Miscrediting Shyness

One of the most distinguished English scientists was Henry Cavendish. Not only is Cavendish noted for his discovery of hydrogen, but he is also well known for his notorious shyness. Cavendish's shyness pushed him to avoid society whenever he could and avoid conversing with people if he could, which led him to form no known deep personal attachments with people other than his family. His shyness was so bad that he could only speak to one person at a time, and only if the person was known to him and male. He communicated with his female servants only by notes, and supposedly even added a back staircase to his house to avoid encountering his servants.

Cavendish's shyness made him extremely asocial and secretive. This behavior caused Cavendish to avoid publishing his works for the world to see. As a result, many of his findings were kept from his fellow scientists. It was not until the late nineteenth century, long after Cavendish's death, that James Clerk Maxwell looked through Cavendish's unpublished papers and found things for which others had been given credit. Examples of what was included in Cavendish's discoveries were Richter's law of reciprocal proportions, Ohm's law, Dalton's law of partial pressures, principles of electrical conductivity (including Coulomb's law), and Charles's Law of gases.

As a result of his shyness, many other scientists received credit for discoveries Cavendish had made much earlier. Luckily, Cavendish is still acknowledged for his contributions to the scientific community and even received the acknowledgment of his contemporary scientists. Though his shyness may have led to the miscrediting of the first discoverers of new information, Cavendish is still renowned for his various published findings.