EARLY HISTORY OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION, 1799-1800; WITH THE LIFE OF
PROFESSOR GARNETT.
The history of the Proposals for founding the Royal Institution is thus
given by Count Rumford in 1799:
Having long been in a habit of considering all useful improvements
as being purely _mechanical_, or as depending on the perfection of
machinery and address in the management of it, and of considering
_profit_ (which depends much on the perfection of machinery) as
the only incitement to _industry_, I was naturally led to meditate
on the means that might be employed with advantage to diffuse
the knowledge and facilitate the general introduction of such
improvements; and the plan which is now submitted to the public was
the result of these investigations.
In the beginning of the year 1796 I gave a faint sketch of this
plan in my second essay; but, being under a necessity of returning
soon to Germany, I had not leisure to pursue it farther at that
time, and I was obliged to content myself with having merely thrown
out a loose idea, as it were by accident, which I thought might
possibly attract attention.
After my return to Munich, I opened myself more fully on the
subject in my correspondence with my friends in this country, and
particularly in my letters to Thomas Bernard, Esq., who, as is
well known, is one of the founders and most active members of the
Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of
the Poor.
This gentleman I found, on my return to England in September 1798,
not only agreeing with me in opinion in regard to the utility and
importance of the plan I had proposed, but very solicitous that
some attempts should be made to carry it into immediate execution
in this capital.
After several consultations, that were held at Mr. Bernard’s
apartments in the Foundling Hospital and at the house of the Lord
Bishop of Durham, at which several gentlemen assisted who are well
known as zealous promoters of useful improvement, it was agreed
that Mr. Bernard should report to the Committee of the Society
for Bettering the Condition of the Poor the general result of
these consultations, and the unanimous desire of the gentlemen who
assisted at them, that means might be devised for making an attempt
to carry the scheme proposed into execution.
The gentlemen of the Committee agreed with me entirely in the
opinion I had taken the liberty to express, that the Institution
which it was proposed to form would be too conspicuous, and too
interesting and important, to be made _an appendix_ to any other
existing establishment, and, consequently, that it must stand
alone, and on its own proper basis; but as these gentlemen had no
direct communication with any persons, except with the members of
their own Society, they appointed a Committee, consisting of eight
persons, from their own body, to confer with me on the subject of
the plan.[12]
I had the honour to meet this Committee on this business on the
31st of January, at the house of Richard Sulivan, Esq., where a
plan I had previously drawn up for forming the Institution in
question was read and examined, and its principles unanimously
approved; but, as some of the gentlemen present were of opinion
that the plan entered too much into detail to be submitted to the
public in the beginning of the business, I undertook to revise it,
and to endeavour to accommodate it to the wishes of the Committee.
Having made such alterations in it as I thought might satisfy the
Committee, I sent a corrected copy of it to them, accompanied by
the following letter:
‘GENTLEMEN,--Inclosed I have the honour to send you a corrected
copy of the Proposals I took the liberty of laying before you
on Thursday last, for forming in this capital, by private
subscription, a public Institution for diffusing the knowledge
and facilitating the general and speedy introduction of new
and useful mechanical inventions and improvements; and also
for teaching, by regular courses of philosophical lectures
and experiments, the application of the new discoveries in
science to the improvement of arts and manufactures, and
in facilitating the means of procuring the comforts and
conveniences of life.
‘The tendency of the proposed Institution to excite a spirit of
inquiry and of improvement amongst all ranks of society, and to
afford the most effectual assistance to those who are engaged
in the various pursuits of useful industry, did not escape
your observation; and it is, I am persuaded, from a conviction
of the utility of the plan, or its tendency to increase the
comforts and enjoyments of individuals, and at the same time
to promote the public prosperity, that you have been induced
to take it into your serious consideration. I shall be much
flattered if it should meet with your approbation and with your
support.
‘Though I am perfectly ready to take any share in the business
of carrying the scheme into execution, in case it should be
adopted, that can be required, yet there is one preliminary
request which I am desirous may be granted me, and that is,
that the Government may be previously made acquainted with
the scheme before any steps are taken towards carrying it
into execution; and also that his Majesty’s Ministers may be
informed that it is in the contemplation of the founders of the
Institution to accept of my services in the arrangement and
management of it.
‘The peculiar situation in which I stand in this country, as
a subject of his Majesty, and being at the same time, by his
Majesty’s special commission, granted under his royal sign
manual, engaged in the service of a foreign prince, this
circumstance renders it improper for me to engage myself
in this important business, notwithstanding that it might
perhaps be considered merely as a private concern, without the
knowledge and the approbation of the Government.
‘I am quite certain that my engaging in this, or in any other
business in which there is any prospect of my being of any
public use in this country, will meet with the most cordial
approbation of his Most Serene Highness the Elector Palatine,
in whose service I am; for I know his sentiments on that
subject; and although I do not imagine that his Majesty or his
Majesty’s Ministers would disapprove of my giving my assistance
in carrying this scheme into execution, yet I feel it to be
necessary that their approbation should be asked and obtained;
and, if I might be allowed to express my sentiments on another
matter, which, no doubt, has already occurred to everyone
of the gentlemen to whom I now address myself, I should say
that, in my opinion, it would not only be proper, but even
necessary, to inform Government of the nature of the scheme
that is proposed and of every circumstance relative to it,
and at the same time to ask their countenance and support in
carrying it into execution; for although it may be allowable
in this free country for individuals to unite in forming and
executing extensive plans for diffusing useful knowledge and
promoting the public good, yet it appears to me that no such
establishment should ever be formed in any country without the
knowledge and approbation of the Executive Government.
‘Trusting that you will be so good as to excuse the liberty I
take in making this observation, and that you will consider
my doing it as being intended rather to justify myself, by
explaining my principles than from any idea of its being
necessary on any other account, I have the honour to be, with
much respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient and most humble
Servant,
(Signed) ‘RUMFORD.
‘Brompton Row, February 7, 1799.
(Addressed)
‘To the Gentlemen named by the Committee of the Society for
Bettering the Condition of the Poor to confer with Count
Rumford on his scheme for forming a new Establishment in London
for Diffusing the Knowledge of Useful Mechanical Improvements,
&c.’
The Committee above mentioned having, in the meantime, made their
report to the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the
Comforts of the Poor, that Society came to the following resolution:
‘At a meeting of the Society for Bettering the Condition and
Increasing the Comforts of the Poor, on Friday, the 1st of
February, 1799,
‘_Present_:
The BISHOP OF DURHAM, in the chair,
PATRICK COLQUHOUN, Esq.,
THOMAS BERNARD, Esq.,
WILLIAM MANNING, Esq.,
JOHN SULLIVAN, Esq.,
The REV. DR. GLASSE,
JOHN J. ANGERSTEIN, Esq.,
WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, Esq.,
RICHARD JOSEPH SULIVAN, Esq.,
MATTHEW MARTIN, Esq., Secretary,
the Committee appointed to confer with Count Rumford reported
that they had had a conference with the Count, and that they
were satisfied that the Institution proposed by him would be
extremely beneficial and interesting to the community; that,
in order to provide the pecuniary funds of the Society at
its commencement, it was proposed that subscribers of fifty
guineas each should be the perpetual proprietors of the
Institution, and be entitled each to perpetual transferable
tickets for the lectures and for admission to the apartments of
the Institution; and that as soon as thirty such subscribers
offered it was proposed to call a meeting of those thirty
subscribers, in order to lay the plan before them and elect
managers for the Institution.
* * * * *
‘Resolved,--That the said report be approved of, and that
it be referred to the gentlemen of the Select Committee
to communicate the outlines of the plan to the members of
the Committee of the Society, and to such other persons as
they shall think fit, desiring that those who wish to have
their names inserted among the original subscribers to the
Institution would communicate their wish to the Special
Committee.
‘Extracted from the Minutes.
‘M. MARTIN, Secretary.’
In consequence of this resolution a paper was printed by the
gentlemen of the Select Committee containing the outlines of the
plan, and sent round privately among their friends and others whom
they thought likely to countenance the scheme, accompanied by a
printed copy of the foregoing resolution, with a request that those
who were willing to allow their names to be put down among the
original subscribers and proprietors of the Institution would be so
good as to communicate their intentions by a letter addressed to
Thomas Bernard, Esq., at the Foundling Hospital.
The Proposals that were circulated in this manner met with so much
approbation that fifty-eight of the most respectable names were
sent in before measures could be taken for holding a meeting, and
these successful beginnings encouraged those who were principally
concerned in forming and bringing forward the plan to make some
alterations in it, and particularly in respect to the time and
manner of choosing the first set of managers, and in regard to an
application for a charter for the Institution, which it has been
determined to make, in order to place the establishment on a more
solid and more respectable foundation, and to give full security to
the subscribers against all future claims upon them.
IN THIS STAGE OF THE BUSINESS, and especially as a meeting of
the subscribers is to be held in a few days for the purpose of
determining what other steps shall be taken for carrying the
proposed plan into execution, I have thought it to be my duty to
lay all these particulars before the subscribers, and at the same
time to state to them at length the general outline of the plan I
have taken the liberty to propose, and in the execution of which,
if it should be adopted, I am ready to take any part that the
subscribers may wish me to take.
RUMFORD.
Brompton Row, March 4, 1799.
THE PROPOSALS FOR FORMING BY SUBSCRIPTION, IN THE METROPOLIS OF THE
BRITISH EMPIRE, A PUBLIC INSTITUTION FOR DIFFUSING THE KNOWLEDGE
AND FACILITATING THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF USEFUL MECHANICAL
INVENTIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS, AND FOR TEACHING BY COURSES OF
PHILOSOPHICAL LECTURES AND EXPERIMENTS THE APPLICATION OF SCIENCE
TO THE COMMON PURPOSES OF LIFE WERE THESE:
The two great objects of the Institution being the speedy
and general diffusion of the knowledge of all new and useful
improvements, in whatever quarter of the world they may originate;
and teaching the application of scientific discoveries to the
improvement of arts and manufactures in this country, and to the
increase of domestic comfort and convenience, these objects will be
constantly had in view, not only in the arrangement and execution
of the plan, but also in the future management of the Institution.
As much care will be taken to confine the establishment within its
proper limits as to place it on a solid foundation, and to render
it an ornament to the capital and an honour to the British nation.
In the execution of the plan it is proposed to proceed in the
following manner:
A place having been fixed on by the managers for forming the
Institution,
Spacious and airy rooms will be prepared for the reception and
public exhibition of all such new and mechanical inventions and
improvements as shall be thought worthy of the public notice, and
more especially of all such contrivances as shall tend to increase
the conveniences and comforts of life, to promote domestic economy,
to improve taste, or to promote useful industry.
The most perfect models of the full size will be provided and
exhibited in different parts of this public repository of all such
new mechanical inventions and improvements as are applicable to
the common purposes of life. Under this head will be included:
Cottage Fire-places and Kitchen Utensils for Cottages.
A complete Kitchen for a Farm-house, with all the necessary
Utensils.
A complete Kitchen, with Kitchen Utensils, for the family of a
gentleman of fortune.
A complete Laundry for a gentleman’s family, or for a public
hospital, including Boilers, Washing-room, Ironing-room,
Drying-room, &c.
