English physicist and chemist. He discovered hydrogen (which he called ‘inflammable air’) in 1766, and determined the compositions of water and of nitric acid. The Cavendish experiment (1798) enabled him to discover the mass and density of the Earth.
Cavendish demonstrated in 1784 that water is produced when hydrogen burns in air, thus proving that water is a compound and not an element. He also worked on the production of heat and determined the freezing points for many materials, including mercury.
© RM 2013. Helicon Publishing is division of RM.
