Early days at the Royal Institution

Abstract

The name of the Royal Institution and the work which has been carried on within its walls for more than 160 years are familiar to men of science everywhere. There can be few who have not some familiarity with the researches of Humphry Davy, Michael Faraday and those who have followed them, or who have not, at some time or other, attended the Christmas Juvenile Lectures and the Friday Evening Discourses. These are features which have given the Institution its particular character and made it unique. Its activities have been such that it has come to be regarded as an essential element of the English scientific scene. Its arms are well known and well understood, but what is perhaps not so well known is that the Institution as it is today differs widely from the ideas and intentions of its founders. It is the purpose of this article to tell something of its origins - its history and development in the very early years.