Several of the most approved German, Swedish, and Russian Stoves,
for heating rooms and passages.
In order that those who visit this establishment may be enabled to
acquire more just ideas of these various mechanical contrivances,
and of the circumstances on which their _peculiar merit_
principally depends, the machinery exhibited will, as far as it
shall be possible, _be shown in action_, or in _actual use_, and
with regard to many of the articles it is evident that this can be
done without any difficulty and with very little additional expense.
Open Chimney Fire-places on the most approved principles will be
fitted up as models in the different rooms, and fires will be
kept constantly burning in them during the cold season.
Ornamental as well as Economical Grates, for Open Chimney
Fire-places, will also be exhibited; as also,
Ornamental Stoves, in the form of elegant Chimney-pieces, for
halls, drawing-rooms, eating-rooms, &c.
It is likewise proposed to exhibit _working models_, on a reduced
scale, of that most curious and most useful machine the Steam
Engine.
Of Brewer’s Boilers, with improved Fire-places.
Of Distiller’s Coppers, with improved Fire-places and improved
Condensers.
Of large Boilers for the kitchens of hospitals, and of Ships’
Coppers, with improved Fire-places.
Further it is proposed to exhibit in the repository of the
Institution--
Models of Ventilators for supplying rooms and ships with fresh
air.
Models of Hot-houses, with such improvements as can be made in
their construction.
Models of Lime-kilns on various constructions.
Models of Boilers, Steam-boilers, &c., for preparing food for
cattle that are stall-fed.
Models of Cottages on various constructions.
Spinning-wheels and Looms, on various constructions, for the use
of the poor, and adapted to their circumstances, together with
such other machinery as may be useful in giving them employment
at home.
Models of all such new-invented Machines and Implements as bid
fair to be of use in Husbandry.
Models of Bridges on various constructions, together with _models
of all such other machines and useful instruments as the
managers of the Institution shall deem worthy of the public
notice_ and proper to be publicly exhibited in the repository
of the Institution.
It is proposed that each article exhibited should be accompanied
with a detailed account or description of it, properly illustrated
by correct drawings. The name of the maker and the place of his
abode will also be mentioned in this account, together with the
price at which he is willing to furnish the article to buyers.
In order to carry into effect the second object of the
Institution--namely, TEACHING THE APPLICATION OF SCIENCE to the
USEFUL PURPOSES OF LIFE--
A lecture room will be fitted up for philosophical lectures and
experiments, and a complete LABORATORY and PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS,
with the necessary instruments, will be provided for making
_chemical_ and other _philosophical experiments_.
In fitting up this lecture room (which will never be used for any
other purpose than for giving lectures in natural Philosophy and
Philosophical Chemistry) convenient places will be provided and
reserved for the subscribers, and care will be taken to warm and
light the room properly, and provide for a sufficient supply of
fresh air, so as to render it comfortable and salubrious.
In engaging lecturers for the Institution care will be taken by the
managers to invite none but men of the first eminence in science to
officiate in that most important and most distinguished situation;
and no subjects will ever be permitted to be discussed at these
lectures but such as are strictly scientifical, and immediately
connected with that particular branch of science publicly announced
as the subject of the lecture. The managers to be responsible for
the strict observance of this regulation.
In case there should be places to spare in the lecture room,
persons not subscribers will, on the recommendation of a
subscriber, and on paying a certain small sum to be determined by
the managers, be permitted to attend the public lectures or any one
or more of them.
Among the various branches of science that will occasionally be
made the subjects of these public lectures may be reckoned the
following, _viz._: These lectures will treat--
Of Heat, and its application to the various purposes of life.
Of the Combustion of Inflammable Bodies, and the relative
quantities of Heat producible by the different substances used
as fuel.
Of the Management of Fire and the Economy of Fuel.
Of the Principles of the Warmth of Clothing.
Of the Effects of Heat and of Cold, and of hot and of cold winds,
on the human body in sickness and in health.
Of the Effects of breathing vitiated and confined air.
Of the Means that may be used to render Dwelling-houses
comfortable and salubrious.
Of the Methods of procuring and preserving Ice in Summer, and of
the best principles for constructing Ice-houses.
Of the Means of preserving Food in different seasons and in
different climates.
Of the Means of cooling Liquors in hot weather, without the
assistance of ice.
Of Vegetation, and of the specific nature of those effects that
are produced by Manures, and of the Art of composing Manures
and adapting them to the different kinds of soil.
Of the nature of those changes that are produced on substances
used as food in the various processes of cookery.
Of the nature of those changes which take place in the Digestion
of Food.
Of the Chemical Principles of the process of Tanning Leather,
and of the objects that must particularly be had in view in
attempts to improve that most useful art.
Of the Chemical Principles of the art of making Soap, of the art
of Bleaching, of the art of Dyeing, and in general of _all the
Mechanical Arts_, as they apply to the various branches of
manufacture.
OF THE FUNDS OF THE INSTITUTION.
It is proposed to raise the money necessary for defraying the
expense of forming this Institution, and also for the future
expense of keeping it up, in the following manner:
1st. By the sums subscribed by the original founders and sole
_proprietors_ of the Institution, at _fifty guineas each person_,
to be but once paid.
2dly. By the sums contributed by those who shall subscribe _for
life_, at _ten guineas_ each person, to be but once paid.
3dly. By the sums contributed by the _annual subscribers_ at two
guineas _per annum_ for each person.
4thly. By the particular donations and legacies that may be
expected to be made for the purpose of extending and improving so
interesting and so useful an Institution; and,
Lastly. By the sums that shall be received at the door from
strangers who shall visit the repository of the Institution, or who
shall obtain leave to frequent the philosophical lectures.
PRIVILEGES OF THE ORIGINAL SUBSCRIBERS OR PROPRIETORS OF THE
INSTITUTION.
_1mo._ These subscribers, who will _never be called upon for any
further contributions_ after the sum subscribed (fifty guineas)
shall have been once paid, will be effectually secured against all
future legal claims and demands upon them on account of any debts
the managers of the Institution may contract, as a charter for
the Institution will be applied for and obtained, for the express
purpose of providing for that security, before any other step shall
be taken for carrying this plan into execution, and before any part
of the money subscribed will be demanded.
_2do._ Proprietors will not be deemed liable to serve, either as
managers or as visitors, against their consent; and none will be
considered as candidates for either of those offices, or will be
entered on the lists as candidates, or be proposed as such, except
it be those who shall have previously signified their willingness
to serve in one of those offices in case of their being elected.
_3tio._ For the still greater security of the proprietors, as well
as to found the Institution on a more solid basis, one-half of the
sums subscribed by the original subscribers and proprietors of the
Institution will be permanently vested in the public funds, or in
the purchase of freehold property, and the annual produce thereof
employed in defraying the expense of keeping up the Institution.
_4to._ Each original subscriber and proprietor of the Institution
to be an hereditary governor of the Institution--to have a
perpetual _transferable_ share in all the property belonging
to it--to have a voice in the election of the managers of
the Institution, as also in the election of the Committee of
Visitors--to have, moreover, two _transferable_ tickets of
perpetual admission into the establishment, and into every part of
it, and two _transferable_ tickets of admission to all the public
philosophical lectures and experiments.
_5to._ Although the shares of proprietors and all the privileges
annexed to them are hereditary, and are also _transferable_ by
sale or by donation, yet those to whom such shares are conveyed by
sale or by donation must, in order to their being rendered capable
of holding them, have obtained the approbation and consent of the
majority of the managers for the time being. Those who shall become
possessed of these shares by inheritance will not stand in need of
the consent of the managers to be qualified to hold them, and to
enjoy the rights and privileges annexed to them.
_6to._ Proprietors’ tickets will admit any persons who shall be the
bearers of them.
_7mo._ Proprietors will have the privilege of recommending persons
for admittance to the philosophical lectures and experiments, and
the persons so recommended will be admitted in all cases where
there shall be room for their accommodation, provided that the
persons so admitted conform to the rules and regulations which will
be established by the managers for the preservation of order and
decorum within the walls of the Institution.
_8vo._ No more than _forty per cent._ of the sum subscribed by
each proprietor will be wanted immediately, and the remainder may
be furnished in three equal payments at the expiration of the
three next succeeding half-years; but it will be in the option of
proprietors to pay the whole sum of fifty guineas at once if they
should prefer doing it.
PRIVILEGES OF THE SUBSCRIBERS FOR LIFE.
Each subscriber of this class will receive _one_ ticket for life,
but not transferable, of free admission into the Institution, and
into every part of it, together with _one_ other ticket for life,
but not transferable, of free admission to all public philosophical
lectures and experiments.
PRIVILEGES OF ANNUAL SUBSCRIBERS.
Each annual subscriber will receive _one_ ticket for one year,
but not transferable, of admission into the Institution, and into
every part of it; as also _one_ ticket for one year, but not
transferable, of admission to all the public philosophical lectures
and experiments. Subscribers of this class will, moreover, have
a right of becoming subscribers for life, on paying at any time
within the year for which they subscribe an additional sum of eight
guineas.
PRIVILEGES THAT ARE COMMON TO SUBSCRIBERS OF ALL DENOMINATIONS.
_1mo._ Subscribers for life and annual subscribers, as well as the
proprietors of the Institution, will be entitled to have copies or
drawings (made at their own expense, however) of any of the models
in the repository, and this even when such copies are designed for
the use of their friends, as well as when they are wanted for their
own private use; and for their better and more speedy accommodation
workshops will be prepared, and workmen provided under the
direction of the managers, for executing such work properly and at
reasonable prices. And, to prevent mistakes, all copies or drawings
that shall be made of the machines, models, and plans lodged in
the repository of the Institution will be examined by persons
appointed for that purpose, and marked with a seal or stamp of the
Institution.
_2do._ Tradesmen and artificers employed in executing any work
after any of the models lodged in the repository will, on the
recommendation of a proprietor or of a subscriber for life, or
for one year, be allowed free access to such model as often as
shall be necessary; and any workman or artificer so recommended
who shall be willing to furnish to buyers any article exhibited in
the repository that is in his line of business, will be allowed
to place a specimen of such article of his manufacture in the
repository, with his name and place of abode attached to it,
together with the price at which he can furnish it, such specimen
having been examined and approved by the managers.
OF THE GOVERNMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF THE INSTITUTION.
_1mo._ All the affairs of the Institution will be directed
and governed by _nine_ managers, chosen by and from among the
proprietors of the Institution.
_2do._ For the greater convenience of the proprietors, and to
spare them the trouble of a general meeting, all the elections of
managers, after the first, will be made by ballot, by means of
sealed lists of names sent in by the proprietors individually to
the Institution, which lists will be opened, and the result of the
election ascertained and published, by the united committees of the
managers and of the visitors for the time being.
_3tio._ The first set of managers will be chosen by the first
fifty or more original subscribers, at a general meeting of them to
be held for that purpose; and of this first set of managers three
will be chosen to serve _three years_, three to serve _two years_,
and three to serve _one year_, reckoned from the 25th day of March,
1799.
_4to._ All managers, as well those of the first set as others, will
be capable of being _re-elected_ without limitation.
