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EARLY DAYS AT THEROYAL INSTITUTIONW. J. Sparrow aa Deputy for Post Graduate Training ofTeachers , University of BirminghamPublished online: 06 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: W. J. Sparrow (1954) EARLY DAYS AT THEROYAL INSTITUTION, Educational Review, 6:3, 202-207, DOI:10.1080/0013191540060306

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EARLY DAYS AT THE ROYALINSTITUTION

A FORGOTTEN EXPERIMENT IN TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION

by W. J. SPARROWDeputy for Post Graduate Training of Teachers,

University of Birmingham

SIR BENJAMIN THOMPSON, Count von Rumford, Knight of theOrders of St. Stanislaus and the White Eagle, returned fromBavaria to England in 1798. He had been nominated by Charles

Theodore, the Elector, as ambassador to the Court of St. James.On arrival in this country he found to his intense chagrin that hewas not acceptable as the ambassador of a foreign power. Thereasons given were that he was a British subject and that he hadformerly held a post in the British Government.

This was a grievous disappointment to Rumford and he decidedto return to America, his native country. He instituted negotiationswith this end in view, for as a proscribed citizen he was not free toreturn at will. He had achieved this undesirable status as a result ofhis British service against his fellow countrymen in the AmericanRevolution. In February 1799 he changed his plans. The reason wasthat he had found a task in England greatly to his liking and worthyof his great ability. He was to found the Royal Institution.

Rumford was internationally famous for both his work in Bavariaand his philanthropic ideas. His Second Essay which dealt withEstablishments for the Poor was widely read in several countries.Amongst its suggestions were Proposals for forming, by Private Sub-scription, an Establishment for Feeding the Poor, and giving themUseful Employment . . . connected with an Institution for introducingand bringing forward into general Use, new Inventions and Improvementsparticularly such as relate to the Management of Heat and the Savingof Fuel. . . . He had corresponded with Thomas Bernard, one of thefounders of the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor,and from the time of his return to England consultations went onbetween him and various members of the committee of this society,including Bernard and the Bishop of Durham. It is evident from

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EARLY DAYS AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION 203

subsequent events that he had in mind the accomplishment of thesecond part of the aims as set out in the Proposals, namely thebringinginto general use of improvements in "the Management of Heat andthe Saving of Fuel".

On 31st January 1799 he met a committee of eight personsappointed by the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor.After the meeting he revised his original proposals and eventsmoved so rapidly that the Royal Institution came into being on7th March of the same year.1 Its two great objects were "the speedyand general diffusion of the knowledge of all new and useful improve-ments in whatever quarter of the world they may originate" and theteaching of the application of scientific knowledge to arts and methodsof manufacture, particularly those concerned with domestic comfortand convenience. It needs no comment to draw attention to thebreadth and importance of these aims. The first was to be attainedby the exhibition in suitable rooms of new mechanical inventionsand improvements. Rumford intended that working models ofengines, fireplaces, lime kilns, looms and farming machinery, shouldbe exhibited, with detailed descriptions and drawings of the variousexhibits for all to see and to copy. To achieve the second aimlecturers "of the first eminence in science" were to be engaged tolecture on a wide range of practical topics like the chemical principlesof tanning, food preservation, the "principles of the warmth ofclothing", soap-making, bleaching, dyeing.

The Institution was financed by private subscription and hadroyal patronage. Among the many privileges available to subscriberswere two which excited the suspicion of some of the great manu-facturers of the day. Rumford, it may be remembered, never tookout patents for his own fireplaces and cooking utensils and, perhapsrather unreasonably, expected others, whose circumstances weredifferent, to practise the same altruism. All subscribers to theInstitution were to be entitled to have drawings or copies made (attheir own expense) by draughtsmen on the premises, of any modelin the repository. A second privilege was that of recommendingworkmen or mechanics for the right of free access to models. Theseprivileges were well calculated to ensure the spread of ideas, and thewide introduction of new machinery and implements, but wouldobviously deprive designers and manufacturers of much profit.

1 The meeting held on 7th March is not recorded in the Minute Books of theRoyal Institution. Subsequent ones are. I am greatly indebted to the Managersfor permission to use them.

