Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous, nitro, or nos, is a chemical compound, an oxide of nitrogen with the formula N2O. At room temperature, it is a colourless non-flammable gas, and has a slightly sweet scent and taste. At elevated temperatures, nitrous oxide is a powerful oxidiser similar to molecular oxygen.
Food-grade N 2O whipped-cream chargers
Medical-grade N 2O tanks used in dentistry
Aquatint depiction of a laughing gas party in the nineteenth century, by Thomas Rowlandson
Street sign indicating ban of nitrous oxide use near the Poelestraat in Groningen
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for the first time: potassium and sodium in 1807 and calcium, strontium, barium, magnesium and boron the following year, as well as for discovering the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine. Davy also studied the forces involved in these separations, inventing the new field of electrochemistry. Davy is also credited with discovering clathrate hydrates.
Portrait by Thomas Phillips, 1821
Lariggan River
Davies Giddy (later: Davies Gilbert)
Thomas Beddoes