_5to._ The elections of managers to be made annually on the 25th
day of the month of March,[13] and fourteen days previous to
each election the managers for the time being will send to each
proprietor individually a printed list containing the names of
all such of the proprietors as shall have offered or consented
to be candidates for the places among the managers that are to
be filled up. On this printed list, which each proprietor will
receive, he will indicate the persons to whom he gives his suffrage
by making a mark with a pen and ink in the form of a small cross
just before the names of those persons; and, this being done,
he will seal up the list without signing it and send it to the
Institution, directed ‘To the United Committee of the Managers and
of the Visitors.’ In order that these lists may be recognised on
their being returned to the Institution, they will all be marked
with the stamp of the Institution previous to their being issued
or sent to the proprietors. And, for still further security, each
proprietor will be requested to send in his or her sealed list
of names under an additional cover, signed with his or her own
name, which additional cover will be taken off, and all the sealed
lists mixed together in an urn, previous to any of them being
opened--an arrangement that will effectually prevent the vote of
any individual subscriber being known.
_6to._ The managers are to serve in that office without any pay or
emolument or pecuniary advantage whatever; and by their acceptance
of their office they shall be deemed solemnly to pledge themselves
to the proprietors of the Institution and to the public for the
faithful discharge of their duty as managers, and also for their
strict adherence to the fundamental principles of the government of
the Institution as established at its formation.
_7mo._ The managers are to take care that the property of the
Institution, as far as it shall be practicable, be insured against
accidents by fire.
_8vo._ The managers will cause exact and detailed accounts to be
kept of all the property belonging to the Institution, as also of
all receipts and expenditures. They will also keep regular minutes
of all their proceedings, and will take care to preserve the most
exact order and the strictest economy in the management of all the
affairs and concerns of the Institution.
_9mo._ The managers are never, on any pretext, or in any manner
whatever, to dispose of any money or property of any kind belonging
to the Institution in _premiums_, as the design or object of the
Institution is NOT TO GIVE REWARDS to the authors of ingenious
inventions, but to _diffuse the knowledge of such improvements
as bid fair to be of general use_, and to facilitate the general
introduction of them; and to excite and assist the ingenious and
the enterprising by _the diffusion of science_, and by awakening a
spirit of inquiry.
_10mo._ The ordinary meetings of the managers for the despatch
of the current business of the Institution will be held
weekly--namely, on every [space], at the hour of [space],--and
extraordinary meetings will be held as often as shall be found
necessary.
_11mo._ Any three or more of the managers being present at any
ordinary or at an extraordinary meeting, the others having been
duly summoned, to be a quorum.
_12mo._ The managers will be authorised to make all such standing
orders and regulations as they shall deem necessary to the
preservation of order and decorum in the Institution, as also such
regulations respecting the manner of transacting the business of
the Institution as they shall think proper and convenient, or
that may be necessary in order to regulate the responsibility of
the managers for their acts and deeds; all such standing orders
and regulations must, however, in order to their being valid, be
approved by six at least of the managers, and they must all be
published and made known to all the proprietors.
OF THE COMMITTEE OF VISITORS.
_1mo._ The Committee of Visitors will be composed of _nine_
persons, the first set to be elected three months after the opening
of the Institution.
_2do._ Three persons of the nine of which this Committee will
consist will be chosen for _three years_, three of them to serve
_two years_, and three of them to serve _one year_, reckoned from
the 25th of March, 1799.
_3tio._ Any three or more of the members of this Committee being
present at any meeting of the Committee, the others having been
duly summoned, to make a quorum.
_4to._ It will be the business of this Committee formally to
inspect and examine the Institution, and every part and detail
of it, once every year--namely, on the 25th day of the month of
March--and to give a printed account or report to the proprietors,
and to the subscribers of all denominations, of its state and
condition, and of the degree and manner in which it is found
to answer the important ends for which it was designed. This
Committee will also once every year--namely, on the 25th of the
month of March--examine and audit the accounts of the receipts and
expenditures of the Institution kept by the managers or by their
orders; and the report of the Committee of Visitors on this audit
will always make the first article in their public annual reports.
_5to._ A person actually serving as a visitor will not be eligible
as a manager, nor can his name be put on the list of candidates for
that office till one whole year shall have elapsed after he shall
have ceased to belong to the Committee of Visitors. Those, however,
who serve as visitors will be capable of being _re-elected_ on that
Committee without limitation.
MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES.
_1mo._ The managers will take care to procure, and to exhibit in
the repository as early as possible, models of all such new and
useful mechanical inventions and improvements as shall, from time
to time, be made in this or in any other country.
_2do._ All presents to the Institution, and all new purchases and
acquisitions of every kind, will be and remain the joint property
of the proprietors of the Institution and of their heirs and
assigns, and all the surplus of the income of the Institution, over
and above what shall be found necessary for maintaining it and
keeping it up, will be employed by the managers in making additions
to the local accommodation of the Institution, or in augmenting the
collection of models, or in making additions to the philosophical
apparatus, accordingly as the managers of the Institution for the
time being shall deem most useful.
_3tio._ In order that the proprietors of the Institution and the
subscribers may have the earliest notice of all new discoveries
and useful improvements that shall be made, from time to time, not
only in this country, but also in all the different parts of the
world, the managers will employ the proper means for obtaining,
as early as possible, from every part of the British Empire, and
from all foreign countries, authentic accounts of all such new and
interesting discoveries in the various branches of science, and
in arts and manufactures, and also of all such new and useful
mechanical improvements as shall be made; and a room will be
set apart in the Institution where all such information will be
lodged, and where it will be kept for the sole and exclusive use
and inspection of the proprietors and subscribers, and where no
stranger will ever be admitted.
At a general meeting of the proprietors, held at the house of the Right
Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., K.B., in Soho Square, on the 7th
day of March, 1799, the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks in the chair, the
following list of the proprietors and original subscribers of fifty
guineas each was read:
Sir Robert Ainslie, Bart.
J. J. Angerstein, Esq.
Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, K.B.
Thomas Bernard, Esq.
Scrope Bernard, Esq., M.P.
The Earl of Besborough.
Rowland Burdon, Esq., M.P.
James Burton, Esq.
Timothy Brent, Esq.
Henry Cavendish, Esq.
Rich. Clarke, Esq., Chamb. of London.
Sir John Colpoys, K.B.
John Craufurd, Esq.
The Duke of Devonshire, K.G.
Andrew Douglas, Esq.
The Lord Bishop of Durham.
The Earl of Egremont.
George Ellis, Esq., M.P.
Joseph Grote, Esq.
Sir Robert Bateson Harvey, Bart.
Sir John Cox Hippesley, Bart.
Henry Hoare, Esq.
John Spalding, Esq., M.P.
The Earl Spencer, K.G.
Sir George Staunton, Bart.
John Sullivan, Esq.
Richard Joseph Sulivan, Esq.
Lord Teignmouth.
John Thomson, Esq.
Lord Hobart.
Lord Holland.
Henry Hope, Esq.
Thomas Hope, Esq.
Lord Keith, K.B.
William Lushington, Esq., M.P.
Sir John Macpherson, Bart., M.P.
William Manning, Esq., M.P.
The Earl of Mansfield.
The Earl of Morton, K.T.
Lord Ossulston.
Thomas Palmer, Esq.
The Lord Viscount Palmerston, M.P.
Edward Parry, Esq.
Right Hon. Thomas Pelham, M.P.
John Penn, Esq.
William Morton Pitt, Esq., M.P.
Sir James Pulteney, Bart., M.P.
Sir John Buchanan Riddell, Bart.
Count Rumford.
Sir John Sinclair, Bart., M.P.
Lord Somerville.
Samuel Thornton, Esq., M.P.
Henry Thornton, Esq., M.P.
George Vansittart, Esq., M.P.
William Wilberforce, Esq., M.P.
The Earl of Winchelsea.
Hon. James Stuart Wortley, M.P.
Sir William Young, Bart., M.P.
_The following Resolutions were agreed to unanimously:_
I.--That before any measures are taken for carrying the plan into
execution, a petition be presented to his Majesty, praying that he
would be graciously pleased to grant a charter to the Institution.
II.--That an outline of the plan be laid before the Right
Honourable Mr. Pitt and his Grace the Duke of Portland.
III.--That for these purposes it is expedient to elect the
Committee of Managers.
IV.--That the following proprietors (_who have agreed to serve in
case they shall he elected_) be now elected as the _first managers_
of the Institution:
_For three years._
The Earl Spencer.
Count Rumford.
Richard Clark, Esq.
_For two years._
The Earl of Egremont.
Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.
Rich. Joseph Sulivan, Esq.
_For one year._
The Earl of Morton.
The Rt. Hon. Thomas Pelham.
Thomas Bernard, Esq.
V.--That the said managers be desired to solicit a charter for the
Institution, upon principles conformable to the Proposals which
have been printed and distributed, and (as soon as the charter is
obtained) to publish the plan for the benefit of the public, in
such manner as they shall deem most expedient; and also to take
preparatory measures for opening the Institution.
That these resolutions be inserted in the public papers.
JOS. BANKS, Chairman.
Sir Joseph Banks having quitted the chair,
Resolved,--That the thanks of the meeting be given to him for his
conduct in the chair.
After this meeting of the proprietors a meeting of the managers was
held, and the following resolutions taken:
At the first meeting of the Managers of the Institution, held at
the house of the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, in Soho Square,
Saturday, March 9, 1799,
On a motion made by Count Rumford--
I.--Resolved, That Sir Joseph Banks be requested to take the chair,
and that he do continue to preside at all future meetings of the
managers, until a charter shall have been obtained from his Majesty
for the Institution.
II.--Resolved, That all acts and deeds of the managers, in carrying
on the business of the Institution, be transacted and done in the
name of the managers of the Institution.
III.--Resolved, That at each meeting of the managers one of the
managers present be elected by a majority of those present to act
as secretary to the managers at that meeting.
IV.--Resolved, That the minutes of the proceedings of each
meeting of the managers for the despatch of the business of the
Institution, as well as all orders, resolutions, and other acts
and deeds of the managers, be signed by the person who acts as
president, and also by the person who acts as secretary at the
meeting at which such business is transacted.
V.--Resolved, That the persons present at this meeting do now
proceed to make choice of one of their number to act as secretary
at the present meeting.
VI.--Resolved, That Thomas Bernard, Esq., is duly elected to act as
secretary at the present meeting.
VII.--Resolved, That the Proposals for forming the Institution,
as published by Count Rumford, be approved and adopted by the
managers, subject, however, to such partial modifications as shall
be by them found to be necessary or useful.
VIII.--Resolved, That the Earl of Morton, the Earl Spencer,
Sir Joseph Banks, and Mr. Pelham, or any one or more of them,
be requested to lay the Proposals for forming the Institution
before his Majesty and the Royal Family, and before his Majesty’s
Ministers and the Great Officers of State.
IX.--Resolved, That the Proposals for forming the Institution be
laid before the Members of both Houses of Parliament, and also
before the members of his Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council
and the twelve Judges.
