Carlisle, Anthony

The Volta pile was of extraordinary significance for developments both in the sciences of electricity and electrochemistry, since a new phenomenon, a continuous electric current, hitherto not known, could now be realized. Soon various properties and effects of the electric current were discovered, including many electrochemical processes. In May of 1800, William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle electrolyzed... 

In 1800 William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle discovered electrolysis and initiated the science of electrochemistry. In their experiments they employed a voltaic pile to liberate oxygen and hydrogen from water. They discovered that the amount of oxygen and hydrogen liberated by the current was proportional to the amount of current used. 

Electrolysis of water, mentioned above, had been described by the British chemists WilUam Nicholson (1753-1815) and Sir Anthony Carlisle (1768-1842) in 1800. But Grove s experiment seemed to go in the opposite direction. This reverse eleoctrolysis is the basic operation of the fuel cell—the combination of hydrogen gas (H ) and oxygen gas (O ) to produce water and energy, as described in the following chemical equation ... 

British chemists William Nicholson (1753-1815) and Sir Anthony Carlisle (1768-1842) discover electrolysis of water. 

In 1800. William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle decomposed water into hydrogen and oxygen by an electric current supplied by a voltaic pile. Whereas Volta had pruduced electricity from chemical action these experimenters reversed the process and utilized electricity to produce chemical changes. In 1807. Sir Humphry Davy discovered two new elements, potassium and sodium, by the electrolysis of ihe respective solid hydroxides, utilizing a voltaic pile as the source of electric power. These electrolytic processes were the forerunners of the many industrial electrolytic processes used today to obtain aluminum, chlorine, hydrogen, or oxygen, for example, or in die electroplating of metals such as silver or chromium. 

British scientists William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle learn that applying an electric current to water produces oxygen and hydrogen gases. 

Hydrogen as an energy carrier and potentially widely used fuel is attractive because it can be produced easily without emissions by splitting water. In addition, the readily available electrolyzer can be used in a home or business where off peak or surplus electricity could be used to make the environmentally preferred gas. Electrolysis was first demonstrated in 1800 by William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle and has found a variety of niche markets ever since. Two electrolyzer technologies, alkaline and proton exchange membrane (PEM), exist at the commercial level with solid oxide electrolysis in the research phase. 

The nineteenth century was an exciting time for electrical experimentation and discovery. Shortly after Alessandro Volta demonstrated the voltaic pile to the Royal Society of London in 1800, two experimenters, William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle, discovered that hydrogen and oxygen could be produced by passing an electric current through water. This was the first demonstration of the principle of electrolysis. 

Cecil s suggestion came only 20 years after another fundamental discovery electrolysis (breaking water down into hydrogen and oxygen by passing an electrical current through it). That discovery had been made by two English scientists, William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle, 6 years after Lavoisier s execution and just a few weeks after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta built his first electric cell. 

Nicholson (1753-1815) and Anthony Carlisle (1768-1840), demonstrated the reverse action. They ran an electric current through water and found that bubbles of gas began to appear at the electricity-conducting strips of metal which they had inserted in the water. The gas appearing at one strip was hydrogen and that appearing at the other was oxygen. 

Sir Anthony Carlisle (Stillingworth, Durham, 15 February 1768-London, 2 November 1840) was third professor of anatomy in the Royal Academy of Art, London, then chief surgeon in Westminster Hospital and surgeon to the Prince of Wales. ... 

William Nicholson (1753 815) read Volta s account before it appeared in print. Immediately, he and Anthony Carlisle (1768-18M0) used a "pile to electrolyze water and various solutions. They noted the liberation of hydrogen at one pole and of oxygen at the other (2). Systematic electrochemistry had begun with a process that would eventually grow to the kiloampere scale ... 

The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) have been the focus of numerous scientific studies indeed, they probably represent the most studied reactions in electrochemistry. The demonstration of the electrolysis of water dates back to 1800, when the chemist and inventor William Nicholson teamed up with the surgeon Anthony Carlisle to decompose water into its constituent gases with a voltaic pile [2]. Today, the HER and HOR have become exemplary reactions for understanding and developing... 

After having learned about the work of Alessandro Volta (1747-1827) on the invention of the first electric battery, William Nicholson (1753-1815) and Anthony Carlisle (1768-1840), two British chemists, attempted to reconstract sueh a battery. During these tests, they discovered - by accident - that when the ends of the electrical conductors are submerged in water, the water is decomposed into hydrogen and oxygem They had just performed the first form of water electrolysis with DC supply. 

Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle in London electrolyzed water, producing... 

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