Chapter III (2)

I proposed, then, to found a school for mechanics in the house
of the Royal Institution, in which they should be taught such
principles of science as would be useful in their several
occupations, which I considered would in a great degree promote
the ‘application of science to the common purposes of life.’ In
the house of the Institution itself the men would be under the eye
of the higher classes, and anything wrong would easily be put a
stop to. With this view I wrote a long letter to Count Rumford,
detailing my views and plans. He was delighted with them, and he
read my letter to the board of managers; the idea was favourably
received, and my letter was inserted upon the Minutes of the
Institution, where of course it may be seen (Managers’ Minutes,
Sept. 14, 1799). Some difficulties were, however, suggested. It
was thought that Sir Joseph Banks, then president, would object,
and I was requested to take the minute book to him and do what
I could to win him over. I accordingly saw Sir Joseph, and, by
explaining to him how much the arts would gain by intelligent
operatives, I overcame a few political scruples which he had. At
last all objections were silenced, and everyone seemed to rejoice
in the prospect that opened of adding to the Royal Institution a
decided proof of liberal feeling. The general idea and intention
with respect to this school were published in the Journals of the
Institution;[14] and the news reached every corner of the kingdom
that the managers of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, among
whom were persons of the highest rank, instead of being adverse to
the diffusion of knowledge, had actually formed a school for the
instruction of mechanical classes.

It is saying little to assert that the Institution acquired some
popularity by this measure. It gained much not only here but all
over Europe; and in June 1801 Professor Pictet, of Geneva, the
well-known and learned editor of the ‘Bibliothèque Universelle,’ in
his published account of a tour which he made through England at
this time, speaks of it as one of the most important branches of
the Institution. It is unnecessary to enter into a detailed account
of my plan, which was, in fact, intended as an experiment. It was
generally to educate a number of mechanics sent by the proprietors
of the Institution. At first all were to learn the same elementary
principles, but afterwards they were to branch off according
to their several trades. My first intention was to instruct
bricklayers, joiners, tinmen, and ironplate workers, as those were
the trades most connected with our improvements at this time. In a
large room on the ground floor we built up for practising the men
chimneys and fire-places of all kinds in a slight manner, pulled
them down, and built up others. We fitted up improved fire-places
within, models of old-fashioned 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 inspection 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 diffusing 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 considered as the commencement of a new era in the
history of science in this country. I should not here forget to
mention 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. The prospectus and charter were ordered to be printed in octavo, and Dr. Garnett laid before the managers the plan of his lectures for the following year.

Thus, then, in 1799 the Rumford Institution began in the house of Sir Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society, and in the first year of its life it became the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street. It had its origin in the work which Count Rumford did for the poor in Munich, and its primary objects were models, workshops, and useful knowledge to benefit the poor; lectures, researches, and scientific experiments to amuse and interest the rich and to advance science were comparatively the secondary intentions of its founder.

In 1800 a new and very long prospectus was written by Count Rumford. It was printed with the charter, bye-laws, and names of the proprietors and subscribers, and published on January 23. It again said, ‘the two chief purposes of the Institution were the speedy and general diffusion of the knowledge of all new and useful improvements, in whatever quarter of the world they may originate; the application of scientific discoveries to the improvement of arts and manufactures in this country, and to the increase of domestic comfort and convenience.’ There is a remarkable addition in May of two paragraphs to the edition in quarto of this publication. They read as if some one had pointed out the absence of all mention of attraction for the rich. These words were added: ‘But, in estimating the probable usefulness of this Institution, we must not forget the public advantages that will be derived from the general diffusion of a spirit of experimental investigation and improvement among the higher ranks of society. When the rich shall take pleasure in contemplating and encouraging such mechanical improvements as are really useful, good taste, with its inseparable companion good morals, will revive; rational economy will become fashionable; industry and ingenuity will be honoured and rewarded; and the pursuits of all the various classes of society will then tend to promote the public prosperity.’

On the 13th of January Sir J. Hippesley read to the managers a letter proposed to be sent to every proprietor and subscriber. It stated that the charter had been approved, and would be sealed the next seal day; that temporary accommodation for lectures was completed; and that Mr. Professor Garnett would lecture early in February; that the subscribers’ rooms, containing the periodical scientific publications, foreign and domestic, would be opened at the same time. All subscribers were requested to pay their subscriptions immediately to Professor Garnett, or to Mr. Webster, the clerk of the Institution, or to one of the six bankers of the Institution.

At the end of the month Mr. Webster was ordered to prepare plans for a new lecture room. When an old man he thus spoke of his work: ‘After nearly forty years the theatre of the Royal Institution is pronounced to be _the most perfect room of the kind in the kingdom_ for possessing the properties of allowing the lecturer to be well heard and seen by the audience, and for affording them easy entrance and exit, &c. I have never “puffed” myself respecting it, as is very common in similar cases, and hence, probably, my name is scarcely known as connected with it. But I may _now_ say, “that it has been stated by Faraday, in his late examination before a committee of the House of Commons, to be ‘almost perfect as a lecture room,’ and that ‘although architects are continually measuring and drawing it to copy from, and many other rooms have been built in imitation of it in which he has tried his voice, yet none of them proved equal to that in question.’”