Messrs. Cadell and Davies, booksellers in the Strand, having
generously offered to make a donation to the Institution of 500
copies of the original Proposals for forming the Institution,
published by Count Rumford:--
X.--Resolved, That the thanks of the managers be given to Messrs.
Cadell and Davies for this donation; that it be accepted; and that
these 500 copies of the Proposals be distributed among such persons
as the managers may think most likely to give their assistance in
forming the Institution.
At the next meeting of managers, on March 23, Count Rumford was elected
secretary.
It was decided that ladies should be admitted as proprietors and
subscribers, and entitled to all privileges, ‘excepting only that
ladies will not be called upon to take any part in the management with
the officers of the Institution.’
And on the 30th, Mr. Bernard being secretary, the draft of the charter
was read.
On April 30 Dr. Glasse was elected honorary secretary, and Mr. Bernard
treasurer. Mr. Mellish’s house in Albemarle Street was ordered to be
bought. Count Rumford was asked to see the Rev. Mr. Farish regarding
lectures on experimental philosophy. Mr. Swan was chosen as clerk
assistant to the treasurer and secretary. Mr. Webster, a young
architect twenty-six years old, was engaged as Clerk of the Works. He
had been educated at Aberdeen, and had studied at the Royal Academy and
with an eminent architect. At this time he had also a small school for
about a dozen mechanics.
In May it was decided that the treasurer and secretary should be
entitled to assist at all the deliberations of the managers, and a
committee of expenditure was appointed.
On Wednesday, June 5, the managers first met in Albemarle Street.
In the second volume of the ‘Reports of the Society for Bettering the
Condition of the Poor,’ Mr. Bernard gives an account of the Institution
‘so far as it may be expected to affect the poor.’ He thus gives a view
of the Institution as it was intended to be, June 1, 1799: ‘Besides
having a general view to the benefit of arts and manufactures and to
the advancement of taste and science in this country, the Institution
should specifically direct itself to the improvement of the _means
of industry and of domestic comfort among the poor_. In bettering
the condition of the poor there is very little prospect of these
difficulties being removed until a _centre of action_ can be fixed, to
which persons may apply for examples, for models, and for engravings
accompanied by printed instructions, without being any longer compelled
implicitly to rely on the talents, the docility, and the conscientious
moderation of the different tradesmen who may be employed to make and
sell them.
‘A convenient house was proposed for the purpose of lectures and
experiments, and for a public exhibition of all such new and useful
inventions and improvements as are applicable to the common purposes
of life, and especially those which tend to increase the conveniences
and comforts of mankind, and to promote domestic economy and useful
industry. In the priority of introduction it was proposed that regard
should be had to the degree of public utility, and particularly as they
might benefit the general mass of the people.
‘Of the subjects of the lectures there are few which appear peculiarly
to apply to the poor. Such as those on heat, on the principles of the
warmth of clothing, and on the effects of the different temperatures of
the air on the human body.
‘The models and inventions in which the poor are most immediately
concerned will be those which may promote economy in food and fuel,
and tend to correct and purify the air in cottages and workhouses,
and which may supply means and instruments of industry on a cheap and
simple construction.
‘Thus the models to be exhibited will consist of improved fire-places
and kitchens, and of flues and louvres for supplying rooms either with
tepid or fresh air.
‘There will be small models of inventions at a very cheap price, with
engravings and explanatory descriptions useful to those who are unable
to employ the persons recommended by the Institution or to examine them
in actual and constant use at the Institution.’
Mr. Bernard’s report ends thus: ‘Though the charter is not yet
obtained, and the Institution may be considered only in its infancy,
the subscriptions already exceed 8,000_l._
‘It is not very easy to calculate what may be eventually the progress
of the Institution, and what its influence on the condition of the
poor. If it is followed up with an equal zeal and attention on the
part of the conductors, and it receives the support it merits from
the public, its effects must be extremely beneficial and important.
For, without adverting to the general advantage of a new species of
employment and amusement being afforded to the higher classes of life;
and science and useful occupation being brought into some degree of
fashion; it must be apparent to everyone that, without some such means,
the poor can never receive all that benefit and assistance which the
efforts and co-operation of many are now directed to procure for them;
and that the improvement of the domestic comfort and means of industry
in the cottage, the promotion of health, the economy and well-being of
the inhabitants of poor-houses, hospitals, manufactories, and other
public establishments will never be effectually obtained without such
an establishment as the Institution.’
It is difficult to believe that the Royal Institution of the present
day was ever intended to resemble the picture given of it in this
report.
In June the Earl of Winchester became the first president, and the
King became the patron, and he allowed the Institution to be called
Royal. At the last meeting in the month Count Rumford was authorised to
carry into effect his proposition for a repository of models, and to
employ such artisans as he might think necessary, paying according to
his discretion for their services. He was instructed to procure such
instruments and utensils as relate more immediately to the management
of fire; and he was empowered to draw 500_l._ to fit up the house for
their reception.
On July 6 he submitted to the managers a form of advertisement to be
inserted in the public papers, in order to carry out the exhibition of
models.
In September Count Rumford was requested to engage Dr. Garnett as
lecturer and scientific secretary and Editor of the Journals, with
lodgings in the house and 300_l._ emolument, with a prospect of a
gradual increase to 500_l._, provided the funds of the Institution in
future authorised this additional expenditure. A committee was formed
to prepare a lecture room on the first floor for the next winter.
Mr. Webster was appointed clerk to the treasurer and secretary, as
well as Clerk of the Works, and a long report from him was read to the
managers by Count Rumford on the formation of an industrial school for
mechanics at the Institution.
A letter written by Mr. Webster to Dr. Garnett in August 1800, and
another in 1801 to a friend, give an explanation of this proposal.
Probably August 1800.
The original object of the Institution was certainly to disseminate
knowledge in the most effectual way possible; and for this purpose,
while the higher ranks of society were amused and instructed by
lecturers on science and its too much neglected applications to the
purposes of common life, it was conceived necessary to do somewhat
in order to enlighten the minds of that class which had not enjoyed
the advantages of a liberal education, and yet whose improvement
was necessarily connected with the progress of the useful arts.
This was always considered as an object of so much importance
by Count Rumford, who has certainly had the greatest share in
establishing the Institution, that he repeatedly declared to me
when I first knew him that it was his intention to do everything in
his power to establish a school for science under the auspices of
the Institution and particularly calculated for working mechanics,
a class of men whose deficiency in knowledge proves one of the
greatest drawbacks to the progress of art. It was through the
prospect of being employed in this way, which would have been as
agreeable to my habits of thinking as useful to my interest, that I
was induced to give up the school which I then kept and the other
business in which I was engaged, and to accept of a situation and
salary in the Institution by no means equivalent to what I should
have considered myself as entitled to under other circumstances.
Later Mr. Webster wrote to a friend:
You have heard, no doubt, that I was employed as draftsman to
the Royal Institution at its first formation, and was besides
engaged by Count Rumford to take the management of a school
for mechanics which he then proposed to establish. In order to
overcome the scruples of some of the managers of the Institution
on this subject, as well as to give a specimen of my abilities
for conducting such an establishment, I addressed a paper to
Count Rumford in August 1799, in which I gave him my opinion of
the kind of school which would prove most useful to the public,
and also entered into a detail of the plan which I proposed to
follow. This paper, which the Count read at the meeting of the
managers, was highly approved of, and I had then every reason to
expect that something would be done which would be creditable to
the Institution and useful to myself. I was induced in consequence
to give up the school which I then had, and which promised to
answer pretty well. But, after remaining some time in suspense,
I found some reason to be apprehensive that those who are at the
head of an Institution which professes to be a grand and national
establishment were not altogether possessed of that liberality of
sentiment and knowledge of the subject necessary for carrying into
effect plans which can only be accomplished by those whose industry
has made them acquainted with the arts and sciences taught. In
short, I saw but little prospect of its being done in the way I
wished, and I had no desire to engage in it otherwise. I am not
certain that the plan has been entirely abandoned, but I think it
is not likely to take place.
In 1837 Webster gave the following account of the intention to form an
industrial school at the Institution:
Whilst employed as an architect, having occasion to direct various
workmen, I had observed their frequent inability to do what was
required from them through their deficient education, and that
it was no easy matter to find those who could understand either
drawings or directions; one had also frequently to contend with a
species of perverseness and conceit often the result of ignorance.
In attempting our improvements in fire-places, &c., I felt this the
more as this kind of work demanded a superior class of artificers.
Knowing from previous experience what it was possible to effect
in their improvement, I conceived the idea of giving to mechanics
for this purpose a species of scientific education suited to their
condition, and I believe I was the first person in this country who
took active steps for effecting so desirable an object. I was not
unacquainted with the political feelings of that time, but I did
not think a little learning was a dangerous thing _if judiciously
bestowed_, although without due caution it might be capable of
doing more harm than good. My idea was to make _good mechanics_,
not to force them like hot-bed plants out of the sphere in which
they are so useful.
I proposed, then, to found a school for mechanics in the house
of the Royal Institution, in which they should be taught such
principles of science as would be useful in their several
occupations, which I considered would in a great degree promote
the ‘application of science to the common purposes of life.’ In
the house of the Institution itself the men would be under the eye
of the higher classes, and anything wrong would easily be put a
stop to. With this view I wrote a long letter to Count Rumford,
detailing my views and plans. He was delighted with them, and he
read my letter to the board of managers; the idea was favourably
received, and my letter was inserted upon the Minutes of the
Institution, where of course it may be seen (Managers’ Minutes,
Sept. 14, 1799). Some difficulties were, however, suggested. It
was thought that Sir Joseph Banks, then president, would object,
and I was requested to take the minute book to him and do what
I could to win him over. I accordingly saw Sir Joseph, and, by
explaining to him how much the arts would gain by intelligent
operatives, I overcame a few political scruples which he had. At
last all objections were silenced, and everyone seemed to rejoice
in the prospect that opened of adding to the Royal Institution a
decided proof of liberal feeling. The general idea and intention
with respect to this school were published in the Journals of the
Institution;[14] and the news reached every corner of the kingdom
that the managers of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, among
whom were persons of the highest rank, instead of being adverse to
the diffusion of knowledge, had actually formed a school for the
instruction of mechanical classes.
It is saying little to assert that the Institution acquired some
popularity by this measure. It gained much not only here but all
over Europe; and in June 1801 Professor Pictet, of Geneva, the
well-known and learned editor of the ‘Bibliothèque Universelle,’ in
his published account of a tour which he made through England at
this time, speaks of it as one of the most important branches of
the Institution. It is unnecessary to enter into a detailed account
of my plan, which was, in fact, intended as an experiment. It was
generally to educate a number of mechanics sent by the proprietors
of the Institution. At first all were to learn the same elementary
principles, but afterwards they were to branch off according
to their several trades. My first intention was to instruct
bricklayers, joiners, tinmen, and ironplate workers, as those were
the trades most connected with our improvements at this time. In a
large room on the ground floor we built up for practising the men
chimneys and fire-places of all kinds in a slight manner, pulled
them down, and built up others. We fitted up improved fire-places
within, models of old-fashioned cottage chimneys, also boilers of
various kinds, and showed how smoky chimneys might be cured, &c.;
models of various culinary vessels were made from ideas of Count
Rumford, and were put in the model room for the inspection of the
public. Of the workmen to be instructed some were sent by Lord
Winchelsea, by Sir Thomas Barnard, Lady Palmerston, &c., and when
they were thought to be sufficiently instructed they returned to
the part of the country from which they had come, and practised
what they had learned and taught others. Thus by degrees a laudable
zeal was created amongst various classes of society, even the
highest, for acquiring useful knowledge and diffusing it by their
several exertions. Never was there a period when this was felt in
a stronger degree, and the establishment of the Royal Institution
ought to be considered as the commencement of a new era in the
history of science in this country. I should not here forget to
mention the then existing Society for Bettering the Condition of
the Poor, composed of men of the highest rank, such as the Bishop
of Durham, &c.; and to this Society, which met in the house of
the Royal Institution (December 23, 1799), I was made assistant
secretary for the purpose of letting me the better into their views.
