science · 15 May 1858 · 166 years ago
death
Died 15 May 1858 at age 77 (born 17 Jan 1781).
American chemist who devised the first oxy-hydrogen blowpipe for the purpose of producing great heat. He was able to melt sizeable quantities of platinum with this blowpipe. Later, it was discovered that when such a blowpipe flame acted on a block of calcium oxide, a brilliant white light resulted—limelight. His device was also the ancestor of the modern welding torches. He presented a paper describing his invention on 10 Dec 1801 to the Chemical Society of Philadelphia.
OnThisDay.net