and suggested he might invest £40,000 ofnit. The reply was simply, “Do so, do so! And don’t come here to trouble me,nor I’ll remove it.” When he died, in 1810, he left the highest bank-stocknon record in the Bank of England, in excess of £1,157,000, (remember, andomestic servant would have earned about £10 per year at the time). Hisndeath was as odd as his life, and was related by Mr H Lawson, an acquaintancenof Cavendish’s, thus, 

nHalf annhour later, he re-called the valet and asked him to repeat the previousninstructions and when satisfied, asked for a glass of water. He took a sip,nturned onto one side and died, silently and peacefully.

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nHappy Birthday Henry.

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