It is impossible to state the whole of the good that has proceeded
from these liberal endeavours to improve society, and the country
owes more than is generally known to the benevolent spirit thus
excited.
After September 14 Count Rumford was absent until February 3. During
this time six meetings only of the managers were held, one in October,
when Sir John Hippesley brought at great length the question of the
arms of the Institution before the managers. Another meeting was on
December 23, when the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor
were granted a room for the committee meetings. The prospectus and
charter were ordered to be printed in octavo, and Dr. Garnett laid
before the managers the plan of his lectures for the following year.
Thus, then, in 1799 the Rumford Institution began in the house of Sir
Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society, and in the first year
of its life it became the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street. It had
its origin in the work which Count Rumford did for the poor in Munich,
and its primary objects were models, workshops, and useful knowledge to
benefit the poor; lectures, researches, and scientific experiments to
amuse and interest the rich and to advance science were comparatively
the secondary intentions of its founder.
In 1800 a new and very long prospectus was written by Count Rumford. It
was printed with the charter, bye-laws, and names of the proprietors
and subscribers, and published on January 23. It again said, ‘the
two chief purposes of the Institution were the speedy and general
diffusion of the knowledge of all new and useful improvements, in
whatever quarter of the world they may originate; the application of
scientific discoveries to the improvement of arts and manufactures in
this country, and to the increase of domestic comfort and convenience.’
There is a remarkable addition in May of two paragraphs to the edition
in quarto of this publication. They read as if some one had pointed out
the absence of all mention of attraction for the rich. These words were
added: ‘But, in estimating the probable usefulness of this Institution,
we must not forget the public advantages that will be derived from
the general diffusion of a spirit of experimental investigation and
improvement among the higher ranks of society. When the rich shall take
pleasure in contemplating and encouraging such mechanical improvements
as are really useful, good taste, with its inseparable companion good
morals, will revive; rational economy will become fashionable; industry
and ingenuity will be honoured and rewarded; and the pursuits of all
the various classes of society will then tend to promote the public
prosperity.’
On the 13th of January Sir J. Hippesley read to the managers a letter
proposed to be sent to every proprietor and subscriber. It stated
that the charter had been approved, and would be sealed the next seal
day; that temporary accommodation for lectures was completed; and
that Mr. Professor Garnett would lecture early in February; that the
subscribers’ rooms, containing the periodical scientific publications,
foreign and domestic, would be opened at the same time. All subscribers
were requested to pay their subscriptions immediately to Professor
Garnett, or to Mr. Webster, the clerk of the Institution, or to one of
the six bankers of the Institution.
At the end of the month Mr. Webster was ordered to prepare plans for
a new lecture room. When an old man he thus spoke of his work: ‘After
nearly forty years the theatre of the Royal Institution is pronounced
to be _the most perfect room of the kind in the kingdom_ for possessing
the properties of allowing the lecturer to be well heard and seen by
the audience, and for affording them easy entrance and exit, &c. I
have never “puffed” myself respecting it, as is very common in similar
cases, and hence, probably, my name is scarcely known as connected
with it. But I may _now_ say, “that it has been stated by Faraday, in
his late examination before a committee of the House of Commons, to be
‘almost perfect as a lecture room,’ and that ‘although architects are
continually measuring and drawing it to copy from, and many other rooms
have been built in imitation of it in which he has tried his voice, yet
none of them proved equal to that in question.’”
‘_After my designs were quite finished, and after it was resolved by
the Institution that they should be carried into execution by me_, Mr.
Saunders, then architect of the British Museum, offered his assistance
should any difficulties arise. I willingly accepted his offer, as his
name would be some sanction and security in a case where I knew I had
enemies as well as friends, and I took care to show him everything I
did in the construction of the building; but the whole of the working
drawings, even the details of the mouldings, &c., were made by my own
hand. The estimate and contract were made by me and not by Saunders,
and every person employed was under my _immediate direction_. My
designs were not in the smallest degree altered by him.
‘Soon after my designs were made they were taken away by one of the
managers (whose name I shall not mention at present) and put into
the hands of Mr. Spiller, an architect, in order that he might make
another set of designs, thereby giving him the advantage of my ideas.
This was accordingly done. His lecture room was upon the second story
and mine was upon the first. His was covered by a lofty dome highly
enriched; my ceiling was flat. His estimate was 10,000_l._; mine was
5,000_l._ His would take two years to execute; mine was to be finished
in six months. I shall pass over the unpleasant circumstances to which
this affair gave rise, my resigning my situation in the Institution,
being requested by the managers to retain it, &c., and shall only
say both the sets of designs were submitted to the members of the
Institution at their annual meeting, and _mine were_ adopted, and it
was resolved that they should be executed under my superintendence.
Mr. Spiller claimed and got, I believe, 150_l._ I received nothing
as an architect, because I was an officer of the Institution at a
very small salary, and Count Rumford had in the beginning caused a
strange regulation to be made and _printed_ “that no one should ever be
_rewarded_ by the Institution for any services which he might perform.”’
In another note he says:
‘In designing the lecture room of an institution so peculiar (unique
indeed at that time) my object was to adapt it for different ranks in
society, for any attempt to destroy all distinctions must be absurd. I
constructed a gallery intended for those who either wished to be less
observed, or who, for obvious reasons, would not like to sit down by
their employers. It was also to receive such ingenious mechanics as
had gained a title to be there. To this gallery a _separate stone
staircase led from the street_. The whole of this _was built_.’[15]
On January 15 Count Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks from Broadlands:
I certainly am in much better health than I was when I came here,
which I attribute as much to my having left off taking medicines
as to the salubrious air of the country. I think that I shall stay
here about a fortnight longer, and shall then return to Brompton,
and shall be at the disposal of the managers of the Institution for
the remainder of the winter. I am very glad indeed that you like
Webster. I am much deceived if he does not turn out to be a very
useful acquisition. I hope Dr. Garnett will do well, but I must own
that I am not as prepossessed in his favour as I am in favour of
Webster.
If more active and more useful men could be found to serve as
managers in lieu of two or three of ours who seldom or never
attend, I think it would be advisable to accept their resignation.
_One_ has _privately_ offered me to resign whenever I may wish it,
and I should think it would not be difficult to persuade two others
to follow the example. But we will talk this matter over when we
meet.
I have been very busy here for the last fortnight putting up a
public kitchen in the town of Romsey. It is now nearly finished,
and begins to attract public curiosity. As it contains a complete
well-arranged kitchen for a private family as well as cottage
fire-places, German stoves, nests of small ovens, large soup
boilers, &c., it almost deserves the name of a public repository,
and I have no doubt but it will be useful as such. If Webster were
here for a few days, he might take drawings of the whole for the
use of the Royal Institution.
A week after he wrote: ‘I am expecting the arrival of Webster every
moment. I am glad you have sent him here, for the drawings he will make
of the works that have been executed in the Romsey public kitchen will
save me much trouble (for I must have made them), and his seeing the
kitchen here will enable him to be of great use to me in directing the
works in Albemarle Street.’
On February 3 Count Rumford was again present. Doubtless the following
passage in the Managers’ Minutes refers to him: ‘The unfortunate
illness and long confinement of one of the managers, whose zeal had
been so conspicuous in the formation and success of the Institution,
was another obstacle to the commencement of many interesting
arrangements, which he necessarily considered as essential to
superintend in person.’
The same day Sir John Hippesley made a long report to the managers to
be laid before the proprietors of the Institution on the 10th.
He alluded to a proposal for private boxes in the new theatre, and
spoke of accommodating nearly 1,000 persons, and said that the floor
under the theatre was for a repository, and that the sunk floor of
the new building was designed for a complete laboratory, ‘which
unfortunately this great metropolis of the British Empire has hitherto
failed to produce, but which is an essential appendix to the Royal
Institution.’
It was proposed to raise 5,000_l._ by transferable debentures, and the
sum subscribed during the meeting was 5,200_l._
At the next meeting a building committee, consisting of Earl Morton,
Count Rumford, and Sir J. Hippesley, was appointed. The following week
this was made to include all the managers.
In this month Count Rumford went to live in the house, and the
managers resolved ‘that as long as he did so he should be required to
superintend all the works going on in the house, and to see that the
servants in the house and the different workmen employed discharge
their various duties with diligence and due decorum, and that the
proprietors, subscribers, and others who visit the Institution are
received with civility and treated with proper respect and attention.’
Sir Joseph Banks drew up the bye-laws, and Count Rumford was afterwards
asked, agreeably to a provision in the draft bye-laws, to prepare
internal regulations for conducting the business of the Institution. An
under-librarian and clerk to the managers was also appointed.
The meeting of managers on March 31 was the starting point of
the Journal of the Institution. The publication was left to the
superintendence of Rumford.
A printing press was ordered to be bought as soon as possible, and a
scientific committee of council was formed. This was to be a standing
committee ‘to examine the syllabuses of the professor of natural
philosophy and chemistry, to the end that no false scientific doctrine
might be taught at the Institution, and to superintend all the new
philosophical experiments that might be made in the house of the
Institution, and, when made, to cause to be drawn up an account of the
same for the managers and for the Royal Society of London.’
This committee consisted of Cavendish, Maskelyne, Blagden, Rennell,
Planta, Gray, Vince, Farish, and Hatchett.
The managers also decided that fourteen committees should be appointed
for the purpose of specific investigation and improvement. Persons in
no way connected with the Institution might be appointed. The chairman
and deputy chairman were to be nominated by the managers. The meetings
were to be held in the house, and the results were to be published
in the Journals. The subjects were, 1, making bread; 2, soup; 3,
cottages; 4, stoves; 5, kitchen fire-places and utensils; 6, household
furniture; 7, food for cattle; 8, cooking in ships and distilling fresh
water at sea; 9, lime-kilns; 10, fire-balls and combustible cakes; 11,
mortar and cements; 12, composition houses; 13, useful machines of all
descriptions; 14, iron founding and working and refining iron and steel.
Dr. R. J. Thornton offering to lecture on botany as connected with
agriculture, it was resolved that the cultivation of natural history
and agriculture was not included in the original plan of the Royal
Institution, and that it was not expedient to accept the offer.
