The Royal Institution: Its Founder and First Professors

by Bence Jones

• The Bishop of Durham, in the chair,
• Patrick Colquhoun, Esq.,
• Thomas Bernard, Esq.,
• William Manning, Esq.,
• John Sullivan, Esq.,
• The Rev. Dr. Glasse,
• John J. Angerstein, Esq.,
• William Wilberforce, Esq.,
• Richard Joseph Sulivan, Esq.,
• Matthew Martin, Esq., Secretary,

• Cottage Fire-places and Kitchen Utensils for Cottages.
• A complete Kitchen for a Farm-house, with all the necessary Utensils.
• A complete Kitchen, with Kitchen Utensils, for the family of a gentleman of fortune.
• A complete Laundry for a gentleman’s family, or for a public hospital, including Boilers, Washing-room, Ironing-room, Drying-room, &c.
• Several of the most approved German, Swedish, and Russian Stoves, for heating rooms and passages.

• Open Chimney Fire-places on the most approved principles will be fitted up as models in the different rooms, and fires will be kept constantly burning in them during the cold season.
• Ornamental as well as Economical Grates, for Open Chimney Fire-places, will also be exhibited; as also,
• Ornamental Stoves, in the form of elegant Chimney-pieces, for halls, drawing-rooms, eating-rooms, &c.

• Of Brewer’s Boilers, with improved Fire-places.
• Of Distiller’s Coppers, with improved Fire-places and improved Condensers.
• Of large Boilers for the kitchens of hospitals, and of Ships’ Coppers, with improved Fire-places.

• Models of Ventilators for supplying rooms and ships with fresh air.
• Models of Hot-houses, with such improvements as can be made in their construction.
• Models of Lime-kilns on various constructions.
• Models of Boilers, Steam-boilers, &c., for preparing food for cattle that are stall-fed.
• Models of Cottages on various constructions.
• Spinning-wheels and Looms, on various constructions, for the use of the poor, and adapted to their circumstances, together with such other machinery as may be useful in giving them employment at home.
• Models of all such new-invented Machines and Implements as bid fair to be of use in Husbandry.
• Models of Bridges on various constructions, together with models of all such other machines and useful instruments as the managers of the Institution shall deem worthy of the public notice and proper to be publicly exhibited in the repository of the Institution.

• Of Heat, and its application to the various purposes of life.
• Of the Combustion of Inflammable Bodies, and the relative quantities of Heat producible by the different substances used as fuel.
• Of the Management of Fire and the Economy of Fuel.
• Of the Principles of the Warmth of Clothing.
• Of the Effects of Heat and of Cold, and of hot and of cold winds, on the human body in sickness and in health.
• Of the Effects of breathing vitiated and confined air.
• Of the Means that may be used to render Dwelling-houses comfortable and salubrious.
• Of the Methods of procuring and preserving Ice in Summer, and of the best principles for constructing Ice-houses.
• Of the Means of preserving Food in different seasons and in different climates.
• Of the Means of cooling Liquors in hot weather, without the assistance of ice.
• Of Vegetation, and of the specific nature of those effects that are produced by Manures, and of the Art of composing Manures and adapting them to the different kinds of soil.
• Of the nature of those changes that are produced on substances used as food in the various processes of cookery.
• Of the nature of those changes which take place in the Digestion of Food.
• Of the Chemical Principles of the process of Tanning Leather, and of the objects that must particularly be had in view in attempts to improve that most useful art.
• Of the Chemical Principles of the art of making Soap, of the art of Bleaching, of the art of Dyeing, and in general of all the Mechanical Arts, as they apply to the various branches of manufacture.

At a general meeting of the proprietors, held at the house of the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., K.B., in Soho Square, on the 7th day of March, 1799, the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks in the chair, the following list of the proprietors and original subscribers of fifty guineas each was read:

• Sir Robert Ainslie, Bart.
• J. J. Angerstein, Esq.
• Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, K.B.
• Thomas Bernard, Esq.
• Scrope Bernard, Esq., M.P.
• The Earl of Besborough.
• Rowland Burdon, Esq., M.P.
• James Burton, Esq.
• Timothy Brent, Esq.
• Henry Cavendish, Esq.
• Rich. Clarke, Esq., Chamb. of London.
• Sir John Colpoys, K.B.
• John Craufurd, Esq.
• The Duke of Devonshire, K.G.
• Andrew Douglas, Esq.
• The Lord Bishop of Durham.
• The Earl of Egremont.
• George Ellis, Esq., M.P.
• Joseph Grote, Esq.
• Sir Robert Bateson Harvey, Bart.
• Sir John Cox Hippesley, Bart.
• Henry Hoare, Esq.
• John Spalding, Esq., M.P.
• The Earl Spencer, K.G.
• Sir George Staunton, Bart.
• John Sullivan, Esq.
• Richard Joseph Sulivan, Esq.
• Lord Teignmouth.
• John Thomson, Esq.
• Lord Hobart.
• Lord Holland.
• Henry Hope, Esq.
• Thomas Hope, Esq.
• Lord Keith, K.B.
• William Lushington, Esq., M.P.
• Sir John Macpherson, Bart., M.P.
• William Manning, Esq., M.P.
• The Earl of Mansfield.
• The Earl of Morton, K.T.
• Lord Ossulston.
• Thomas Palmer, Esq.
• The Lord Viscount Palmerston, M.P.
• Edward Parry, Esq.
• Right Hon. Thomas Pelham, M.P.
• John Penn, Esq.
• William Morton Pitt, Esq., M.P.
• Sir James Pulteney, Bart., M.P.
• Sir John Buchanan Riddell, Bart.
• Count Rumford.
• Sir John Sinclair, Bart., M.P.
• Lord Somerville.
• Samuel Thornton, Esq., M.P.
• Henry Thornton, Esq., M.P.
• George Vansittart, Esq., M.P.
• William Wilberforce, Esq., M.P.
• The Earl of Winchelsea.
• Hon. James Stuart Wortley, M.P.
• Sir William Young, Bart., M.P.

The following Resolutions were agreed to unanimously:

I.—That before any measures are taken for carrying the plan into execution, a petition be presented to his Majesty, praying that he would be graciously pleased to grant a charter to the Institution.

II.—That an outline of the plan be laid before the Right Honourable Mr. Pitt and his Grace the Duke of Portland.

III.—That for these purposes it is expedient to elect the Committee of Managers.

IV.—That the following proprietors (who have agreed to serve in case they shall he elected) be now elected as the first managers of the Institution:

• For three years.

• The Earl Spencer.
• Count Rumford.
• Richard Clark, Esq.

• For two years.

• The Earl of Egremont.
• Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.
• Rich. Joseph Sulivan, Esq.

• For one year.

• The Earl of Morton.
• The Rt. Hon. Thomas Pelham.
• Thomas Bernard, Esq.

V.—That the said managers be desired to solicit a charter for the Institution, upon principles conformable to the Proposals which have been printed and distributed, and (as soon as the charter is obtained) to publish the plan for the benefit of the public, in such manner as they shall deem most expedient; and also to take preparatory measures for opening the Institution.

That these resolutions be inserted in the public papers.

Jos. Banks, Chairman.

Sir Joseph Banks having quitted the chair,

Resolved,—That the thanks of the meeting be given to him for his conduct in the chair.