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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 233. 



THE BOYAL INSTITUTION. 

 The celebration of the Centenary of the 

 Royal Institution, London, which took 

 place last week, is an event of interest and 

 importance to scientific men, emphasized to 

 us, perhaps, by the fact that the founder of 

 the Institution was an American. It is a 

 somewhat curious fact that the Smithsonian 

 Institution should have been founded by an 

 Englishman and the Royal Institution by 

 an American. There has not been time for 

 an account of the exercises in connection 

 with the celebration to reach us, but ac- 

 cording to the program they were to include 

 a lecture by Lord Rayleigh on the physical 

 work of the Institution during its hundred 

 years' existence and a lecture by Professor 

 Dewar on its chemical work. The attend- 

 ance of a large number of foreign delegates 

 had been assured. In the meanwhile we 

 take from the London Times the following 

 facts regarding the history and scope of the 

 Institution. 



It was founded bj^ Sir Benjamin Thomp- 

 son, or, as he preferred to call himself, 

 Count Rumford in the Holy Roman Em- 

 pire, and was an offshoot or extension of a 

 Society for Bettering the Condition and In- 

 creasing the Comforts of the Poor, formed 

 in 1796, according to the proposals of that 

 somewhat eccentric genius. His ideas on 

 the matter were formally submitted to a 

 select committee of that Society, which re- 

 ported in their favor on February 1, 1799. 

 The next step was to circulate a definite 

 outline of the scheme among people who 

 were thought likely to subscribe to the 

 undertaking, and so successful was their 

 appeal to the public that 58 of the ' most 

 respectable names ' were obtained in a few 

 weeks. On March 7th these original sub- 

 scribers of 50 guineas each met at the house 

 of Sir Joseph Banks, then President of the 

 Royal Society, and elected a committee of 

 managers, who were desired to take pre- 

 paratory measures for opening the Institu- 



tion, and in particular to solicit the King 

 for the grant of a royal charter, which was 

 obtained early the next year. Less than 

 two months later the purchase was ordered 

 of Mr. Mellish's house in Albemarle Street, 

 and on June 5th the managers held their 

 first meeting on the premises, which have 

 ever since remained the home of the Royal 

 Institution. 



This, as may easily be inferred from the 

 circumstances of its origin, was in the con- 

 ception of Rumford a very different style of 

 place from what it subsequently became. 

 It was, in fact, nothing but a glorified me- 

 chanics' institute, its objects being, as de- 

 fined in his proposals, the speedy and gen- 

 eral diffusion of the knowledge of all 

 new and useful improvements, and teach- 

 ing the application of scientific discoveries 

 to the improvement of arts and manu- 

 factures and to the increase of domestic 

 comfort and convenience. The first was to 

 be attained by the public exhibition, pref- 

 erably in actual operation, of useful inven- 

 tions applicable to the common purposes of 

 life. A perusal of the detailed measures 

 by which this end was to be achieved al- 

 most makes the reader suspect that in the 

 Count's view salvation was to come by 

 cooking. His list of the things to be shown 

 in the repositories, indeed, includes models 

 of • that most curious and most useful ma- 

 chine, the steam engine,' of ventilators, 

 lime-kilns, spinning wheels and looms, agri- 

 cultural implements, bridges of various con- 

 struction, etc., but the place of honor is 

 given to stoves of all sorts and to the ' most 

 perfect models of the full size ' of kitchens 

 and utensils suitable for a cottage, a farm- 

 house and the family of a gentleman of 

 fortune, respectively. The Institution, too, 

 had not been in existence for a year when 

 a good cook was engaged for the " improve- 

 ment of culinary advancement, one object 

 and not the least important for the Royal 

 Institution," while another of Rumford's 



