On July 12 the Laboratory Notes say, ‘Tried the experiments upon the decomposition of the earths by iron wire with the happiest results.’ These were obtained with the battery of only twenty pair.
On July 18 he wrote, ‘In pursuit of the researches on the deoxygenation of diamond and charcoal.
‘Is not diamond the 2-oxide of carbon, charcoal the 1-oxide, the gaseous oxide of carbon a triple compound of hydrogen, nitrogen, and charcoal?’
On September 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 experiments were tried on the production of cold by induced electricity. He tried the decomposition of sulphur ‘with success.’ He tried to decompose mercury in the Torricellian vacuum ‘with success apparently.’
‘Sulphur, after giving out hydrogen by electricity, had lost its yellow colour and was became brownish, but still non-conducting, crystalline, and transparent.’
Numberless experiments were made on the action of potassium on ammonia and on nitrogen.
In November he must have injured his right hand, for his notes are made with his left hand on the 19th and 20th of this month.
On December 15 he gave another Bakerian lecture on New Analytical Researches on Alkalies, Phosphorus, Sulphur, &c. In this paper he says his chief object was to show that there was oxygen in ammonia, and that potassium was not a compound of the metal and hydrogen. He made further experiments also on the decomposition of boracic, fluoric, and muriatic acids.
On December 27, 1808, Davy wrote to Coleridge:
Alas, poor Beddoes is dead! He died on Christmas Eve. He wrote to me two letters on two successive days—22nd and 23rd. From the first, which was full of affection and new feeling, I anticipated his state. He is gone at the moment when his mind was purified and exalted for noble affections and great works.
My heart is heavy. I would talk to you of your own plans, which I shall endeavour in every way to promote; I would talk to you of my own labours, which have been incessant since I saw you and not without result; but I am interrupted by very melancholy feelings, which, when you see this, I know you will partake of. Ever, my dear Coleridge, very affectionately yours,
H. Davy.