‘_After my designs were quite finished, and after it was resolved by the Institution that they should be carried into execution by me_, Mr. Saunders, then architect of the British Museum, offered his assistance should any difficulties arise. I willingly accepted his offer, as his name would be some sanction and security in a case where I knew I had enemies as well as friends, and I took care to show him everything I did in the construction of the building; but the whole of the working drawings, even the details of the mouldings, &c., were made by my own hand. The estimate and contract were made by me and not by Saunders, and every person employed was under my _immediate direction_. My designs were not in the smallest degree altered by him.

‘Soon after my designs were made they were taken away by one of the managers (whose name I shall not mention at present) and put into the hands of Mr. Spiller, an architect, in order that he might make another set of designs, thereby giving him the advantage of my ideas. This was accordingly done. His lecture room was upon the second story and mine was upon the first. His was covered by a lofty dome highly enriched; my ceiling was flat. His estimate was 10,000_l._; mine was 5,000_l._ His would take two years to execute; mine was to be finished in six months. I shall pass over the unpleasant circumstances to which this affair gave rise, my resigning my situation in the Institution, being requested by the managers to retain it, &c., and shall only say both the sets of designs were submitted to the members of the Institution at their annual meeting, and _mine were_ adopted, and it was resolved that they should be executed under my superintendence. Mr. Spiller claimed and got, I believe, 150_l._ I received nothing as an architect, because I was an officer of the Institution at a very small salary, and Count Rumford had in the beginning caused a strange regulation to be made and _printed_ “that no one should ever be _rewarded_ by the Institution for any services which he might perform.”’

In another note he says:

‘In designing the lecture room of an institution so peculiar (unique indeed at that time) my object was to adapt it for different ranks in society, for any attempt to destroy all distinctions must be absurd. I constructed a gallery intended for those who either wished to be less observed, or who, for obvious reasons, would not like to sit down by their employers. It was also to receive such ingenious mechanics as had gained a title to be there. To this gallery a _separate stone staircase led from the street_. The whole of this _was built_.’[15]

On January 15 Count Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks from Broadlands:

I certainly am in much better health than I was when I came here,
which I attribute as much to my having left off taking medicines
as to the salubrious air of the country. I think that I shall stay
here about a fortnight longer, and shall then return to Brompton,
and shall be at the disposal of the managers of the Institution for
the remainder of the winter. I am very glad indeed that you like
Webster. I am much deceived if he does not turn out to be a very
useful acquisition. I hope Dr. Garnett will do well, but I must own
that I am not as prepossessed in his favour as I am in favour of
Webster.

If more active and more useful men could be found to serve as
managers in lieu of two or three of ours who seldom or never
attend, I think it would be advisable to accept their resignation.
_One_ has _privately_ offered me to resign whenever I may wish it,
and I should think it would not be difficult to persuade two others
to follow the example. But we will talk this matter over when we
meet.

I have been very busy here for the last fortnight putting up a
public kitchen in the town of Romsey. It is now nearly finished,
and begins to attract public curiosity. As it contains a complete
well-arranged kitchen for a private family as well as cottage
fire-places, German stoves, nests of small ovens, large soup
boilers, &c., it almost deserves the name of a public repository,
and I have no doubt but it will be useful as such. If Webster were
here for a few days, he might take drawings of the whole for the
use of the Royal Institution.

A week after he wrote: ‘I am expecting the arrival of Webster every moment. I am glad you have sent him here, for the drawings he will make of the works that have been executed in the Romsey public kitchen will save me much trouble (for I must have made them), and his seeing the kitchen here will enable him to be of great use to me in directing the works in Albemarle Street.’

On February 3 Count Rumford was again present. Doubtless the following passage in the Managers’ Minutes refers to him: ‘The unfortunate illness and long confinement of one of the managers, whose zeal had been so conspicuous in the formation and success of the Institution, was another obstacle to the commencement of many interesting arrangements, which he necessarily considered as essential to superintend in person.’

The same day Sir John Hippesley made a long report to the managers to be laid before the proprietors of the Institution on the 10th.

He alluded to a proposal for private boxes in the new theatre, and spoke of accommodating nearly 1,000 persons, and said that the floor under the theatre was for a repository, and that the sunk floor of the new building was designed for a complete laboratory, ‘which unfortunately this great metropolis of the British Empire has hitherto failed to produce, but which is an essential appendix to the Royal Institution.’

It was proposed to raise 5,000_l._ by transferable debentures, and the sum subscribed during the meeting was 5,200_l._

At the next meeting a building committee, consisting of Earl Morton, Count Rumford, and Sir J. Hippesley, was appointed. The following week this was made to include all the managers.

