Laughing Gas Parties and the Knight Behind it All

Books

Oct 27

Sir Humphry Davy’s Research into Nitrous Oxide

Nitrous Oxide was first discovered in 1772 by Englishman Joseph Priestley, but research didn’t really take off until the early 1800s at the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol. There, Humphry Davy (a Cornish chemist and inventor) experimented with what became known as “intoxicating gas,” “Gas of Paradise,” or what it is commonly called today, “laughing gas.”

Davy—who discovered the gas made him laugh—organized gatherings for his friends to see if it had the same effect, asking them to record their experiences. It did, and from there it spread. Members of the British upper class often engaged in what became known as laughing gas parties. Eventually the idea spread across the pond to the U.S., where the anesthetic effects of nitrous oxide were recognized.

Davy wrote about the potential of this gas in a treatise entitled Researches, Chemical and Philosophical—Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide and its Respiration. In this formal exposition, he discussed using the gas to relieve pain during surgery, so the properties were known, but nothing came of it as an actual anesthetic until 1844.

Davy became a renowned speaker, giving lectures in London that were so well attended, traffic became an issue. He was knighted in 1812 and in 1818 was awarded a baronetcy, making him a peer. He died in 1829 in Geneva, Switzerland.

It was my artistic license to cause my fictional surgeon Mr. Peckwood to think outside the box and try using nitrous oxide much earlier, when Davy carried out his first experiments with the gas. Lost in Darkness is set in 1815 during the Regency period, when doctors didn’t have nearly as much regulation as they do today.

To find out more about my mad doctor, get your copy of Lost in Darkness today, an enchanting Regency-era gothic romance intertwined with inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.