In 1837 Webster gave the following account of the intention to form an industrial school at the Institution:
Whilst employed as an architect, having occasion to direct various workmen, I had observed their frequent inability to do what was required from them through their deficient education, and that it was no easy matter to find those who could understand either drawings or directions; one had also frequently to contend with a species of perverseness and conceit often the result of ignorance. In attempting our improvements in fire-places, &c., I felt this the more as this kind of work demanded a superior class of artificers. Knowing from previous experience what it was possible to effect in their improvement, I conceived the idea of giving to mechanics for this purpose a species of scientific education suited to their condition, and I believe I was the first person in this country who took active steps for effecting so desirable an object. I was not unacquainted with the political feelings of that time, but I did not think a little learning was a dangerous thing if judiciously bestowed, although without due caution it might be capable of doing more harm than good. My idea was to make good mechanics, not to force them like hot-bed plants out of the sphere in which they are so useful.
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 10,000l.; mine was 5,000l. 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, 150l. 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: