Editing Henry Cavendish (section)

==Personality and legacy==
Cavendish inherited two fortunes that were so large that [[Jean Baptiste Biot]] called him "the richest of all the savants and the most knowledgeable of the rich". At his death, Cavendish was the largest depositor in the [[Bank of England]]. He was a shy man who was uncomfortable in society and avoided it when he could. He could speak to only one person at a time, and only if the person were known to him and male.<ref name="ley196606">{{cite magazine |last=Ley |first=Willy |date=June 1966 |title=The Re-Designed Solar System |department=For Your Information |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v24n05_1966-06#page/n93/mode/2up |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction |pages=94–106 }}</ref> He conversed little, always dressed in an old-fashioned suit, and developed no known deep personal attachments outside his family. Cavendish was taciturn and solitary and regarded by many as eccentric. He communicated with his female servants only by notes. By one account, Cavendish had a back staircase added to his house to avoid encountering his housekeeper, because he was especially shy of women. The contemporary accounts of his personality have led some modern commentators, such as [[Oliver Sacks]], to speculate that he was [[autism|autistic]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sacks |first=Oliver |date=9 October 2001 |title=Henry Cavendish: An early case of Asperger's syndrome? |journal=Neurology |volume=57 |issue=7 |pages=1347 |doi=10.1212/wnl.57.7.1347 |pmid=11591871 |s2cid=32979125}}</ref>

His only social outlet was the Royal Society Club, whose members dined together before weekly meetings. Cavendish seldom missed these meetings, and was profoundly respected by his contemporaries. However, his shyness made conversation difficult; guests were advised to wander close to him and then speak as if "into vacancy. If their remarks were scientifically worthy, they might receive a mumbled reply". Cavendish was more likely not to reply at all.<ref name="Bryson">Bryson, B. (2003), "The Size of the Earth": ''A Short History of Nearly Everything'', 59–62.</ref> Cavendish's religious views were also considered eccentric for his time. He was considered to be [[agnostic]]. As his biographer, George Wilson, comments, "As to Cavendish's religion, he was nothing at all."<ref>{{cite book |title=The Good Atheist: Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God |year=2011 |publisher=Ulysses Press |isbn=9781569758465 |author=Dan Barker |page=170 |quote=He did not attend church and was considered an agnostic. "As to Cavendish's religion, he was nothing at all", writes his biographer Dr. G. Wilson.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The life of the Hon. Henry Cavendish: including abstracts of his more important scientific papers, and a critical inquiry into the claims of all the alleged discoverers of the composition of water |url=https://archive.org/details/lifehonhenrycav00wilsgoog |year=1851 |publisher=Printed for the Cavendish Society |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifehonhenrycav00wilsgoog/page/n202 181]–185 |author=George Wilson |quote=A Fellow of the Royal Society, who had good means of judging, states that, "As to Cavendish's religion, he was nothing at all. The only subjects in which he appeared to take any interest, were scientific. ..." ...From what has been stated, it will appear that it would be vain to assert that we know with any certainty what doctrine Cavendish held concerning Spiritual things; but we may with some confidence affirm, that the World to come did not engross his thoughts; that he gave no outward demonstration of interest in religion, and did not join his fellow men in worshipping God. ...He died and gave no sign, rejecting human sympathy, and leaving us no means of determining whether he anticipated annihilation, or looked forward to an endless life. ...He did not love; he did not hate; he did not hope; he did not fear; he did not worship as others do. He separated himself from his fellow men, and apparently from God.}}</ref>

The arrangement of his residence reserved only a fraction of space for personal comfort as his library was detached, the upper rooms and lawn were for astronomical observation and his drawing room was a laboratory with a forge in an adjoining room.<ref>Walford, Edward. "Brixton and Clapham." Old and New London: Volume 6. London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, 1878. 319-327. [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol6/pp319-327 British History Online]  Retrieved 1 June 2019.</ref> He also enjoyed collecting fine furniture, exemplified by his purchase of a set of "ten inlaid satinwood chairs with matching [[cabriole leg]]ged sofa".<ref name="McCormmach">McCormmach, R and Jungnickel, C (1996), [https://books.google.com/books?id=EUoLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA337 ''Cavendish''], American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, {{ISBN|0-87169-220-1}}, pp. 242, 337.</ref>

Because of his asocial and secretive behaviour, Cavendish often avoided publishing his work, and much of his findings were not told even to his fellow scientists. In the late nineteenth century, long after his death, [[James Clerk Maxwell]] looked through Cavendish's papers and found observations and results for which others had been given credit. Examples of what was included in Cavendish's discoveries or anticipations were [[Jeremias Benjamin Richter|Richter's law of reciprocal proportions]], [[Ohm's law]], [[Dalton's law]] of partial pressures, principles of [[Electrical resistivity and conductivity|electrical conductivity]] (including [[Coulomb's law]]), and [[Charles's law]] of gases. A manuscript "Heat", tentatively dated between 1783 and 1790, describes a "mechanical theory of heat". Hitherto unknown, the manuscript was analysed in the early 21st century.<!--unable to find specifics in the annoyingly long-winded and disorganised book on it--> Historian of science [[Russell McCormmach]] proposed that "Heat" is the only 18th-century work prefiguring [[thermodynamics]]. Theoretical physicist [[Dietrich Belitz]] concluded that in this work Cavendish "got the nature of heat essentially right".<ref>{{cite book|author=Russell McCormmach|title=Speculative truth: Henry Cavendish, natural philosophy, and the rise of modern theoretical science|year=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-516004-8|pages=vii, 151, and 195}}</ref>

As Cavendish performed his famous density of the Earth experiment in an outbuilding in the garden of his Clapham Common estate, his neighbours would point out the building and tell their children that it was where the world was weighed.<ref name="McCormmach"/> In honour of Henry Cavendish's achievements and due to an endowment granted by Henry's relative William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire, the [[University of Cambridge]]'s physics laboratory was named the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] by Maxwell, the first [[Cavendish Professor of Physics]] and an admirer of Cavendish's work.