In this month Count Rumford went to live in the house, and the managers resolved ‘that as long as he did so he should be required to superintend all the works going on in the house, and to see that the servants in the house and the different workmen employed discharge their various duties with diligence and due decorum, and that the proprietors, subscribers, and others who visit the Institution are received with civility and treated with proper respect and attention.’

Sir Joseph Banks drew up the bye-laws, and Count Rumford was afterwards asked, agreeably to a provision in the draft bye-laws, to prepare internal regulations for conducting the business of the Institution. An under-librarian and clerk to the managers was also appointed.

The meeting of managers on March 31 was the starting point of the Journal of the Institution. The publication was left to the superintendence of Rumford.

A printing press was ordered to be bought as soon as possible, and a scientific committee of council was formed. This was to be a standing committee ‘to examine the syllabuses of the professor of natural philosophy and chemistry, to the end that no false scientific doctrine might be taught at the Institution, and to superintend all the new philosophical experiments that might be made in the house of the Institution, and, when made, to cause to be drawn up an account of the same for the managers and for the Royal Society of London.’

This committee consisted of Cavendish, Maskelyne, Blagden, Rennell, Planta, Gray, Vince, Farish, and Hatchett.

The managers also decided that fourteen committees should be appointed for the purpose of specific investigation and improvement. Persons in no way connected with the Institution might be appointed. The chairman and deputy chairman were to be nominated by the managers. The meetings were to be held in the house, and the results were to be published in the Journals. The subjects were, 1, making bread; 2, soup; 3, cottages; 4, stoves; 5, kitchen fire-places and utensils; 6, household furniture; 7, food for cattle; 8, cooking in ships and distilling fresh water at sea; 9, lime-kilns; 10, fire-balls and combustible cakes; 11, mortar and cements; 12, composition houses; 13, useful machines of all descriptions; 14, iron founding and working and refining iron and steel.

Dr. R. J. Thornton offering to lecture on botany as connected with agriculture, it was resolved that the cultivation of natural history and agriculture was not included in the original plan of the Royal Institution, and that it was not expedient to accept the offer.

On April 5 the first number of the ‘Journal of the Royal Institution of Great Britain’ was published. It contains, 1. The proceedings of the managers of March 31 and the report to the proprietors made on February 10. 2. An advertisement respecting the publication of the Journal, ‘that threepence would be the price of a number of eight pages, and sixpence if sixteen pages; that no stated period could then be fixed, but it is expected a number would appear as often at least as once every fortnight.’ 3. A short account of the works now carrying on at the house of the Institution. Mention is made of the theatre, and under it a spacious airy semicircular repository for receiving various useful machines which will be exhibited as models for imitation. Immediately under the repository will be constructed a lofty and capacious laboratory for chemical experiments. The fire-places, the kitchen, the boilers, the ovens, the complete roaster, steamers, and other articles of kitchen furniture on new principles were either prepared or preparing for exhibition. An account is given of the number of the proprietors, 248; life subscribers, 259; annual subscribers, 297; ladies, annual, 97; and a notice of the philosophical lectures for the following week.

The second number of the Journal did not appear for nearly fourteen months.

In May Mr. Savage was engaged as printer; and ‘a good cook for the improvement of culinary advancement, one object, and not the least important, for the Royal Institution.’ A resolution was passed that as Count Rumford had, at the request of the managers, undertaken to superintend the house, no new works should be undertaken in it, nor any alterations made in it, nor any furniture ordered for it, or brought into it, or placed or displaced in it unless it be with his knowledge, and by his orders; and he was requested, whilst he continued to lodge in the house, to superintend all the servants, to preserve order and decorum, and to control the expenses of housekeeping. It is most probable that this resolution was intended to control Dr. Garnett. A printing-press was bought. Sir John Hippesley was elected treasurer.

Count Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks:

Royal Institution, May 29, 1800.

I am very sorry to find, on making inquiry of Doctor Garnett,
that your information was accurate respecting his having ascribed
the late discoveries of our friend Volta to the French. Had I
been apprised of his intention to mention this discovery at his
lectures, I should certainly have taken care that he should have
mentioned it in a proper manner; but I knew nothing of the matter
until it was too late to prevent the mistake. I have, however,
insisted on its being rectified as far as it is possible in some
future lecture, and I am promised that it will be done. I know
not from whom the Doctor procured his information respecting his
discovery, but I learnt by accident late last evening that he
borrowed the apparatus with which he exhibited the experiments at
the lecture from Mr. Howard. I dined out and did not come home till
his lecture was nearly over.

The next day Rumford wrote again:

Royal Institution, May 30, 1800.