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2O4 E D U C A T I O N A L R E V I E W

Matthew Boulton was one of the subscribers to the Institutionand, as it was Rumford's intention to have on view in the Repository"working models of that most curious and most useful machine, thesteam engine", the firm of Boulton & Watt was asked to supply one.The younger Matthew Boulton in a long memorandum addressedto his father was both emphatic and bitter about the request.1

It begins:The merits of Count Rumford nobody will, I think, be inclined to dis-

pute, but in regard to those of his Institution you will not find the sameUnanimity. The Counts Philosophy has got the better of his Judgmentand whatever support his Plan may receive from the male and femaleNobility it will not in all Probability be much relished by the British Manu-facturer.

This altruistic spread of ideas, he continues, was all right for"philosophical Dilletanti", but not for the "Manufacturer who ex-pends his Capital as well as his Skill and Labour with a View toEmolument". "Would you", he asks his father, "be satisfied as acompensation for your Labours with the honor of having yourname enroll'd in the Annals of the Society as a liberal Benefactorby the Donation of a Model of your apparatus? . . . Can the Institu-tion offer any premium equal to the fortune derived by Mr Arkwrightfrom Cotton Spinning?"

Boulton pere, according to Davy, was equally opposed to Rum-ford's scheme.

Soon after the foundation of the Royal Institution, a request was madeto one of the greatest mechanical philosophers of the age that he wouldexamine the details of the establishment, and become in some way connectedwith the body. His refusal was prompt and his expression of disapprobationstrong. "Your object", says he, "is one that every practical inventor oughtto discountenance. You would destroy the value of the labour of the in-dustrious . . . [and] . . . take away the great stimulus to invention. . . . [It]would be ruinous to individuals, and would ultimately interfere with thecommercial prosperity of Britain . . . " a

Rumford was not a man to be easily deflected from his purposes.In his report to the Managers, dated May 1801, he describes the"spacious and elegant room" which had been built to house themodels and speaks lightly of the "considerable alarms . . . which hadbeen occasioned among some of our principal manufacturers".

1 The writer has had the good fortune to see and make use of this MS. whichis among the Boulton records in the Birmingham Assay Office. Parts of it arereproduced here by courtesy of the Master.

1 From one of Davy's lectures. Although Boulton's name is not mentionedthere is little doubt that the reference is to him. When this lecture was deliveredRumford no longer had anything to do with the Institution.

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The scheme, however, was impracticable. Rumford of all men(for in much that he did fame was the spur) should have realised thedriving force of ambition in industrial development. Furthermore,the house in Albemarle Street was not adequate for a full realisationof his plans. Great resources and extensive workshops with a largetrained staff would have been necessary to make any considerableadvance. Though, by 1802, some workshops furnished with toolswere ready for occupation, "various excellent workmen had beenengaged", articles were on sale, and the great kitchen was in dailyuse, the end of this branch of the work of the Royal Institution wasin sight. After Rumford left the country in May 1802 the managerswere only too pleased to let it decay.

Associated with this scheme for an exhibition of machines andimplements was Rumford's plan to train mechanics. His assistantin this was Thomas Webster, an architect who had been appointedClerk of the Works in Albemarle Street. In order to take up his newposition he had given up a private practice and the care of a schoolof about a dozen mechanics. He was a young man of good educationand sound training who saw an opportunity of realising his own ideasin collaboration with, and under the patronage of, the illustriousRumford. Though the plan for a school was not mentioned in theoriginal proposals, and was probably first mooted by Webster,Rumford saw its value and gave it his backing. Such a school wouldbe a great advance on the meagre instruction available throughattendance at the repository and the examination of drawings. Thetwo men drew up a scheme for a school rather similar to the oneWebster had given up. There was no great enthusiasm for it, how-ever, and Webster was showing signs of disappointment as early asSeptember, 1799 when Rumford read a letter from. Webster to theManagers. He wrote very deferentially and gave an outline of hisproposed syllabus.

There was to be a basic course consisting of Geometry, ThePrinciples of Projection and Perspective (Geometrical Drawing),Mechanics and Hydrostatics, followed by specialisation in eitherArchitecture or Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry.1

In spite of Rumford's support the matter was shelved and themanagers proceeded to discuss the aims of the Institution. Thismust have irritated him, though the minutes are discreetly silentabout it.