On April 5 the first number of the ‘Journal of the Royal Institution
of Great Britain’ was published. It contains, 1. The proceedings of
the managers of March 31 and the report to the proprietors made on
February 10. 2. An advertisement respecting the publication of the
Journal, ‘that threepence would be the price of a number of eight
pages, and sixpence if sixteen pages; that no stated period could
then be fixed, but it is expected a number would appear as often at
least as once every fortnight.’ 3. A short account of the works now
carrying on at the house of the Institution. Mention is made of the
theatre, and under it a spacious airy semicircular repository for
receiving various useful machines which will be exhibited as models for
imitation. Immediately under the repository will be constructed a lofty
and capacious laboratory for chemical experiments. The fire-places,
the kitchen, the boilers, the ovens, the complete roaster, steamers,
and other articles of kitchen furniture on new principles were either
prepared or preparing for exhibition. An account is given of the number
of the proprietors, 248; life subscribers, 259; annual subscribers,
297; ladies, annual, 97; and a notice of the philosophical lectures for
the following week.
The second number of the Journal did not appear for nearly fourteen
months.
In May Mr. Savage was engaged as printer; and ‘a good cook for the
improvement of culinary advancement, one object, and not the least
important, for the Royal Institution.’ A resolution was passed that
as Count Rumford had, at the request of the managers, undertaken to
superintend the house, no new works should be undertaken in it, nor any
alterations made in it, nor any furniture ordered for it, or brought
into it, or placed or displaced in it unless it be with his knowledge,
and by his orders; and he was requested, whilst he continued to lodge
in the house, to superintend all the servants, to preserve order and
decorum, and to control the expenses of housekeeping. It is most
probable that this resolution was intended to control Dr. Garnett. A
printing-press was bought. Sir John Hippesley was elected treasurer.
Count Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks:
Royal Institution, May 29, 1800.
I am very sorry to find, on making inquiry of Doctor Garnett,
that your information was accurate respecting his having ascribed
the late discoveries of our friend Volta to the French. Had I
been apprised of his intention to mention this discovery at his
lectures, I should certainly have taken care that he should have
mentioned it in a proper manner; but I knew nothing of the matter
until it was too late to prevent the mistake. I have, however,
insisted on its being rectified as far as it is possible in some
future lecture, and I am promised that it will be done. I know
not from whom the Doctor procured his information respecting his
discovery, but I learnt by accident late last evening that he
borrowed the apparatus with which he exhibited the experiments at
the lecture from Mr. Howard. I dined out and did not come home till
his lecture was nearly over.
The next day Rumford wrote again:
Royal Institution, May 30, 1800.
Doctor Garnett is perfectly ready to make the following public
declaration this evening at his lecture at the Institution, or he
will say anything else on the subject in question which you may
think will be more proper for him to say to atone for his mistake
and to make amends to Professor Volta:
‘Having by mistake on Wednesday, in the course of my public
lecture, ascribed to the French philosophers a new and interesting
discovery relative to galvanism, which, on inquiry, I find belongs
to Professor Volta, of Milan, I feel it to be my duty to state this
fact in a public manner, in order that Professor Volta may not be
deprived in any degree of the honour of a discovery which so justly
belongs to him and to him alone. The first news of this discovery,
which arrived in this country in the beginning of last month, was
communicated in a letter from Professor Volta to the President of
the Royal Society, and it was in consequence of the information
contained in that letter that Dr. Carlisle, Mr. Nicholson, Mr.
Howard, and others have been enabled to construct the necessary
apparatus, and to repeat the ingenious Professor’s very interesting
experiments.’
Any alterations you may wish in the above shall be made, if you
will point them out.
In June Count Rumford reported that, in consequence of the request of
the managers, he had transmitted through the envoy of the United States
of North America to each of the philosophical societies, academies,
universities, &c., in that country a copy of the prospectus, charter,
ordinances, bye-laws, and regulations of the Royal Institution of Great
Britain.
Copies were sent to different public institutions abroad.
Dr. Garnett finished his lectures on June 10. He then wrote to the
managers to say that he proposed to go into the country, but would
at all times be ready to obey the summons of the managers if his
attendance should be wanted before the commencement of the lectures.
On June 12, 1800, Count Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks:
Royal Institution, Thursday Morning, 6 o’clock.
I hope you can make it convenient to come and give me a lift this
morning at our meeting, for I want you very much. Our treasurer[16]
has not qualified, and he does not seem to be in any hurry to do
so. I mentioned to him at our last meeting the embarrassments we
were under for the want of a treasurer to furnish money to the
new Committee of Expenditure; but he proposed, as an _expedient_,
that I should draw on Ransom and Co., who he said would not refuse
my draft. I see no reason why business should be done in this
irregular way, when it may and ought to be done in the manner
specially and clearly pointed out in our bye-laws. Our lectures are
over for this season, and Garnett is going into the country to stay
there till January next. I see no good reason why we should keep
up our present numerous and expensive establishment of servants,
especially as a great part of the house is coming down, and we
shall soon have no place in the house to lodge them.
All we can possibly want till January next are--
Our clerk of the works Webster
Our clerk Savage
Our messenger, who may act }
as porter and messenger}
And one housemaid Blanchett
This arrangement will enable us to discharge--
Dr. Garnett’s assistant Sadler
The porter Wharton
The housekeeper Mrs. Wharton
And one housemaid
If this scheme should meet with your approbation, I beg that _you_
would move the necessary resolutions to-day, and there will be more
than one difficulty removed. As soon as this disagreeable business
shall be completed, and everything in the house belonging to the
Institution delivered over to the care of those persons who are to
take and have the charge of them, my mind will be at rest, and I
can go to Harrogate and give these waters a fair trial, which, as
things are now circumstanced, would be impossible.
The expensive establishment was at once ordered to be reduced, and the
assistant to the Professor was discharged.
The agreement for building the new premises was this month sealed and
signed, the treasurer qualified, and the weekly meetings of managers
ceased to be held.
As soon as the basement of the new building was finished, it must have
been apparent that it was much too dark and low for a laboratory, and
this part of the intended plan was given up.
Many years afterwards Mr. Webster said of the present laboratory: ‘I
may perhaps just mention that the chemical laboratory in which so many
valuable discoveries have been made was not only designed and built by
me, but owes to me its very existence, for, though I inserted it in my
plans, the managers did not at first consider it necessary.’
In August Mr. Webster thus wrote to Count Rumford, who was then at
Harrogate:
I have deferred writing to you so long in expectation of being
able to send you drawings of the proposed mode of building the
laboratory. Mr. Hatchett has been several times at the Institution
and has given his opinion respecting it, from which the drawings
have been made out. There was a meeting of managers on Monday
last, at which Mr. Saunders laid before them the drawings and
an estimate of several works which he proposed to do, and which
were not included in the original contract. These are the engine
and reservoir on the staircase, the removal of the water-closet
from the place where it now stands to the roof of the laboratory;
taking down the present stack of chimneys from the great kitchen,
together with the breast-work in the kitchen which contains the
range, roasters, and oven, which he considers necessary in order
to fit up a strong closet in the managers’ room; together with a
small addition to the fitting up of the laboratory itself, which it
is proposed to do in a more complete and more expensive way than
was provided for by the contract. All these additions, Mr. Saunders
informs me, the managers approved of, and he is accordingly
preparing the necessary agreements with Mr. Hancock for executing
them.
Everything in the new building goes on briskly and well. We have
got as high as the lecture-room floor, and I expect in a month we
shall be ready for the roof. No deviation whatever has been made
from the plans, and all the works hitherto done have been executed
to the satisfaction of Mr. Saunders.
I wished to send you the drawings of the laboratory, but they not
being quite ready, I shall take the next opportunity.
In September he wrote again:
The timbers of the roof are on, and we are beginning to board
it for slating. The brickwork of the laboratory is also nearly
completed.
Hitherto I have found employment for Mr. Wincks, the model-maker;
when I had nothing else for him to do he has been at work upon the
model of the pile engine, which will now be finished in a day or
two; and, as I have not any further occasion for him to assist me,
I shall be happy if you will write whether there is anything he
might be employed upon until you come to town.
In another letter he says:
The buildings are advancing rapidly, and I hope the lecture room at
least will be ready by the 1st of January. The laboratory will, I
think, be found very convenient, being airy and well lighted.
During his stay at Harrogate Rumford made careful experiments on
himself with regard to the warm bath. These are given in his thirteenth
essay, on the ‘Salubrity of Warm Bathing.’ He found that a daily bath
at ninety-six degrees or ninety-seven for half-an-hour two hours before
dinner for five weeks increased the appetite, the digestion, the
spirits, the strength, and the insensibility to cold.
On leaving Harrogate he went to Scotland.
A visit of ceremony was paid him by the magistrates of Edinburgh; he
was consulted respecting the abolition of mendicity, and the measures
which he recommended were speedily executed with complete success.
He was made an honorary member of the Royal Society and of the Royal
College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and he received a gold snuff-box as
a compliment for his assistance in reforming the culinary establishment
of Heriot’s Hospital, and was elected a member of the Society of
Scotland for Bettering the Condition of the Poor. His letters of thanks
for these last honours are preserved.
To the Lord Provost of Edinburgh he wrote:
I shall always remember with pleasure, and with the most sincere
gratitude, the kind and flattering attentions I received in
Edinburgh during my stay there. The public honours that were
conferred on me by the corporation of the city and by the
University were highly gratifying to me; but nothing affected me so
deeply as the deference which was paid to my opinions and advice on
subjects of public utility by men in the highest stations and of
the most respectable character and abilities, and the liberality,
zeal, and perseverance with which the measures I took the liberty
to recommend were adopted and pursued.
May the important undertaking in which the inhabitants of Edinburgh
are now engaged--the prevention of that most disgusting and
disgraceful of public evils, mendicity--and the formation of a
permanent establishment for the _instruction_ and _employment_ of
the poor be completely successful, and may it serve as a model for
imitation to every city and every town in Great Britain and Ireland.
To the Rev. George Baird, Principal of the University of Edinburgh, he
wrote from the Royal Institution, March 21, 1801, thanking him for the
honour which the Society in Scotland for Bettering the Condition and
Improving the Comfort of the Poor had conferred on him by electing him
a member.
During the autumn Webster wrote to Dr. Garnett to ask if he would help
him to become his assistant. He wished this place in order to make
himself a better teacher of operatives, and to have employment when
the additional buildings were finished. Dr. Garnett, in his reply,
says ‘an operator’s time ought to be dedicated to natural philosophy.’
‘Nevertheless,’ he said, ‘the School of Mechanics might perhaps be
carried on by the operator.’ In Webster’s answer to Dr. Garnett the
position of the School of Design at the end of September 1800 is seen.
When I mentioned that teaching mechanics might probably form a
part of my employment I did not speak from any certain knowledge
on the subject, but merely because such a thing had once been in
agitation. I have now very little reason for supposing that such
a plan will be at all put in practice, but if ever it should, no
doubt the managers will take care that it shall not prove any
inconvenience to you. I could not myself engage in it upon any
other conditions. Setting that aside, therefore, as extremely
uncertain if not improbable....
At the end of the year hot-water pipes were ordered for warming the
theatre.
