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{{Short description|English physician, scientist, and inventor}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=JulyNovember 20112020}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2011}}
{{Infobox Scientistscientist
|name = Edward Davy
|image = Edward Davy.jpeg
|birth_date = 16 June 1806
|birth_place = [[Ottery St Mary]], [[Devon]], England
|death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1885|1|26|1806|6|16}}
|death_place = [[Malmsbury, Victoria]], Australia
|residence =
|citizenship =
|nationality = [[England]]British
|ethnicity =
|field = [[physicsPhysics]]
|work_institutions =
|alma_mater =
|doctoral_advisor =
|doctoral_students =
|known_for = [[telegraphyTelegraphy]]
|influences =
|influenced =
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|religion =
}}
'''Edward Davy''' (16 June 1806 – 26 January 1885) was an English [[physician]], [[scientist]], and [[inventor]] who played a prominent role in the development of [[telegraphy]], and invented an [[electric relay]].<ref name=adb>
{{Australian Dictionary of Biography
|last=Gibberd
|first=William
|year=1966
|id2=davy-edward-1966
[[it: |title=Edward Davy]]▼
|accessdate=31 August 2014
}}</ref>
 
Davy was born in [[Ottery St Mary]], Devonshire, England, son of Thomas Davy (medical practitioner and house surgeon at [[Guy's Hospital]], London). Edward Davy was educated at a school run by his maternal uncle in [[Tower (ward)|Tower Street]], London. He was then apprenticed to Dr C. Wheeler, house surgeon at [[St Bartholomew's Hospital]].<ref name=Serle>{{Dictionary of Australian Biography
Davy published ''Outline of a New Plan of Telegraphic Communication'' in 1836 and carried out telegraphic experiments the following year. In 1837 he demonstrated a working model of the telegraph in [[Exeter Hall]]. He was granted a patent for his telegraph in 1838. However, he was soon obliged to drop his investigations of telegraphy for personal reasons. His patent was purchased by the [[Electric Telegraph Company]] in 1847.
| Last = Edward
| First = Davy
| shortlink=0-dict-biogD.html#davy1
| accessdate = 31 August 2014
}}</ref> Davy won the prize for botany in 1825, was licensed by the [[Worshipful Society of Apothecaries]] in 1828 and the Royal College of Surgeons in 1829.<ref name=Serle/> Soon after graduating, Davy began trading as an operative chemist under the name of Davy & Co. In 1836 he published a small book ''Experimental Guide to Chemistry'', at the end of which was a catalogue of goods supplied by his firm.<ref name=adb/><ref name=Serle/> Davy is distantly related to [[Humphry Davy]].<ref name=Platinum/>
 
Davy published ''Outline of a New Plan of Telegraphic Communication'' in 1836 and carried out telegraphic experiments the following year. He demonstrated the operation of the telegraph over a mile of wire in [[Regent's Park]].<ref name=adb/> In 1837 he demonstrated a working model of the telegraph in [[Exeter Hall]]. This demonstration caused serious concern to rival telegraph developers [[William Fothergill Cooke]] and [[Charles Wheatstone]], especially as Davy had been approaching railway companies who were also the main target for Cooke and Wheatstone. Both Davy and the exhibition hall were threatened with legal action on the grounds that they were infringing the [[Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph]] patent.<ref name=Morus> Iwan Rhys Morus, ''Frankenstein's Children: Electricity, Exhibition, and Experiment in Early-Nineteenth-Century London'', pp. 203–206, Princeton University Press, 2014 {{ISBN|140084777X}}.</ref> Davy's telegraph was not protected by a patent at this stage, but one was granted in the following year, 1838, despite the objections of Cooke and Wheatstone.<ref name=bsp>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/other/iee_davy.htm
|title=Edward Davy
|publisher=Australian Science Archives Project
|accessdate=7 June 2012
}}</ref> Davy invented a [[relay]] which used a magnetic needle which dipped into a mercury contact when an electric current passed through the surrounding coil. In recognition of this he was elected in 1885 as an honorary member of the [[Society of Telegraph Engineers]] and was informed of this by telegraph shortly before his death.<ref name=adb/>
 
