How did Sir Humphry Davy explain chlorine’s bleaching action?

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Sir Humphry Davy explained the bleaching action of chlorine by proposing that it functions through the liberation of oxygen from water.1

While Davy correctly identified chlorine as a chemical element and demonstrated that it did not contain oxygen—thereby challenging the prevailing theory that all acids required oxygen—his specific explanation regarding its bleaching mechanism was part of his broader, sometimes disputed, work on the nature of the substance.1