After discovering the physiological properties of laughing gas, Humphry Davy became Director of the Royal Institution’s laboratory. There using the new electric battery he isolated the chemical elements sodium and potassium. He also invented the miners’ safety lamp, shown next to him to emphasise his claim as its inventor over that of George Stephenson. Davy, also a Romantic poet, was a very popular speaker. His demonstration lectures attracted such large crowds that Albemarle Street became London’s first one-way street on lecture afternoons and evenings. This painting is a copy of Davy’s Royal Society portrait by Thomas Lawrence. Pickersgill was employed to paint it, possibly as a favour to his friend Michael Faraday, but the payment in the Royal Institution’s records is to his son.