This special issue of Ambix brings together eight new studies on Humphry Davy together with an appreciation of the life and work of David Knight, much of whose scholarship was devoted to understanding Davy. Taken together they provide a much richer and more nuanced account of aspects of Davy’s life, showing how he and his work fitted into the very complex and difficult social, cultural and political contexts of the opening decades of the nineteenth century. Taking as our starting point Thomas Carlyle’s 1829 critique of modern science, in this introduction we weld together the themes that emerge from these papers, many of which ground their results in the project to publish Davy’s Letters. This project has provided evidence that helps us critique the disciplinary boundaries that led to Davy becoming seen mostly as a chemist, while his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge has generally been categorised as a poet. Such boundaries are now breaking down fruitfully as these essays all illustrate in their different ways. A consequence of the new understandings being produced, is that we need to consider anew what constitutes chemistry and chemists, how reputations and commemorations are constructed, the role of audiences (especially women) in developing knowledge and the use of language and literature, which, among other things, are key elements linking chemistry with other parts of society and culture. Davy provides an excellent location by which to address the historical issues involved, giving us an opportunity to balance carefully these and other components (such as human agency) in understanding how knowledge is constructed.

中文翻译：

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关于汉弗莱·戴维的新研究：引言

本期 Ambix 特刊汇集了八项关于汉弗莱·戴维的新研究以及对大卫·奈特生平和工作的欣赏，他的大部分学术研究都致力于了解戴维。综合起来，它们对戴维生活的方方面面提供了更丰富、更细致的描述，展示了他和他的作品如何适应 19 世纪最初几十年非常复杂和困难的社会、文化和政治背景。以托马斯·卡莱尔 1829 年对现代科学的批判为出发点，在本介绍中，我们将这些论文中出现的主题融合在一起，其中许多论文的结果都基于发表戴维信件的项目。这个项目提供的证据可以帮助我们批判导致戴维主要被视为化学家的学科界限，而他的朋友塞缪尔·泰勒·柯勒律治通常被归类为诗人。正如这些文章都以不同的方式说明的那样，这种界限现在正在卓有成效地打破。产生新理解的结果是，我们需要重新考虑化学家和化学家的构成、声誉和纪念活动的构建方式、受众（尤其是女性）在发展知识以及语言和文学的使用中的作用，其中，除其他外，是将化学与社会和文化的其他部分联系起来的关键因素。戴维提供了一个绝佳的地点来解决所涉及的历史问题，让我们有机会在理解知识是如何构建的过程中仔细平衡这些和其他组件（例如人类代理）。