Doctor Garnett is perfectly ready to make the following public
declaration this evening at his lecture at the Institution, or he
will say anything else on the subject in question which you may
think will be more proper for him to say to atone for his mistake
and to make amends to Professor Volta:

‘Having by mistake on Wednesday, in the course of my public
lecture, ascribed to the French philosophers a new and interesting
discovery relative to galvanism, which, on inquiry, I find belongs
to Professor Volta, of Milan, I feel it to be my duty to state this
fact in a public manner, in order that Professor Volta may not be
deprived in any degree of the honour of a discovery which so justly
belongs to him and to him alone. The first news of this discovery,
which arrived in this country in the beginning of last month, was
communicated in a letter from Professor Volta to the President of
the Royal Society, and it was in consequence of the information
contained in that letter that Dr. Carlisle, Mr. Nicholson, Mr.
Howard, and others have been enabled to construct the necessary
apparatus, and to repeat the ingenious Professor’s very interesting
experiments.’

Any alterations you may wish in the above shall be made, if you
will point them out.

In June Count Rumford reported that, in consequence of the request of the managers, he had transmitted through the envoy of the United States of North America to each of the philosophical societies, academies, universities, &c., in that country a copy of the prospectus, charter, ordinances, bye-laws, and regulations of the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

Copies were sent to different public institutions abroad.

Dr. Garnett finished his lectures on June 10. He then wrote to the managers to say that he proposed to go into the country, but would at all times be ready to obey the summons of the managers if his attendance should be wanted before the commencement of the lectures.

On June 12, 1800, Count Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks:

Royal Institution, Thursday Morning, 6 o’clock.

I hope you can make it convenient to come and give me a lift this
morning at our meeting, for I want you very much. Our treasurer[16]
has not qualified, and he does not seem to be in any hurry to do
so. I mentioned to him at our last meeting the embarrassments we
were under for the want of a treasurer to furnish money to the
new Committee of Expenditure; but he proposed, as an _expedient_,
that I should draw on Ransom and Co., who he said would not refuse
my draft. I see no reason why business should be done in this
irregular way, when it may and ought to be done in the manner
specially and clearly pointed out in our bye-laws. Our lectures are
over for this season, and Garnett is going into the country to stay
there till January next. I see no good reason why we should keep
up our present numerous and expensive establishment of servants,
especially as a great part of the house is coming down, and we
shall soon have no place in the house to lodge them.

All we can possibly want till January next are--

Our clerk of the works Webster

Our clerk Savage

Our messenger, who may act }
as porter and messenger}

And one housemaid Blanchett

This arrangement will enable us to discharge--

Dr. Garnett’s assistant Sadler

The porter Wharton

The housekeeper Mrs. Wharton

And one housemaid

If this scheme should meet with your approbation, I beg that _you_
would move the necessary resolutions to-day, and there will be more
than one difficulty removed. As soon as this disagreeable business
shall be completed, and everything in the house belonging to the
Institution delivered over to the care of those persons who are to
take and have the charge of them, my mind will be at rest, and I
can go to Harrogate and give these waters a fair trial, which, as
things are now circumstanced, would be impossible.

The expensive establishment was at once ordered to be reduced, and the assistant to the Professor was discharged.

The agreement for building the new premises was this month sealed and signed, the treasurer qualified, and the weekly meetings of managers ceased to be held.

As soon as the basement of the new building was finished, it must have been apparent that it was much too dark and low for a laboratory, and this part of the intended plan was given up.

Many years afterwards Mr. Webster said of the present laboratory: ‘I may perhaps just mention that the chemical laboratory in which so many valuable discoveries have been made was not only designed and built by me, but owes to me its very existence, for, though I inserted it in my plans, the managers did not at first consider it necessary.’

In August Mr. Webster thus wrote to Count Rumford, who was then at Harrogate:

I have deferred writing to you so long in expectation of being
able to send you drawings of the proposed mode of building the
laboratory. Mr. Hatchett has been several times at the Institution
and has given his opinion respecting it, from which the drawings
have been made out. There was a meeting of managers on Monday
last, at which Mr. Saunders laid before them the drawings and
an estimate of several works which he proposed to do, and which
were not included in the original contract. These are the engine
and reservoir on the staircase, the removal of the water-closet
from the place where it now stands to the roof of the laboratory;
taking down the present stack of chimneys from the great kitchen,
together with the breast-work in the kitchen which contains the
range, roasters, and oven, which he considers necessary in order
to fit up a strong closet in the managers’ room; together with a
small addition to the fitting up of the laboratory itself, which it
is proposed to do in a more complete and more expensive way than
was provided for by the contract. All these additions, Mr. Saunders
informs me, the managers approved of, and he is accordingly
preparing the necessary agreements with Mr. Hancock for executing
them.

Everything in the new building goes on briskly and well. We have
got as high as the lecture-room floor, and I expect in a month we
shall be ready for the roof. No deviation whatever has been made
from the plans, and all the works hitherto done have been executed
to the satisfaction of Mr. Saunders.

I wished to send you the drawings of the laboratory, but they not
being quite ready, I shall take the next opportunity.

In September he wrote again:

The timbers of the roof are on, and we are beginning to board
it for slating. The brickwork of the laboratory is also nearly
completed.

