NOTE: I believe these are the people Poe refers to, but one cannot be absolutely sure. Therefore, I am not to be held accountable if these people are the not the same as the ones in the stories.

Sir Humphrey Davy was a major rival of Gay-Lussac, who is commonly know for his gas law (temperature is proportional to pressure when volume and number of moles are constant). He was the first to isolate the element boron, which was considered an important victory over Davy. Sir Humphrey Davy also was the first to isolate magnesium from magnesium oxide in 1808. However, in 1828, Antoine Bussy, who receives the credit for discovering magnesium, obtained purer and larger amounts of magnesium.

Wolfgang Von Kempelen was involved in the invention of automatons, which are essentially robots. In 1779, he won a prize from the St. Petersburg Academy of Science when he created a model of the human vocal cords.

Francois Arago (1786-1858) was a French physicist and astronomerwho was very interested in light. He supported Thomas Young's theory of waves and later proved it. His two major inventions include the polarimeter and the polariscope.

Johann Maelzel is credited with the invention of the metronome in 1816.

Charles Babbage (1792-1871) was a mathematician who came up with the concepts that led to the creation of the modern computer. He was obsessed with creating an "analytical engine" that would eliminate human error. Much of this was elaborated in his book On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures.

Sir David Brewster (1781-1868) was very involved in optical experimentation. Some of his research led to the creation of Brewster's law which explains Brewster's angle of reflection. He also invented the kaleidoscope.

Source: Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia, 1998.