1753-1815

British chemist who was the first to use electricity to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen. Using the recently invented Voltaic battery, Nicholson placed electrodes into water and showed that it "broke apart" into hydrogen and oxygen gasses. This reversed earlier experiments in which these two gasses were combined to form water, thus showing that many chemical reactions could be reversed. Nicholson also founded the Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts in 1797.