Hitherto I have found employment for Mr. Wincks, the model-maker;
when I had nothing else for him to do he has been at work upon the
model of the pile engine, which will now be finished in a day or
two; and, as I have not any further occasion for him to assist me,
I shall be happy if you will write whether there is anything he
might be employed upon until you come to town.

In another letter he says:

The buildings are advancing rapidly, and I hope the lecture room at
least will be ready by the 1st of January. The laboratory will, I
think, be found very convenient, being airy and well lighted.

During his stay at Harrogate Rumford made careful experiments on himself with regard to the warm bath. These are given in his thirteenth essay, on the ‘Salubrity of Warm Bathing.’ He found that a daily bath at ninety-six degrees or ninety-seven for half-an-hour two hours before dinner for five weeks increased the appetite, the digestion, the spirits, the strength, and the insensibility to cold.

On leaving Harrogate he went to Scotland.

A visit of ceremony was paid him by the magistrates of Edinburgh; he was consulted respecting the abolition of mendicity, and the measures which he recommended were speedily executed with complete success.

He was made an honorary member of the Royal Society and of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and he received a gold snuff-box as a compliment for his assistance in reforming the culinary establishment of Heriot’s Hospital, and was elected a member of the Society of Scotland for Bettering the Condition of the Poor. His letters of thanks for these last honours are preserved.

To the Lord Provost of Edinburgh he wrote:

I shall always remember with pleasure, and with the most sincere
gratitude, the kind and flattering attentions I received in
Edinburgh during my stay there. The public honours that were
conferred on me by the corporation of the city and by the
University were highly gratifying to me; but nothing affected me so
deeply as the deference which was paid to my opinions and advice on
subjects of public utility by men in the highest stations and of
the most respectable character and abilities, and the liberality,
zeal, and perseverance with which the measures I took the liberty
to recommend were adopted and pursued.

May the important undertaking in which the inhabitants of Edinburgh
are now engaged--the prevention of that most disgusting and
disgraceful of public evils, mendicity--and the formation of a
permanent establishment for the _instruction_ and _employment_ of
the poor be completely successful, and may it serve as a model for
imitation to every city and every town in Great Britain and Ireland.

To the Rev. George Baird, Principal of the University of Edinburgh, he wrote from the Royal Institution, March 21, 1801, thanking him for the honour which the Society in Scotland for Bettering the Condition and Improving the Comfort of the Poor had conferred on him by electing him a member.

During the autumn Webster wrote to Dr. Garnett to ask if he would help him to become his assistant. He wished this place in order to make himself a better teacher of operatives, and to have employment when the additional buildings were finished. Dr. Garnett, in his reply, says ‘an operator’s time ought to be dedicated to natural philosophy.’ ‘Nevertheless,’ he said, ‘the School of Mechanics might perhaps be carried on by the operator.’ In Webster’s answer to Dr. Garnett the position of the School of Design at the end of September 1800 is seen.

When I mentioned that teaching mechanics might probably form a
part of my employment I did not speak from any certain knowledge
on the subject, but merely because such a thing had once been in
agitation. I have now very little reason for supposing that such
a plan will be at all put in practice, but if ever it should, no
doubt the managers will take care that it shall not prove any
inconvenience to you. I could not myself engage in it upon any
other conditions. Setting that aside, therefore, as extremely
uncertain if not improbable....

At the end of the year hot-water pipes were ordered for warming the theatre.

The chief events in the history of the Institution during the year 1800 may be thus summed up: The new theatre was built; large committees for scientific investigation were formed; and the first number of the Journal was published. No advance was made in the formation of a repository for models; or in the foundation of a school of design. The lectures of Dr. Garnett were successful, but he was refused permission to practise his profession as a physician and to bring his children to live at the Institution. Count Rumford himself ordered and superintended _everything_ in the house. Early the next year there was a visible rupture between him and Dr. Garnett regarding the prospectus of the lectures for the season, and in June 1801 Dr. Garnett resigned.

The causes of this will be best seen by a short sketch of his life.

Dr. Thomas Garnett was born in 1766 in Westmoreland. He was apprenticed to a medical man in the country and graduated as a physician in Edinburgh in 1788. Dr. Brown at that time was teaching his new theory of medicine, and Dr. Garnett became a strong Brunonian. In an inaugural essay on Health, which was published ultimately, he showed with great clearness how the doctrine of accumulated and exhausted excitability could be applied to explain the movements in the body in health and disease.

He left Edinburgh to study medicine in London, and in 1790 he went to Bradford to practise his profession; there he gave some private lessons in natural philosophy and chemistry.