Rumford, it must be remembered, was directing the whole1 Royal Institution, Managers' Minutes.

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206 EDUCATIONAL REVIEW

establishment and had many other irons in the fire. Though he sawclearly the need for technical education he could not carry all hisviews in a strong assembly of managers. Webster, years later, gavean account of these events.1 At the time there was a serious shortageof workmen with adequate technical knowledge. With the develop-ment of machinery, and improvements in building, there was greatneed for men who could follow written instructions and read draw-ings. Often the older craftsmen were averse to doing their work innew ways and were limited in skill and training. But, howeverdesirable technical education was in view of the great industrialchanges of the time and the growth of population, there were manywho saw, or professed to see, political dangers in the spread ofknowledge. Sir Joseph Banks, the chairman of the managers, wasone of these, and in this he did not see eye to eye with Rumford.Not that Rumford was in favour of a democratic society, far from it,but he saw clearly what Webster intended. "My idea", said thearchitect, "was to make good mechanics, not to force them like hot-bed plants out of the sphere in which they are so useful."

After the Minute Book had been carried to Banks, so that hemight see that the Syllabus was politically innocuous, it seemed thatthe full scheme might go forward. On the ground floor of thebuilding Rumford had built boilers, fireplaces, chimneys, roastersand similar apparatus on which he was an acknowledged expert. Anumber of bricklayers were instructed; they were sent for the mostpart by Rumford's friends. In one of his reports in 1801, Rumfordsaid that the setting up of a school for about eighteen or twentyyoung men awaited the completion of the rooms on the attic story.The young men were to be boarded in the house, to have practicalinstruction in the workshops in the daytime and to attend Webster'sclasses in the evening. The course was to last three or four months.

But the project came to nothing. The political objections werestill strong. Webster says in his Recollections that he was told bysomeone he would not name that "the project for improvingmechanics" must be dropped as quietly as possible and that if he per-sisted he would become "a marked man".

Whatever effect such threats may have had on Webster theywould not have prevented Rumford from persisting in his course,but he had other worries. The finances of the Institution were notsecure: there was insufficient capital to carry out his plans. When

1 See The Royal Institution, its Founder and its First Professors, by H. BenceJones (London, 1871), p. 143.

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he left the policy was changed. Many activities were dropped andfor some time the Institution lived from hand to mouth, dependingon the reputation of its lecturers. The workshops and the repositoryfell into disuse, workmen and printers were discharged and (verysignificantly) the stone staircase which the mechanics had used forentry to the lecture theatre1 was pulled down.

Rumford's passion for the spread of applied science has beenalmost forgotten. The great institution he founded in AlbemarleStreet became, ironically enough, one of the world's greatest centresfor fundamental research, and its direct association with technologycame to an end.

Those who have traced the development of technical educationin this country have paid scant attention either to Rumford's ideasor his work. It is, of course, true that other streams were rising atthe beginning of the nineteenth century—streams destined not todry up but to feed the wide river of later technical education. Atthe same time that Rumford was working in London, Dr GeorgeBirkbeck was giving free lectures to artisans at Anderson's Institutionin Glasgow. Birkbeck's aims were much the same as Webster's, togive skilled and semi-skilled workmen accurate knowledge of thetools and machinery they used. The Glasgow experiment, thoughoriginally more modest in scope than Rumford's, was more firmlybased, for out of it grew the "Mechanics' Institution" of Glasgow.Similar bodies came into being in various parts of the country andthe movement spread rapidly; indeed it is said that in 1841 thevarious Mechanics' Institutions had a total membership of 30,000.

While he lived Rumford was one of the most eminent men inEurope, honoured by kings and known to the poor of many countries;but this perhaps is the least important reason for recalling the earlydays of the Royal Institution. More to the point is his clear graspof the importance of the application of scientific principles to thecommon affairs of living and his courageous attempt to promotetechnical education in the unfavourable climate of his time. Thatothers did not build on his foundations is a measure of their lack ofperception of the real needs of the time rather than a reflection onhis energy and ideas.

1 They were not permitted to enter with the quality.

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