114 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III. 



CHAPTER III. 



EARLY HISTORY OP 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 im- 

 provements as being purely mechanical, or as depending on 

 the perfection of machinery and address in the manage- 

 ment 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 011 the means that 

 might be employed with advantage to diffuse the knowledge 

 and facilitate the general introduction of such improve- 

 ments ; and the plan which is now submitted to the public 

 was tho ivsult ot'tlirso 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 con- 

 tent 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 