In 1791, when twenty-five, he thought he should succeed better by practising at Knaresborough in the winter and at Harrogate in the summer. He analysed the waters at Harrogate, and in 1794 he built a house there and determined to practise only at Harrogate. An engagement to be married made him form a new plan for success. He persuaded his intended wife reluctantly to agree to emigrate to America after their marriage, which took place in the following year. Then he sold his house in Harrogate and purchased apparatus for lectures on natural philosophy and chemistry. On their way to America they went to Liverpool. There, whilst waiting for a ship, he was persuaded to give a course of lectures. This was successful, and he was invited to give the same course on chemistry and experimental philosophy at Manchester. He was still more successful, and invitations came to him from Warrington, Lancaster, Birmingham, and Dublin. He did not give up his intention of emigrating until he was offered the professorship in Anderson’s Institution at Glasgow. His wife had borne him a daughter, and she earnestly urged him to settle in Glasgow.

In November 1796, when thirty, he published the ‘Outlines of a Course of Lectures on Natural and Experimental Philosophy.’ His subjects were the properties of matter, astronomy, electricity, magnetism, pneumatics, hydrostatics and hydraulics, optics and mechanics.

When the session at Glasgow was over he went to Liverpool to repeat his course of lectures. In the autumn he returned to Glasgow and made known his intention of practising as a physician there. Fortune continued to favour him; his reputation increased and he soon had the best prospect of the leading practice in Glasgow.

In 1797, when thirty-one, he published his ‘Outlines of a Course of Lectures on Chemistry.’ His twenty-seventh lecture was on Agriculture; his twenty-eighth on Bleaching; his twenty-ninth on Dyeing and on Calico Printing; and his last on the Analysis of Mineral Waters.

On Christmas Day, 1798, his wife died in childbirth, and on New Year’s Day he wrote this feeling letter:

Oh! my dear cousin, little did I expect that I should begin the
new year with telling you that I am now deprived of all earthly
comforts; yes, the dear companion of my studies, the friend of
my heart, the partner of my bosom, is now a piece of cold clay.
The senseless earth is closed on that form which was so lately
animated by every virtue, and whose only wish was to make me happy.

Is there anything which can now afford me any consolation? Yes,
she is not lost, but gone before; but still it is hard to have all
our schemes of happiness wrecked when our bark was within sight of
port. When we were promising ourselves more than common felicity
it struck upon a rock; my only treasure went to the bottom, and I
am cast ashore friendless and deprived of every comfort. My poor
dead love had been as well as usual during the two or three last
months, and even on the dreadful evening (Christmas Eve) she spoke
with pleasure of the approaching event. My spirits were elevated to
so uncommon a pitch by the birth of a lovely daughter, that they
were by no means prepared for the succeeding scene; and they have
been so overwhelmed that I sometimes hope it may be a dream out of
which I wish to awake. The little infant is well, and I have called
it Catherine, a name which must ever be dear to me, and which I
wish to be able to apply to some object whom I love; for, though it
caused the death of my hopes, it is dear to me as being the last
precious relic of her whom everybody, who knew her, esteemed, and I
loved. I must now bid adieu to every comfort and live only for the
sweet babes. Oh! ’tis hard, very hard!

THOMAS GARNETT.

In the summer of 1799 Count Rumford wrote to Dr. Garnett, to whom he was then an entire stranger, for information regarding the nature and economy of Anderson’s Institution and the plan of the lectures given there. This led finally to the proposal that Dr. Garnett should become the first lecturer at Rumford’s new Institution in London.

On October 15 Dr. Garnett informed a special meeting of the managers of Anderson’s Institution of his wish to resign his situation in order to go to London. When Dr. Garnett arrived, December 23, the managers of the Royal Institution resolved that he should be styled Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry to the Royal Institution. He sent to the board a letter from which a view of the earliest lectures at the Institution can be obtained.

PROFESSOR GARNETT TO THE MANAGERS.

December 23, 1799.

TO THE MANAGERS OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION.--Count Rumford requested
me to arrange and put on paper my ideas concerning the plan and
economy of the Royal Institution for the perusal of the managers.
On looking over the prospectus, however, I find the plan so well
digested that I cannot make any improvement or even advantageous
alteration. I shall therefore confine myself in the following
observations to what I conceive to belong more particularly to
my department--I mean the arrangement of the lectures--and shall
propose a plan which, from experience, I think most likely to be
useful; but I propose it with the utmost deference to the opinions
of the managers, and shall be ready to make any alterations which
they may think proper to point out.

Our object ought undoubtedly to be both amusement and instruction.
We shall have two classes of auditors, the one consisting of
those who will come chiefly for amusement or because it may be
fashionable. These it is our business to amuse, while at the same
time I hope we shall be able to interest them in the subjects,
and communicate considerable knowledge without any trouble to
themselves.

For these I would propose a popular course of experimental
philosophy, in which all abstract reasoning shall be avoided, the
most entertaining and interesting experiments introduced, and the
whole calculated to afford pleasure and instruction to those who
have not had an opportunity of examining these subjects and to
refresh the memory of those who have.

On the supposition that the lectures of the Institution should open
the first week in February, if we appropriate one evening a week
to it, we can comprise this course in eighteen or twenty lectures,
each lecture to continue only an hour, that the attention may not
be fatigued.

