146 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III. 



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 inspec- 

 tion 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 dif- 

 fusing 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 consi- 

 dered as the commencement of a new era in the history of 

 science in this country. I should not here forget to men- 

 tion 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. 



