Ill 



THE ROYAL INSTITUTION AND THE LOW- 

 TEMPERATURE RESEARCHES 



FOUNDATION AND FOUNDER 



" f^ EORGE THE THIRD, by the Grace of God King 

 V-J of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender 

 of the Faith, etc., to all to whom these presents shall 

 come, greeting. Whereas several of our loving sub- 

 jects are desirous of forming a Public Institution for 

 diffusing the knowledge and facilitating the general in- 

 troduction of Useful Mechanical Inventions and Im- 

 provements ; and for teaching, by Courses of Philosoph- 

 ical Lectures and Experiments, the Application of 

 Science to the Common Purposes of Life, we do hereby 

 give and grant" multifarious things which need not 

 here be quoted. Such are the opening words of the 

 charter with which, a little more than a century ago, 

 the Royal Institution of Great Britain came into exist- 

 ence and received its legal christening. If one reads on 

 he finds that the things thus graciously "given and 

 granted," despite all the official verbiage, amount to 

 nothing more than royal sanction and approval, but 

 doubtless that meant more in the way of assuring popu- 

 lar approval than might at first glimpse appear. So, 

 too, of the list of earls, baronets, and the like, who ap- 

 pear as officers and managers of the undertaking, and 

 who are described in the charter as " our right trusty and 



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