In 1814, during the absence of Sir H. Davy, the Institution did little for science, but, though poor, it strove to be fashionable. On May 23 it gave ‘a cold collation’ to the Grand Duchess of Oldenburgh, for which Gunter, of Berkeley Square, was paid by contract twenty guineas. The funds of the Institution were by no means flourishing; the balance in favour of the Institution on the accounts of 1813 was 66l., but many bills were paid out of the ‘benefactions to the fund for discharging the debts and for providing for the future support of the Institution.’ A list of the benefactors was ordered to be sent round to the members and subscribers on the two last Saturdays in June.
For the promotion of science the three committees (1) on chemistry and geology, (2) on general science and literature, and (3) on mathematics and mechanics were requested by the managers to meet and to elect each two chairmen and a secretary.
In 1815, in February, Mr. Babbage began a course of lectures on Astronomy.
On May 15 Sir Humphry Davy was present at the meeting of managers. That day Mr. Brande stated that he wanted assistance in the laboratory, and that Michael Faraday was ‘willing to resume his situation.’ The managers resolved that the assistant porter should be discharged, and that the former assistant porter should take his place, and ‘that Michael Faraday be engaged as assistant in the laboratory and mineralogical collection and superintendent of the apparatus at a salary of 30s. a week, and that he be accommodated with apartments in the house under the superintendence of Mr. Brande.’
The rooms given to him were 25 and 26, the two furthest on the attic floor. The sister of the librarian, Mr. Harris, occupied the smallest of these (26), and there were difficulties about any other arrangement, so that a few weeks afterwards the librarian asked permission to reside out of the house.
In 1816 the managers decided that, in consideration of the additional labour caused to Michael Faraday by the lectures of Mr. Brande in the laboratory, his salary should be raised to 100l. per annum. The pecuniary difficulties of the Institution were increasing, and Sir Humphry Davy, Mr. Auriol, and Mr. Solly were appointed as a sub-committee to examine the expenditure. In 1817 the debts increased.
In 1818 the bill for coals in 1816 was paid. Mr. Fuller, who ultimately founded the Fullerian Professorships, allowed one thousand pounds, which he had invested for the benefit of the Institution, to be used for the payment of debts. In the autumn Sir Thomas Bernard died.
In 1819 Mr. Brande applied to the board, on the part of Mr. Faraday, for permission to occupy the two southernmost front rooms on the second floor.
In 1820 an anniversary dinner was held on May 8 at Willis’s Rooms. The following year Mr. Faraday was given the use of two more rooms on the second floor, and appointed Superintendent of the House and Laboratory in the absence of Mr. Brande.