The chief events in the history of the Institution during the year 1800
may be thus summed up: The new theatre was built; large committees
for scientific investigation were formed; and the first number of
the Journal was published. No advance was made in the formation of a
repository for models; or in the foundation of a school of design.
The lectures of Dr. Garnett were successful, but he was refused
permission to practise his profession as a physician and to bring his
children to live at the Institution. Count Rumford himself ordered and
superintended _everything_ in the house. Early the next year there was
a visible rupture between him and Dr. Garnett regarding the prospectus
of the lectures for the season, and in June 1801 Dr. Garnett resigned.
The causes of this will be best seen by a short sketch of his life.
Dr. Thomas Garnett was born in 1766 in Westmoreland. He was apprenticed
to a medical man in the country and graduated as a physician
in Edinburgh in 1788. Dr. Brown at that time was teaching his
new theory of medicine, and Dr. Garnett became a strong Brunonian. In
an inaugural essay on Health, which was published ultimately, he showed
with great clearness how the doctrine of accumulated and exhausted
excitability could be applied to explain the movements in the body in
health and disease.
He left Edinburgh to study medicine in London, and in 1790 he went to
Bradford to practise his profession; there he gave some private lessons
in natural philosophy and chemistry.
In 1791, when twenty-five, he thought he should succeed better by
practising at Knaresborough in the winter and at Harrogate in the
summer. He analysed the waters at Harrogate, and in 1794 he built a
house there and determined to practise only at Harrogate. An engagement
to be married made him form a new plan for success. He persuaded his
intended wife reluctantly to agree to emigrate to America after their
marriage, which took place in the following year. Then he sold his
house in Harrogate and purchased apparatus for lectures on natural
philosophy and chemistry. On their way to America they went to
Liverpool. There, whilst waiting for a ship, he was persuaded to give a
course of lectures. This was successful, and he was invited to give the
same course on chemistry and experimental philosophy at Manchester. He
was still more successful, and invitations came to him from Warrington,
Lancaster, Birmingham, and Dublin. He did not give up his intention
of emigrating until he was offered the professorship in Anderson’s
Institution at Glasgow. His wife had borne him a daughter, and she
earnestly urged him to settle in Glasgow.
In November 1796, when thirty, he published the ‘Outlines of a Course
of Lectures on Natural and Experimental Philosophy.’ His subjects
were the properties of matter, astronomy, electricity, magnetism,
pneumatics, hydrostatics and hydraulics, optics and mechanics.
When the session at Glasgow was over he went to Liverpool to repeat his
course of lectures. In the autumn he returned to Glasgow and made known
his intention of practising as a physician there. Fortune continued to
favour him; his reputation increased and he soon had the best prospect
of the leading practice in Glasgow.
In 1797, when thirty-one, he published his ‘Outlines of a Course of
Lectures on Chemistry.’ His twenty-seventh lecture was on Agriculture;
his twenty-eighth on Bleaching; his twenty-ninth on Dyeing and on
Calico Printing; and his last on the Analysis of Mineral Waters.
On Christmas Day, 1798, his wife died in childbirth, and on New Year’s
Day he wrote this feeling letter:
Oh! my dear cousin, little did I expect that I should begin the
new year with telling you that I am now deprived of all earthly
comforts; yes, the dear companion of my studies, the friend of
my heart, the partner of my bosom, is now a piece of cold clay.
The senseless earth is closed on that form which was so lately
animated by every virtue, and whose only wish was to make me happy.
Is there anything which can now afford me any consolation? Yes,
she is not lost, but gone before; but still it is hard to have all
our schemes of happiness wrecked when our bark was within sight of
port. When we were promising ourselves more than common felicity
it struck upon a rock; my only treasure went to the bottom, and I
am cast ashore friendless and deprived of every comfort. My poor
dead love had been as well as usual during the two or three last
months, and even on the dreadful evening (Christmas Eve) she spoke
with pleasure of the approaching event. My spirits were elevated to
so uncommon a pitch by the birth of a lovely daughter, that they
were by no means prepared for the succeeding scene; and they have
been so overwhelmed that I sometimes hope it may be a dream out of
which I wish to awake. The little infant is well, and I have called
it Catherine, a name which must ever be dear to me, and which I
wish to be able to apply to some object whom I love; for, though it
caused the death of my hopes, it is dear to me as being the last
precious relic of her whom everybody, who knew her, esteemed, and I
loved. I must now bid adieu to every comfort and live only for the
sweet babes. Oh! ’tis hard, very hard!
THOMAS GARNETT.
In the summer of 1799 Count Rumford wrote to Dr. Garnett, to whom he
was then an entire stranger, for information regarding the nature and
economy of Anderson’s Institution and the plan of the lectures given
there. This led finally to the proposal that Dr. Garnett should become
the first lecturer at Rumford’s new Institution in London.
On October 15 Dr. Garnett informed a special meeting of the managers
of Anderson’s Institution of his wish to resign his situation in order
to go to London. When Dr. Garnett arrived, December 23, the managers of
the Royal Institution resolved that he should be styled Professor of
Natural Philosophy and Chemistry to the Royal Institution. He sent to
the board a letter from which a view of the earliest lectures at the
Institution can be obtained.
PROFESSOR GARNETT TO THE MANAGERS.
December 23, 1799.
TO THE MANAGERS OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION.--Count Rumford requested
me to arrange and put on paper my ideas concerning the plan and
economy of the Royal Institution for the perusal of the managers.
On looking over the prospectus, however, I find the plan so well
digested that I cannot make any improvement or even advantageous
alteration. I shall therefore confine myself in the following
observations to what I conceive to belong more particularly to
my department--I mean the arrangement of the lectures--and shall
propose a plan which, from experience, I think most likely to be
useful; but I propose it with the utmost deference to the opinions
of the managers, and shall be ready to make any alterations which
they may think proper to point out.
Our object ought undoubtedly to be both amusement and instruction.
We shall have two classes of auditors, the one consisting of
those who will come chiefly for amusement or because it may be
fashionable. These it is our business to amuse, while at the same
time I hope we shall be able to interest them in the subjects,
and communicate considerable knowledge without any trouble to
themselves.
For these I would propose a popular course of experimental
philosophy, in which all abstract reasoning shall be avoided, the
most entertaining and interesting experiments introduced, and the
whole calculated to afford pleasure and instruction to those who
have not had an opportunity of examining these subjects and to
refresh the memory of those who have.
On the supposition that the lectures of the Institution should open
the first week in February, if we appropriate one evening a week
to it, we can comprise this course in eighteen or twenty lectures,
each lecture to continue only an hour, that the attention may not
be fatigued.
A course of lectures on chemistry, popular and amusing, at the same
time sufficiently scientific, might be given twice a week. This
course would contain the elements of chemistry and the application
of this science to the arts and manufactures, and would be
illustrated by interesting and pleasing experiments.
For the sake of the second class of auditors, which would not at
first be the most numerous, but which would continually increase
in number, even though the auditors of the other course should
diminish--I mean those attached to scientific pursuits--I would
propose a full and scientific course of experimental philosophy
on the plan generally adopted in universities. In this course
particular attention should be paid to mechanics, hydrostatics,
hydraulics, and pneumatics, which are the most useful branches
of mechanical philosophy. The mathematical demonstration of the
propositions would first be given, next the experimental proof, and
lastly the application of each to the mechanical and chemical arts.
In this way those who could follow the mathematical demonstration
would see the coincidence between theory and experiment, and those
who could not would be satisfied with the experimental proof.
As an instance we may take one proposition.
The momentum or force of a moving body is proportioned to the
quantity of matter multiplied by its velocity; this will first be
demonstrated mathematically, then experimentally, and afterwards
applied to the explanation of mechanical powers in machinery,
projectiles, &c., illustrated by familiar examples and calculations.
If we suppose that five mornings in the week should be devoted to
this course, we shall be enabled to go through one hundred lectures
before the conclusion of the session.
It is scarcely necessary to observe that in this course opportunity
will be taken to show working models of machinery and chemical
processes in their proper places.
This would be the most useful course, and, as was before observed,
the numbers who attend it would gradually increase. At least this
was the case at Glasgow. A morning hour would probably be best for
this course.
My apparatus is elegant and good. It was made for me by the
late Mr. Adams. What the Institution will chiefly want will be
of the supplementary kind, and will not, I apprehend, cost more
than 150_l._ or 200_l._, supposing we purchase the most complete
and elegant instruments, which I would strongly advise. My own
apparatus shall be at the service of the Institution while I
continue among you, which I hope will be while I live, and it is
my intention eventually to bequeath it to the Institution. As
it will be necessary to come to an arrangement as speedily as
possible, Mr. Webster and myself, after having carefully surveyed
the house, are of opinion that the apparatus should be placed in
cases with glass doors, and that the best situation for it would
be round the large room[17] on the same floor with the lecture
room, and what could not conveniently be placed there, either on
account of their bulk or inelegant appearance, might be put in the
small room[18] adjoining to it. This would render this room very
interesting to strangers, and, even considering it as a lounging
room, it would be much better to have an elegant apparatus to look
at than bare walls. It would likewise be much the most convenient
as an apparatus and model room with respect to its vicinity to the
lecture room--a circumstance of no small importance.
With respect to a lounging room, in which persons might meet
before the lecture, or to which they could retire during the
lecture, I assume with submission that such a place should not _on
any account_ be allowed. Wherever I have had accidentally such
a convenient room in the vicinity of a lecture room I have been
obliged to lock it up; otherwise the disturbance to the company by
persons coming in and going out is intolerable. The lectures will
always begin at a certain hour to a minute. If any find themselves
a few minutes too soon, they will find an elegant lecture room,
well warmed. This will prevent their coming into the room in a body
and disturbing the audience and the lecturer after the lecture is
begun.
That matters might be put in a proper train it would, I think, be
best to agree immediately upon the arrangement of the house, and to
give Mr. Webster and myself, with one or more of the managers, the
power of seeing the arrangement executed.
I am, with much respect, your most obedient Servant,
THOS. GARNETT.
On January 6, 1800, the managers resolved that the morning lectures of
Dr. Garnett should be given on Tuesday and Thursday at two, and the
evening lectures at eight, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
The first lecture was on Tuesday, March 4. The two rooms which now
make the upper library formed the theatre. It had been fitted up to
accommodate the greatest possible number of auditors, ‘with a greater
deference to their curiosity than to their convenience.’
In the first number of the Journal of the Institution the account
of Dr. Garnett’s lectures for the week beginning April 7 shows the
arrangements that then existed.
MORNING LECTURES.--On Tuesday, the 8th, the lecture will be
on Charged Electrics and the Theory of the Leyden Phial, with
experiments. On Thursday, Respiration and Animal Heat will be
continued, with the Effects of Oxygen in the Blood. On Saturday,
on Hydrogen Gas and the Composition of Water, Sulphurated and
Phosphorated Hydrogen; and a specimen of the philosophical
fireworks with the inflammable air will be exhibited.
EVENING LECTURES.--On Monday evening, the 7th, the subject will
be Spontaneous Evaporation, Ignition, and Inflammation, with some
Remarks on Light. On Wednesday evening, the Different Powers of
Bodies as Conductors of Heat; and some Experiments with the Passage
Thermometer. The method of confining heat and applying it to useful
purposes with economy.
