French Ambassador's Residence, London

On Wednesday, 25 June 2008 French Ambassador, H E M Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, hosted a celebration at his residence in Kensington Palace Gardens for nearly 100 guests to mark the 200th anniversary of the medal presented in the name of Emperor Napoleon to the English chemist, Humphry Davy. The ceremony was organised in conjunction with the RSC. 

To mark the occasion, Dr Richard Pike, the Chief Executive of the RSC, presented a Chemical Landmark plaque to the President of l'Académie des Sciences, Professor Jules Hoffmann, which will be installed at the Academy in Paris later this year.

Presenting the plaque, Richard Pike said: "The emergence of this whole remarkable tale gave us an opportunity to demonstrate not only our gratitude, but also our admiration for the way in which France displayed a concern for the international exchange of knowledge and research. Not even a bitter war raging between the two nations prevented the French from paying homage to a man they thought had benefited humankind.
 
"This principle of the flow of fresh discovery is of the greatest importance and it is right that scientists all over the world try to share the benefits of their labours for the advancement of all."
 
He added: "France, 200 years ago made a special gesture in awarding the medal, sadly now lost, but it is appropriate that two centuries on we, in Britain, acknowledge the act properly and hope that this Chemical Landmark plaque is seen as a suitable way in which to achieve that aim."

The history of the medal only came to light in March this year when an archivist at l'Académie des Sciences discovered a letter written in 1808 by a French naval officer to a French civil servant, which explained that another letter, intended for Davy in London, could not be delivered because of a naval blockade. The undelivered letter was to inform the scientist that a medal in the name of the Emperor, awarded by the Institut de France, was to be awarded in honour of his work. It is not known when notification eventually reached Davy but he collected the medal in Paris in 1813 when the enemy nations were still at war, sailing, it is thought, across the channel in a prisoner-of-war ship carrying exchanged French sailors.  

Unfortunately the whereabouts of the medal today is not known although it is believed that Davy's widow threw the medal into Mount's Bay in Cornwall following his death.
 
The citation on the RSC plaque reads: 

Académie des Sciences, Paris
 
In tribute to the Institut de France for honouring
 British Chemist Sir Humphry Davy in 1808
and encouraging the
international exchange of
scientific knowledge.
  
25 June 2008

Humphry Davy is famous for many important scientific discoveries notably the anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide, the isolation of the metals sodium and potassium through electrolysis, the elemental nature and similarity of chlorine and iodine and diamond as a form of carbon. He is probably most remembered for the invention of the Davy Lamp in 1815 making the mining industry of that day a much safer environment in which to work.