The appliance of science: Humphry Davy´s electrochemical protectors for ships´ bottoms in the 1820s

This paper investigates the problems surrounding the application of the scientific knowledge of electricity for practical purposes in early nineteenth century Britain. It concentrates on the attempt by the Admiralty and Navy board to seek a method of protecting from corrosion the copper sheeting on the bottoms of ships. The method of using electrochemical `protectors´ (sacrificial cathodic protection) was proposed by Humphrey Davy as a solution to the problem. Though the science was faultless, the application, as the paper relates, led to disaster