44 Master Minds of Modern Science 



of France and the Lincei of Italy. It is a scientific club 

 with a very large membership, and is housed in a fine 

 building at the top of Albemarle Street, Piccadilly. 



The lecture-theatre is well known to schoolboys be- 

 cause of the Christmas lectures given there. In 1929 

 this theatre was pulled down, and it is now being re- 

 built. 



The Royal Institution was founded in 1799 by Ben- 

 jamin Thompson, Count von Rumford, who wrote a 

 pamphlet entitled : Proposals for forming by Subscrip- 

 tion 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 Course of Philosophical 

 Lectures and Experiments the Application of Science to the 

 Common Purposes of Life. 



Count von Rumford's idea was to bring Science and Art 

 closer together, to have a place where scientists and people 

 engaged in manufactures could meet, and where they 

 might join in improving farming, commerce, and comfort 

 in the home. What was in his mind was the idea of a 

 great central school of Science combined with an institute 

 of engineering. He suggested that there should be models 

 of such things as fireplaces, kitchen utensils, laundry 

 appliances, brewers' boilers, distillers' coppers, limekilns, 

 spinning-wheels, and all sorts of ploughs and farming 

 implements. 



He suggested lectures on such subjects as the manage- 

 ment of domestic fires, preserving ice for summer use, the 

 tanning of leather, and many other useful and practical 

 subjects. His ideas were so well received that at the first 

 meeting, presided over by Sir Joseph Banks, he had fifty 

 subscribers of fifty guineas each, and it was decided that 

 the annual subscription should be two guineas. A house 

 was taken in Albemarle Street, and in 1800 the Institution 

 received a Royal Charter. 