A course of lectures on chemistry, popular and amusing, at the same
time sufficiently scientific, might be given twice a week. This
course would contain the elements of chemistry and the application
of this science to the arts and manufactures, and would be
illustrated by interesting and pleasing experiments.

For the sake of the second class of auditors, which would not at
first be the most numerous, but which would continually increase
in number, even though the auditors of the other course should
diminish--I mean those attached to scientific pursuits--I would
propose a full and scientific course of experimental philosophy
on the plan generally adopted in universities. In this course
particular attention should be paid to mechanics, hydrostatics,
hydraulics, and pneumatics, which are the most useful branches
of mechanical philosophy. The mathematical demonstration of the
propositions would first be given, next the experimental proof, and
lastly the application of each to the mechanical and chemical arts.

In this way those who could follow the mathematical demonstration
would see the coincidence between theory and experiment, and those
who could not would be satisfied with the experimental proof.

As an instance we may take one proposition.

The momentum or force of a moving body is proportioned to the
quantity of matter multiplied by its velocity; this will first be
demonstrated mathematically, then experimentally, and afterwards
applied to the explanation of mechanical powers in machinery,
projectiles, &c., illustrated by familiar examples and calculations.

If we suppose that five mornings in the week should be devoted to
this course, we shall be enabled to go through one hundred lectures
before the conclusion of the session.

It is scarcely necessary to observe that in this course opportunity
will be taken to show working models of machinery and chemical
processes in their proper places.

This would be the most useful course, and, as was before observed,
the numbers who attend it would gradually increase. At least this
was the case at Glasgow. A morning hour would probably be best for
this course.

My apparatus is elegant and good. It was made for me by the
late Mr. Adams. What the Institution will chiefly want will be
of the supplementary kind, and will not, I apprehend, cost more
than 150_l._ or 200_l._, supposing we purchase the most complete
and elegant instruments, which I would strongly advise. My own
apparatus shall be at the service of the Institution while I
continue among you, which I hope will be while I live, and it is
my intention eventually to bequeath it to the Institution. As
it will be necessary to come to an arrangement as speedily as
possible, Mr. Webster and myself, after having carefully surveyed
the house, are of opinion that the apparatus should be placed in
cases with glass doors, and that the best situation for it would
be round the large room[17] on the same floor with the lecture
room, and what could not conveniently be placed there, either on
account of their bulk or inelegant appearance, might be put in the
small room[18] adjoining to it. This would render this room very
interesting to strangers, and, even considering it as a lounging
room, it would be much better to have an elegant apparatus to look
at than bare walls. It would likewise be much the most convenient
as an apparatus and model room with respect to its vicinity to the
lecture room--a circumstance of no small importance.

With respect to a lounging room, in which persons might meet
before the lecture, or to which they could retire during the
lecture, I assume with submission that such a place should not _on
any account_ be allowed. Wherever I have had accidentally such
a convenient room in the vicinity of a lecture room I have been
obliged to lock it up; otherwise the disturbance to the company by
persons coming in and going out is intolerable. The lectures will
always begin at a certain hour to a minute. If any find themselves
a few minutes too soon, they will find an elegant lecture room,
well warmed. This will prevent their coming into the room in a body
and disturbing the audience and the lecturer after the lecture is
begun.

That matters might be put in a proper train it would, I think, be
best to agree immediately upon the arrangement of the house, and to
give Mr. Webster and myself, with one or more of the managers, the
power of seeing the arrangement executed.

I am, with much respect, your most obedient Servant,

THOS. GARNETT.

On January 6, 1800, the managers resolved that the morning lectures of Dr. Garnett should be given on Tuesday and Thursday at two, and the evening lectures at eight, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

The first lecture was on Tuesday, March 4. The two rooms which now make the upper library formed the theatre. It had been fitted up to accommodate the greatest possible number of auditors, ‘with a greater deference to their curiosity than to their convenience.’

In the first number of the Journal of the Institution the account of Dr. Garnett’s lectures for the week beginning April 7 shows the arrangements that then existed.

MORNING LECTURES.--On Tuesday, the 8th, the lecture will be
on Charged Electrics and the Theory of the Leyden Phial, with
experiments. On Thursday, Respiration and Animal Heat will be
continued, with the Effects of Oxygen in the Blood. On Saturday,
on Hydrogen Gas and the Composition of Water, Sulphurated and
Phosphorated Hydrogen; and a specimen of the philosophical
fireworks with the inflammable air will be exhibited.

EVENING LECTURES.--On Monday evening, the 7th, the subject will
be Spontaneous Evaporation, Ignition, and Inflammation, with some
Remarks on Light. On Wednesday evening, the Different Powers of
Bodies as Conductors of Heat; and some Experiments with the Passage
Thermometer. The method of confining heat and applying it to useful
purposes with economy.

Friday being Good Friday, no lecture will be given on that day.

Those who come to the lectures in carriages are requested to give
orders to their coachmen to set down and take up with their horses’
heads towards Grafton Street.

