VOCABULARY eccentricity - ekscentryczność gifted - uzdolniony, utalentowany scientist - uczony, naukowiec to investigate - zbadać properties of hydrogen - właściwości wodoru to prove - udowodnić to measure - zmierzyć strength - siła, moc current - tu: prąd elektryczny to give oneself an electric shock - zaaplikować sobie/poddać się wstrząsowi elektrycznemu to estimate - obliczać level - poziom pain - ból to experience - doświadczyć to leave - zostawiać unpublished - nieopublikowany death - śmierć, zgon to edit - redagować silent - cichy solitary - samotny to anticipate - przewidzieć, antycypować, odgadnąć, uprzedzić, ubiec later - późniejszy to feel the need - odczuwać potrzebę to refuse - odmówić to sit (for a portrait) - pozować (do portretu) likeness - podobizna to survive - tu: zachować się sketch - tu: szkic without his knowledge - bez jego wiedzy The Royal Society - prestiżowe towarzystwo naukowe Wielkiej Brytanii blue plaque - niebieska tablica pamiątkowa

Lesson 8
Henry Cavendish

Despite his eccentricities, he was also a gifted experimental scientist who was the first to investigate the properties of hydrogen, and to prove that water was the result of the combination of two gases.

He also spent long hours working on experiments with electricity. In one of these he measured the strength of a current by the simple but rather dangerous method of giving himself an electric shock and then estimating the level of pain he had experienced.

Much of his work he left unpublished at his death. His papers were studied and edited by James Clerk Maxwell in the 1870s.

Maxwell found that the silent and solitary Cavendish had anticipated a number of later theories but had not felt the need to tell anyone else about them.

No formal portrait of him exists because he refused to sit for one. The only likeness to survive is a quick sketch of him made, without his knowledge, at a Royal Society dinner.

The blue plaque to Henry Cavendish can be found at 11 Bedford Square.

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	Lesson 8

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