THEROYAL INSTITUTION.
LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
THE
ROYAL INSTITUTION:
ITS FOUNDER
and
ITS FIRST PROFESSORS.
BY
DR. BENCE JONES,
HONORARY SECRETARY.
LONDON:
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1871.
PREFACE.
I begin the history of the Royal Institution, and itsprofessors to the time of Faraday, with the life ofits founder, Count Rumford, because his career andcharacter determined its original form. I have writtenshort accounts of the earliest professors because thespirit that has shown itself in them has up to this timebeen the life of the Institution. Dr. Garnett andDr. Thomas Young had comparatively little influencethere, because the founder took the most active partin the establishment of his Institution; but whenCount Rumford and Sir Joseph Banks had left andMr. Bernard and Sir John Hippesley were the leadingmanagers, Professor Davy gradually became themain supporter of the place, and to him chiefly it owesthe form which it now retains.
During the last half-century the name of Faradayhas been so blended with that of the Royal Institutionthat few people know what Davy made it; and fewerstill have heard what Rumford at first intended itto be.
The following account will show that the Institution[Pg vi]owes its origin entirely to Rumford, and would certainlyhave failed but for Davy. Moreover, it will be seen thatbefore Faraday came there, it had been the home of Dr.Garnett and of Dr. Thomas Young; Dr. Dalton hadlodged and lectured for weeks there; Sydney Smith,Coleridge, Sir James Smith, Dibden, Dr. Crotch,Campbell, Landseer, Opie, and Flaxman had alsolectured there; Sir Joseph Banks and Mr. Cavendishhad been managers, and Dr. Wollaston and Dr. Jennerhad been members.
I have searched everywhere to find new or forgottenfacts about the Institution.
For the sketch of the founder I owe much to theRev. Dr. G. E. Ellis, of Boston, who has lately writtenthe Life of Rumford for the American Academy of Artsand Sciences. I have found many despatches andletters relating to Rumford in the manuscripts of theAmerican War now in the library of the Royal Institution,and in the unpublished correspondence of SirJoseph Banks, in the archives of the Foreign Office,and in the State Paper Office.
Not the least strange fact in the history of thisoriginal man is that during his life he received nothanks for all that he did for the Royal Institution.Moreover at the present time he is scarcely known asthe finder of Davy and the founder of that place wherevery many of the greatest scientific discoveries of thiscentury have been made.
For the account of the origin and progress of theInstitution I have searched the minutes of the meetingsof the managers, the proprietors, and the members.I am much indebted to Earl Spencer, who haslent me from the Althorp library a printed copy ofthe first prospectus of the Royal