Professor Sharon Ruston of Lancaster University’s English Literature and Creative Writing Department and Dr Rachel Platel of Lancaster’s Chemistry Department joined LitFest at the Dukes to explore the creative and scientific works of Sir Humphry Davy.

Davy was a 19^th Century chemist, attributed with the discovery of elements including sodium, chlorine, and potassium, the “laughing gas” nitrous oxide, and the invention of the Davy lamp (a safety lamp used in mines where there may be the presence of explosive gasses).

Lesser known, however, is Davy’s foray into the world of poetry. A contemporary and close friend of Romantic poets Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Wordsworth, Davy’s personal notebooks contained a variety of his personal thoughts, experimental notes, as well as a substantial collection of poems he wrote whilst conducting his experiments.

Professor Ruston came across his notes in the 1990s whilst undertaking her PhD, and since worked with the Zooniverse platform of crowdsourcing research, the Adler Planetarium, Chicago, University College London, Manchester University and the Royal Institution of Great Britain to transcribe all 129 volumes of his notes into a new digital resource, which was officially launched at LitFest. The project began back in 2019, and involved a team of nearly 4,000 volunteers to painstakingly transcribe Davy’s hand-written manuscripts. The Lancaster University Library had a key role in the project, working with the outputs of the transcriber community and building it into content on the Lancaster Digital Collections platform.

Professor Ruston subsequently collaborated with chemistry lecturer Dr Platel to develop school resources out of Davy’s notebooks as well as the new digital resource. Their collaboration culminated in their appearance at this year’s annual LitFest Autumn event, which has long-standing ties with the English Literature and Creative Writing Department at Lancaster.

The hour-long event at the Dukes explored Davy’s writings through a short lecture delivered by Professor Ruston in conjunction with Dr Platel. The event was very well attended and well-received by its audience, who gained a fascinating insight into the chemist’s creative life.

Professor Ruston commented: “The event went brilliantly well. It was so nice to celebrate the achievements of the project and to thank all of the thousands of people who have been involved.”

Dr Platel added: “It was great to highlight the literary achievements of someone who is primarily known as a chemist, and also discuss this area of Sir Humphry Davy’s life with members of the public. The audience were really interested in finding out more, both about Davy and the idea of being able to participate in a crowdsourced research project.”