Sir Humphry Davy (December 17, 1778 – May 29, 1829).
My favorite stories about Humphry are his failures. Such as his bumpy start to his science career. As a young apprentice he was fired from his job at an apothecary because he caused too many explosions. When he eventually took up the field of chemistry, he had a habit of inhaling the various gasses he was dealing with. Fortunately this bad habit led to his discovery of the anesthetic properties of nitrous oxide. Unfortunately, this same habit led him to nearly killing himself on many occasions. The frequent poisonings left him an invalid for the remaining two decades of his life. During this time he also permanently damaged his eyes in a nitrogen trichloride explosion.
Once he began experimenting with the effects of inhaling nitrous oxide. He noted its exhilarating effects, especially the way it made him want to laugh. This fact helped give the gas its popular nickname, "laughing gas." Davy published his findings in 1800, remarking that:
"As nitrous oxide in its extensive operation appears capable of destroying physical pain, it may probably be used with advantage during surgical operations in which no great effusion of blood takes place."
His idea for the use of nitrous oxide as a surgical anaesthetic wasn't even noticed until almost 100 years after he published his findings (probably because Davy wasn't interested in surgical medicine). Instead Davy saw only the recreational properties of nitrous oxide and considered it a superiour high to opium or alcohol. He even wrote the following poem about nitrous oxide:
"Yet are my eyes with sparkling lustre fill'd
Yet is my mouth replete with murmuring sound
Yet are my limbs with inward transports fill'd
And clad with new-born mightiness around."
Davy's lectures were attended regularily by Michael Faraday, who impressed Davy by sending him copious bound notes of these lectures, including exact drawings of Davy's apparatus. When Davy was temporarily blinded by an explosion in his laboratory, he hired Faraday at once, beginning a close personal and professional association that lasted for years. Davy is supposed to have claimed Faraday as his greatest discovery.
And yet, Davy twice opposed the election of Faraday to fellowship in the Royal Society. At one point he objected to honoring Faraday for achieving the first liquefaction of chlorine, claiming that he himself deserved credit for the feat. Another time, Davy said his opposition was due to his belief that William Wollaston (1766-1828) had preceded Faraday in discovering electromagnetic rotation. It seems that Davy was envious of his former assistant. Faraday did finally become a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1824. But Davy's opposition to Faraday caused him to cease all research in electromagnetism until his mentor's death.