Hn^al Snstituttatt 0f (BuBt IBrifent. ^*"* *'\o 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETINGl/-^. ^a#3:>' cO^ 

 Friday, January 17, 1908. ^'i^:$:^J>^ 



George Matthey, Esq., F.R.S., Manager, in the Chair. 

 Professor T. E. Thorpe, C.B. Ph.D. LL.D. D.Sc. F.R.S. M.R.L 



The Centenary of Davifs Discovery of the Metals of 

 the Alkalis. 



A hundred years ago last October, there happened one of those 

 events to which the term epoch-making may, without cavil or question, 

 be fittingly applied. 



As it was an occurrence with which the name and fame of the 

 Royal Institution are inseparably bound up, the Managers have 

 thought it only proper tliat its centenary should not pass unnoticed 

 here, and it is by their wish, therefore, that I appear on this the first 

 possible opportunity after the actual date of its hundredth anniversary 

 to give you some account of it, and to state, so far as I am able and 

 within the limits of an hour, the fruitful consequences that have 

 flowed from it. 



Let me, in the first place, attempt to recall the circumstances 

 which led up to that cardinal discovery of which to-nient we celebrate 

 the centenary. These are connected partly with tie Institution 

 itself, and partly with the state of science in the early years of the 

 19th century. 



In the year 1807 this Institution was entering upon the eighth 

 year of its existence. As you doul)tless know, the Royal Institution 

 grew out of a proposal to deal with the question of the unemployed — 

 namely, by forming in London by private subscription an establishment 

 for feeding the poor and giving tliem useful employment, and also for 

 furnishing food at a cheap rate to others who may stand in need of 

 such assistance, connected with an institution for introducing and 

 bringing forward into general use new inventions and improvements, 

 particularly such as relate to the management of heat and the saving 

 of fuel, and to various other mechanical contrivances by which 

 domestic comfort and economy may be promoted. Such was the 

 original prospectus, but, like many other prospectuses, it failed to 

 equal the promise its projectors held out. 



Eventually the promoters decided, on the initiation of Count 

 Rumf ord, that the Associated Institution would, as they expressed it, 

 be " too conspicuous and too interesting and important, to be made 

 an appendix to any other existing establishment," and therefore it 

 ought to stand alone, on its own proper basis. 



Vol. XIX. (No. 102) b 



