He moved to London in 1804 to spend eight years as operator and assistant to Humphry Davy in the Royal Institution laboratory, which he kept in order.
[2] When, in October 1807, Humphry accomplished the electrolytic preparation of potassium and saw the minute globules of the quicksilver-like metal burst through the crust and take fire, Edmund described that his cousin was so delighted with this achievement that he danced about the room in ecstasy.
[8] Further, Edmund Davy discovered that even at room temperature, finely divided platinum would light up from heat in the presence of a mixture of coal gas and air.
[9] (Humphry Davy had discovered a few years earlier that a hot platinum wire lit up in a mixture of coal gas and air.
[11] In the Report of the British Association for 1835 he was the first to publish a series of experiments investigating the protective power of zinc employed in simple contact and in massive form.
Davy claimed priority of discovery, but it was found that a patent had long before been issued, on 26 September 1791 to Madame Leroi de Jancourt for the protection of metals with a coating of an alloy of zinc, bismuth and tin (though without a knowledge of the chemical principles involved).
(The method was shortly discontinued because of an unfortunate side effect - the speed of the ships was reduced by increased fouling by marine life.
He understood that arsenic was a cumulative poison, and that with continued consumption the "substance may collect in the system till its amount may exercise an injurious effect on the health of men and animals.