Editing Humphry Davy (section)

==== Barium, calcium, strontium, magnesium, and boron ====
During the first half of 1808, Davy conducted a series of further electrolysis experiments on alkaline earths including [[Calcium carbonate|lime]], magnesia, strontites and barytes. At the beginning of June, Davy received a letter from the Swedish chemist [[Berzelius]] claiming that he, in conjunction with Dr. Pontin, had successfully obtained amalgams of calcium and barium by electrolysing lime and barytes using a mercury cathode. Davy managed to successfully repeat these experiments almost immediately and expanded Berzelius' method to strontites and magnesia.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Davy|first1=Humphry|title=Electrochemical Researches, on the Decomposition of the Earths; With Observations in the Metals Obtained from the Alkaline Earths, and on the Amalgam Procured from Ammonia|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|date=1808|volume=98|pages=339–40|doi=10.1098/rstl.1808.0023|doi-access=|bibcode=1808RSPT...98..333D}}</ref> He noted that while these amalgams oxidised in only a few minutes when exposed to air they could be preserved for lengthy periods of time when submerged in [[naphtha]] before becoming covered with a white crust.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Davy|first1=Humphry|title=Electro-Chemical Researches, on the Decomposition of the Earths; With Observations on the Metals Obtained from the Alkaline Earths, and on the Amalgam Procured from Ammonia|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|date=1808|volume=98|page=340|doi=10.1098/rstl.1808.0023|doi-access=|bibcode=1808RSPT...98..333D}}</ref>

On 30 June 1808 Davy reported to the Royal Society that he had successfully isolated four new metals which he named [[barium]], [[calcium]], [[strontium]] and magnium (later changed to [[magnesium]]) which were subsequently published in the ''Philosophical Transactions''. Although Davy conceded magnium was an "undoubtedly objectionable" name he argued the more appropriate name magnesium was already being applied to metallic manganese and wished to avoid creating an equivocal term.<ref name="Electro-chemical">{{cite journal|last1=Davy|first1=Humphry|title=Electro-chemical Researches, on the Decomposition of the Earths; With Observations in the Metals Obtained from the Alkaline Earths, and on the Amalgam Procured from Ammonia|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|date=1808|volume=98|page=346|doi=10.1098/rstl.1808.0023|doi-access=|bibcode=1808RSPT...98..333D}}</ref>
The observations gathered from these experiments also led to Davy isolating [[boron]] in 1809.<ref name="Kenyon">{{cite journal|last1=Kenyon|first1=T. K.|title=Science and Celebrity: Humphry Davy's Rising Star|journal=Chemical Heritage Magazine|date=2008|volume=26|issue=4|pages=30–35|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/science-and-celebrity-humphry-davys-rising-star|access-date=22 March 2018|archive-date=23 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323032520/https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/science-and-celebrity-humphry-davys-rising-star|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Jöns Jacob Berzelius|Berzelius]] called Davy's 1806 [[Bakerian Lecture]] ''On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity''<ref name="Davy, 1806">{{cite web |url=http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Davy/davy5.html |title=On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071026154758/http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Davy/davy5.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=26 October 2007 |access-date=2 March 2008}}</ref> "one of the best memoirs which has ever enriched the theory of chemistry."<ref name="Berzelius, 1818">{{cite book|title=Traité de chimie|last=Berzelius|first=J. J.|author2=trans. A. Jourdan and M. Esslinger|edition=trans., of experimental science|volume=1|page=169|language=fr|author-link=Jöns Jacob Berzelius}}</ref>

Davy performed a number of experiments aimed to isolate the metal [[aluminium]] and is credited as the person who named the element. The first name proposed for the metal to be isolated from alum was ''alumium'', which Davy suggested in an 1808 article on his electrochemical research, published in [[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]].<ref name="Davy1808">{{Cite journal | last1=Davy |first1=Humphry |date=1808 |title=Electro Chemical Researches, on the Decomposition of the Earths; with Observations on the Metals obtained from the alkaline Earths, and on the Amalgam procured from Ammonia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kg9GAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA353|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|volume=98|page=353|doi=10.1098/rstl.1808.0023|access-date=10 December 2009|doi-access=free|bibcode=1808RSPT...98..333D|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415111945/https://books.google.com/books?id=Kg9GAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA353|url-status=live}}</ref> It appeared that the name was created from the English word ''alum'' and the Latin suffix ''-ium''; but it was customary then to give elements names originating in Latin, so this name was not adopted universally. This name was criticized by contemporary chemists from France, Germany, and Sweden, who insisted the metal should be named for the oxide, alumina, from which it would be isolated.{{sfn|Richards|1896|pp=3–4}} The English name ''alum'' does not come directly from Latin, whereas ''alumine''/''alumina'' comes from the Latin word ''alumen'' (upon [[declension]], ''alumen'' changes to ''alumin-'').