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On learning of the voltaic pile, William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle used it to discover the electrolysis of water. Humphry Davy showed that the electromotive force, which drives the electric current through a circuit containing a single voltaic cell, was caused by a chemical reaction, not by the voltage difference between the two metals. He ...
William Nicholson (13 December 1753 – 21 May 1815) was an English writer, translator, publisher, scientist, inventor, patent agent and civil engineer. He launched the first monthly scientific journal in Britain, Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts , in 1797, and remained its editor until 1814.
In 1800, he and William Nicholson discovered electrolysis by passing a voltaic current through water, decomposing it into its constituent elements of hydrogen and oxygen. [3] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1804. [4] He was Professor of Anatomy of the Society from 1808 to 1824.
1809 – Thomas Forster observes with a theodolite the drift of small free pilot balloons filled with "inflammable gas". [3] [4] [5] 1809 – Gay-Lussac's law, a gas law relating temperature and pressure. 1811 – Avogadro's law, a gas law relating volume and amount of substance. 1819 – Edward Daniel Clarke invents the hydrogen gas blowpipe.
The author chose Nicholson's journal in order to remain anonymous at first, and later revealed himself to be William Hyde Wollaston. [ 3 ] The journal published the first known aerodynamic analysis of gliders and heavier-than-air fixed-wing flying machines designs, by George Cayley in 1809–1810.
1800 – William Herschel discovers infrared radiation from the Sun. 1800 – William Nicholson, Anthony Carlisle and Johann Ritter use electricity to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen, thereby discovering the process of electrolysis, which led to the discovery of many other elements.
Sir William Nicholson (artist) (1872–1949), English painter and engraver; William Nicholson (journalist) (1877–1957), New Zealand clerk, local politician, builder, journalist and editor; Willie Nicholson (fl. 1924–1936), Scottish footballer; William L. Nicholson (1926–2020), U.S. Air Force general; William Nicholson (sound engineer ...
Illustration of an electrolysis apparatus by Ritter, 1800. In 1800, shortly after the invention of the voltaic pile, William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle discovered that water could be decomposed by electricity. Shortly afterward, Ritter also discovered the same effect, independently.