Friday being Good Friday, no lecture will be given on that day.
Those who come to the lectures in carriages are requested to give
orders to their coachmen to set down and take up with their horses’
heads towards Grafton Street.
A contemporary account says:
During the winter the lecture room was crowded with persons
of the first distinction and fashion, as well as by those who
had individually contributed much to the promotion of science,
and although the northern accent, which he still retained in a
slight degree, rendered his voice somewhat inharmonious to a
London audience, his modest and unaffected manner of delivering
his opinions, his familiar and at the same time elegant language
rendered him the object of almost universal kindness and
approbation.
Dr. Garnett left Glasgow with the expectation that he should have
accommodation for his family in the house of the Institution, and the
first disappointment he met with was the opposition to his wishes in
this respect. When he gave up his position in Glasgow he fully intended
to enter into practice as a physician in London, but from this also he
was restrained in great measure by the managers of the Institution.
His biographer says:
The exertions of the winter in some degree injured his health, and
the uncertainty he saw in his prospects tended greatly to depress
his spirits. He determined, however, to keep his place at the
Institution.
In the summer he rejoined his children in Westmoreland, but his
anxiety of mind was not diminished or consequently his health
improved by the relaxation from active employment. He walked over
the same ground and viewed the same prospects that he had formerly
enjoyed in the company of his wife. He had not resolution to check
the impressions as they arose, and thus, instead of being solaced
by the beauties which surrounded him, he gave the reins to his
melancholy fancy, which, unchecked by any other remembrance, dwelt
only on the affection and virtues of her whose loss he had ever
to deplore, the want of whose society he imagined to be the chief
source of his misery.
Dr. Garnett showed his own position when he answered the application of
Webster for his recommendation as chemical operator.
Kirkby-Lonsdale, September 27, 1800.
DEAR SIR,--I have received your letter, and, in answer to it, must
observe that such is my opinion of both your industry and abilities
that it would give me pleasure to serve you, and I should with the
greatest willingness recommend you to any situation for which I
knew you qualified. That you could in time qualify yourself for
the situation of operator there is not the smallest doubt, but
still it must have been evident to you that if _you_ had acted in
that capacity last year, imperfect as the lectures were, they must
have been much more so; for though I had an operator capable of
preparing any experiments that could be made, still it was with
the greatest difficulty that I could get through it. How, then,
could I have done had my time been taken up with instructing an
operator? And, having the greatest number of chemical things to
prepare, I could not have got through it with any credit to myself
or satisfaction to the managers. You are better acquainted with
the duty of an operator than you were before the commencement of
the lectures, and can therefore form some judgment concerning
the knowledge requisite and the labour which it requires. It is
unnecessary to say that an operator must give up his whole time
to it; and, as we are to have a good laboratory, it seems to me
necessary that he should be a good practical chemist, which he
cannot be without working some years in a laboratory. Sadler could
do anything in that way, and, were he a little more steady, would
be invaluable in the Institution. You say nothing what has become
of him. I was in hopes he might have been employed again next year.
Indeed, the managers ought, in my opinion, to endeavour to have an
operating chemist who would be permanent.
That you could in time do everything required I am very far from
doubting, and, should it be the wish of the managers, I shall be
far from opposing it; on the contrary, were you qualified, there
is not one person whom I should so much wish to have it. But,
before you come to a determination, you must well consider whether
you would relish the many dirty jobs to which it will subject
you as well as the labour; and, if it be still your wish and
determination, it would certainly be proper to attend an autumnal
course of lectures. If it be your intention to remain in the
Institution and to continue as operator, which probably might be
carried on along with the School of Mechanics (though of this I am
not certain, as an operator’s time ought to be dedicated to natural
philosophy), I would do all in my power to instruct you properly;
but to have the weight upon myself without the prospect of being
relieved from it another year is what I dare scarce look at.
In deciding put everything out of the question but the good of the
Institution, for unless you can promote that you cannot promote
your own by its means. You will, I hope, excuse my having spoken
thus freely on the subject which so much concerns us both; consider
it well and favour me with your sentiments again. I suppose that I
shall be in town in about a month, but I should wish to hear from
you before. There are probably some of my objections which you can
remove.
I am, dear Sir, yours sincerely,
THOS. GARNETT.
Towards the latter end of the autumn Dr. Garnett returned to the
Institution. The differences between him and the managers soon
appeared. He prepared the outlines of a course of lectures on Natural
and Experimental Philosophy, to be delivered in 1801, and he printed
this preface: ‘This pamphlet contains the outlines of the popular
course on Natural and Experimental Philosophy, delivered at the
Royal Institution every Tuesday at two o’clock during the present
session.--Royal Institution, February 2, 1801.’
At the same time he printed another pamphlet--‘Outlines of a Course of
Lectures on Chemistry delivered at the Royal Institution,’ and to it
he put this preface: ‘This work contains the outlines of the course
of chemistry delivered at the Royal Institution by the Professor of
Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, every Thursday and Saturday at two
o’clock during the present season.--Royal Institution, February 2,
1801.’
In the table of contents he gave thirty lectures, and it was almost
exactly a reprint of the table of contents of the lectures on chemistry
published by him in 1797.
There can be no doubt that Dr. Garnett printed these pamphlets, the
one of twelve and the other of two hundred and sixteen pages, without
consulting the managers; for at their meeting on February 2, 1801, they
resolved that the annual courses of philosophical and chemical lectures
at the Royal Institution should commence ‘as soon as the new theatre
can be got ready for them, and that Count Rumford be authorised to
take all such steps on the part of the managers as shall be necessary
in that business;’ and they also resolved that Sir Joseph Banks,
Henry Cavendish, and Count Rumford be a committee to superintend the
drawing up and publication of a suitable syllabus or account of the
philosophical and chemical lectures given at the Royal Institution.
They further resolved that no syllabus of lectures or other account
of what is doing or done, or to be done, at the Royal Institution,
be published by any person or persons without the permission of the
aforesaid committee, or the express leave of the managers formally
signified in writing. This last resolution shows that Count Rumford
had then probably determined that Dr. Garnett should give up his
professorship at the Royal Institution.
On February 16 the managers resolved that their resolutions of
February 2 should be communicated to Dr. Garnett, and on this day
they determined to engage Mr. Humphry Davy as Assistant Lecturer
on Chemistry. Still the managers did not decide on the removal of
Professor Garnett, for the following letter shows that Count Rumford at
this time had some conversation with him as to the terms upon which he
would give up his rooms in the house. On February 22 Dr. Garnett wrote
to Count Rumford:
SIR,--I have considered the matter you did me the honour to desire
I would deliberate upon, and I place much confidence that when
you and the other managers of the Royal Institution reflect upon
the necessary expenditure for rent, coals, and candles, domestics
and other out-goings, the sum of 100_l._ per annum will not be
considered as an improper allowance for giving up the apartments
and advantages assigned me in the house of the Institution by the
honourable managers.
You will allow me to add that I have also considered the
possibility of my residing out of the house occasioning any
inconvenience to the interests of the Institution, and that if
upon the maturest consideration I was not confident no such
inconvenience could arise, there is no personal compensation that
could tempt me to quit my residence in the house of the Institution.
It is with great deference I take the advantage at the same time
to submit to your and the other managers’ consideration whether
the funds of the Institution are in your and their judgment in a
condition to authorise any of that gradual increase of my salary
of 300_l._ which the resolution of September 14, 1799, gave me
well-founded reason to hope for, and which I now most cheerfully
and with perfect confidence beg to leave to the candour and
liberality of yourself and the managers.
I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, Sir, your very
obedient Servant,
THOS. GARNETT.
On February 23 it was resolved that the consideration of Dr. Garnett’s
letter be postponed till the annual accounts of the Institution for the
present year be made up and the state of its finances ascertained.
The lectures began in February. His biographer says: ‘The transactions
of the winter almost completely undermined his constitution. He
became sallow, listless, melancholy. A gloomy day or the smallest
disappointment gave him inconceivable distress.
‘The effect produced upon his lecturing was remarkable. Debility of
body as well as uneasiness of mind incapacitated him. His spirited
and, at the same time modest, method of delivery was changed into one
languid and hesitating. He would have resigned in the middle of his
course, and on one occasion at least Count Rumford, at a few hours’
notice, found a substitute to lecture for him.’ This was on the evening
of March 2, when with the shortest possible notice Count Rumford got
Dr. Crichton to give the lecture on account of the illness of Dr.
Garnett.
He again wrote to the managers on May 11, and on the 25th a special
meeting of the managers was held, and it was resolved that ‘the
managers, taking into consideration the two applications of Dr.
Garnett, are unanimously of opinion that they cannot agree to make any
alteration in his present salary and situation.’
On June 1 Davy was appointed Lecturer on Chemistry.
On June 15 it was resolved by the managers unanimously that Dr.
Garnett’s resignation should be accepted, that his salary up to the end
of the year should be paid to him by the Committee of Expenditure, and
that his letter of resignation should be preserved. Unfortunately this
letter does not exist now.
‘Dr. Garnett had long determined to apply himself to medical practice,
and at the same time to give private lectures, to secure that income of
which he seemed fated to be disappointed.’
In the summer of 1801 he removed to Great Marlborough Street, and
brought his family to London, and he sought for practice as a
physician. He built a lecture room; he made arrangements for editing
the ‘Annals of Philosophy, Natural History, Chemistry, Literature,
Agriculture, and Fine Arts’ for the year 1800, intending to continue
it yearly; and he prepared himself to give not less than eight courses
of lectures during the winter. At his own house he gave two courses
on Chemistry, one on Mineralogy, one on Botany, two on Experimental
Philosophy, and a private course on this subject also; he gave a course
on Botany at Brompton, and in a room at Tom’s Coffee House, in the
City, a course of popular lectures on Zoonomia, or the Laws of Animal
Life in Health and Disease. This was for the convenience of medical
students and others in that part of the town.
A return of ill health prevented him from completing some of these
courses, but he used every means to increase his private practice.
In May 1802 he was elected physician to the Marylebone Dispensary,
which he thought would bring the success which he seemed never able
to obtain. Very weak in body and not exempt from anxiety of mind, he
began the hard work of his Dispensary. He caught typhus fever from one
of the patients in June, and died on the 28th of that month.
He left his children penniless.
On August 2 Dr. Garnett’s executor, Mr. Parker, asked permission to
have the popular lectures on the Laws of Animal Life, the Zoonomia,
printed at the press of the Royal Institution, and that the printer to
the Institution, Mr. W. Savage, might receive subscriptions for the
publication of the work. The managers resolved to subscribe for the
Institution 50_l._, and in 1804, when the work was published in quarto,
they allowed it to be dedicated to them, a privilege which they refused
on many occasions afterwards. The dedication was in these words:
To the Right Honourable and Honourable the Managers of the Royal
Institution of Great Britain these Lectures, composed by a man who,
in his lifetime, was honoured by their selection as their first
lecturer, and whose infant family have since experienced their
benevolence and protection, are, with permission, dedicated by the
trustees of the subscription in favour of these orphans.
The amount of the subscription was nearly two thousand guineas.