A contemporary account says:

During the winter the lecture room was crowded with persons
of the first distinction and fashion, as well as by those who
had individually contributed much to the promotion of science,
and although the northern accent, which he still retained in a
slight degree, rendered his voice somewhat inharmonious to a
London audience, his modest and unaffected manner of delivering
his opinions, his familiar and at the same time elegant language
rendered him the object of almost universal kindness and
approbation.

Dr. Garnett left Glasgow with the expectation that he should have accommodation for his family in the house of the Institution, and the first disappointment he met with was the opposition to his wishes in this respect. When he gave up his position in Glasgow he fully intended to enter into practice as a physician in London, but from this also he was restrained in great measure by the managers of the Institution.

His biographer says:

The exertions of the winter in some degree injured his health, and
the uncertainty he saw in his prospects tended greatly to depress
his spirits. He determined, however, to keep his place at the
Institution.

In the summer he rejoined his children in Westmoreland, but his
anxiety of mind was not diminished or consequently his health
improved by the relaxation from active employment. He walked over
the same ground and viewed the same prospects that he had formerly
enjoyed in the company of his wife. He had not resolution to check
the impressions as they arose, and thus, instead of being solaced
by the beauties which surrounded him, he gave the reins to his
melancholy fancy, which, unchecked by any other remembrance, dwelt
only on the affection and virtues of her whose loss he had ever
to deplore, the want of whose society he imagined to be the chief
source of his misery.

Dr. Garnett showed his own position when he answered the application of Webster for his recommendation as chemical operator.

Kirkby-Lonsdale, September 27, 1800.

DEAR SIR,--I have received your letter, and, in answer to it, must
observe that such is my opinion of both your industry and abilities
that it would give me pleasure to serve you, and I should with the
greatest willingness recommend you to any situation for which I
knew you qualified. That you could in time qualify yourself for
the situation of operator there is not the smallest doubt, but
still it must have been evident to you that if _you_ had acted in
that capacity last year, imperfect as the lectures were, they must
have been much more so; for though I had an operator capable of
preparing any experiments that could be made, still it was with
the greatest difficulty that I could get through it. How, then,
could I have done had my time been taken up with instructing an
operator? And, having the greatest number of chemical things to
prepare, I could not have got through it with any credit to myself
or satisfaction to the managers. You are better acquainted with
the duty of an operator than you were before the commencement of
the lectures, and can therefore form some judgment concerning
the knowledge requisite and the labour which it requires. It is
unnecessary to say that an operator must give up his whole time
to it; and, as we are to have a good laboratory, it seems to me
necessary that he should be a good practical chemist, which he
cannot be without working some years in a laboratory. Sadler could
do anything in that way, and, were he a little more steady, would
be invaluable in the Institution. You say nothing what has become
of him. I was in hopes he might have been employed again next year.
Indeed, the managers ought, in my opinion, to endeavour to have an
operating chemist who would be permanent.

That you could in time do everything required I am very far from
doubting, and, should it be the wish of the managers, I shall be
far from opposing it; on the contrary, were you qualified, there
is not one person whom I should so much wish to have it. But,
before you come to a determination, you must well consider whether
you would relish the many dirty jobs to which it will subject
you as well as the labour; and, if it be still your wish and
determination, it would certainly be proper to attend an autumnal
course of lectures. If it be your intention to remain in the
Institution and to continue as operator, which probably might be
carried on along with the School of Mechanics (though of this I am
not certain, as an operator’s time ought to be dedicated to natural
philosophy), I would do all in my power to instruct you properly;
but to have the weight upon myself without the prospect of being
relieved from it another year is what I dare scarce look at.

In deciding put everything out of the question but the good of the
Institution, for unless you can promote that you cannot promote
your own by its means. You will, I hope, excuse my having spoken
thus freely on the subject which so much concerns us both; consider
it well and favour me with your sentiments again. I suppose that I
shall be in town in about a month, but I should wish to hear from
you before. There are probably some of my objections which you can
remove.

I am, dear Sir, yours sincerely,
THOS. GARNETT.

Towards the latter end of the autumn Dr. Garnett returned to the Institution. The differences between him and the managers soon appeared. He prepared the outlines of a course of lectures on Natural and Experimental Philosophy, to be delivered in 1801, and he printed this preface: ‘This pamphlet contains the outlines of the popular course on Natural and Experimental Philosophy, delivered at the Royal Institution every Tuesday at two o’clock during the present session.--Royal Institution, February 2, 1801.’

At the same time he printed another pamphlet--‘Outlines of a Course of Lectures on Chemistry delivered at the Royal Institution,’ and to it he put this preface: ‘This work contains the outlines of the course of chemistry delivered at the Royal Institution by the Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, every Thursday and Saturday at two o’clock during the present season.--Royal Institution, February 2, 1801.’

In the table of contents he gave thirty lectures, and it was almost exactly a reprint of the table of contents of the lectures on chemistry published by him in 1797.