Cavendish. Henry

CAVENDISH, HENRY (1731-1810). Cavendish was an English chemist and physicist who performed numerous scientific investigations with experiments on electricity. He measured the strength of a current by shocking himself and then estimating the amount of pain. 

While most of Charles s papers were on mathematics, he was ultimately an avid scientist and inventor. He dupficated a number of experiments that Franklin and others had completed on electricity and designed several instruments, including a new type of hydrometer for measuring densities and a reflecting goniometer for measuring the angles of crystals. Charles was elected to France s Academy of Sciences in 1785 and later became professor of physics at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. He died in Paris on April 7, 1823. see also Boyle, Robert Cavendish, Henry Dalton, John Gay-Lussac, Joseph-Louis. 

The idea of chemical equivalents was stated by Henry Cavendish in 1767, clarified by Jeremias Richter in 1795, and popularized by William Wollaston in 1814. Wollaston applied the concept to elements and defined it in such a way that one equivalent of an element corresponded to its atomic mass. Thus, when Wollaston s equivalent is expressed in grams, it is identical to a mole. It is not surprising then that the word mole is derived from molekulargewicht (German, meaning molecular weight ) and was coined in 1901 or 1902. see ALSO Avogadro, Amedeo Cannizzaro, Stanislao Cavendish, Henry Gay-Lussac, Joseph-Louis. 

In 1962 the first chemical noble gas compound, formulated as XePtFg, was synthesized by Neil Bartlett. This result spurred intense research activity and led to the discovery of numerous xenon and krypton compounds. In 2000 the formation of the first argon compound, argon fluorohydride (HArF), was reported by Leonid Khriachtchev and colleagues, see also Argon Cavendish, Henry Helium Krypton Neon Ramsay, William Ruthereord, Ernest Soddy, Frederick Strutt, John Xenon. 

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