Davy apparently had some thoughts on a wireless telegraphy system. This system was an electrical-acoustic hybrid, but Davy's writings are far from clear exactly what was intended and nothing was put into practice. According to John Fahie, the best interpretation of Davy's concept is a chain of sound transmitters, such as a bell, and focused sound reflectors tuned to the transmission note to receive the signal. At each intermediate station the sound is renewed using electrical repeaters incorporating Davy's relay.<ref>John Joseph Fahie, ''A History of Wireless Telegraphy'', pp. 6–8, Cambridge University Press, 2011 {{ISBN|1108026869}} (reprint from 1901).</ref>
 
Davy's marriage broke down shortly after the Regent's Park demonstration and he found himself in litigation with his wife and her creditors. In August 1838 he fled to Australia to avoid them, giving up work on the telegraph in the process.<ref name=Morus/><ref name=Platinum>Donald McDonald, Leslie B. Hunt, ''A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals'', pp. 306–307, Johnson Matthey Plc, 1982 {{ISBN|0905118839}}.</ref> His telegraph patents were purchased by the [[Electric Telegraph Company]] in 1847 for £600,<ref name=bsp/> mostly in order to obtain the rights to the electric relay invented by Davy.<ref>Jeffrey L. Kieve, ''The Electric Telegraph: A Social and Economic History'', p. 24, David and Charles, 1973 {{oclc|655205099}}.</ref> The rest of his telegraph system was not wanted, other than to prevent competitors from using it.<ref>Steven Roberts, [http://distantwriting.co.uk/index.htm ''Distant Writing''], ch. 4, "The Electric Telegraph Company", [https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/en/archive/20160107230519/http://distantwriting.co.uk/electrictelegraphcompany.html archived] 1 July 2016.</ref> He was editor of the ''Adelaide Examiner'' from June to July 1842 and was elected president of the Port Adelaide Mechanics' Institute at its inaugural meeting in 1851.<ref name=adb/> Davy was a director and manager of the Adelaide Smelting Company and became chief assayer of the Government Assay Office in Adelaide in February 1852.<ref name=adb/>
 
Davy was appointed assay master in Melbourne in July 1853<ref name=Serle/> until the office was abolished in October 1854. For a short while, he took up farming near [[Malmsbury, Victoria]] then moved into Malmsbury where he practised as a physician for the rest of his life. He was three times mayor of Malmsbury.<ref name=adb/>
 
==References==
{{reflist}}
 
== External links ==
* [http://www.ieetheiet.org/TheIEEabout/Researchlibarc/Archivesarchives/Featuresfeatured/Davyedward-davy.cfm Biography]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} from the IEEE.Institution of Engineering and Technology.
*[http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=11427&inst_id=110&nv1=search&nv2= Biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233850/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=11427&inst_id=110&nv1=search&nv2= |date=3 March 2016 }} from AIM25 (Archives in London and the M25 area)
* [http://143.216.21.253/mpcimg/11090/B10846.htm Copyrighted photograph]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} from the State Library of South Australia.
*[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article6065902 Obituary notice in ''The Argus''] from National Library of Australia archive
 
{{Authority control}}
 
{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME = Davy, Edward
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION =
| DATE OF BIRTH = 16 June 1806
| PLACE OF BIRTH =
| DATE OF DEATH = 26 January 1885
| PLACE OF DEATH =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davy, Edward}}
[[Category:19th-century English medical doctors]]
[[Category:EnglishPeople inventorsfrom Ottery St Mary]]
[[Category:English19th-century scientistsBritish inventors]]
[[Category:1806 births]]
[[Category:1885 deaths]]
[[Category:English electrical engineers]]
 
[[Category:People associated with electricity]]
 
{{UK-scientist-stub}}
 
▲[[it:Edward Davy]]
[[mr:एडवर्ड डेव्ही]]
[[ml:എഡ്വേഡ് ഡേവി]]
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