On Christmas Day, 1798, his wife died in childbirth, and on New Year’s Day he wrote this feeling letter:
Oh! my dear cousin, little did I expect that I should begin the new year with telling you that I am now deprived of all earthly comforts; yes, the dear companion of my studies, the friend of my heart, the partner of my bosom, is now a piece of cold clay. The senseless earth is closed on that form which was so lately animated by every virtue, and whose only wish was to make me happy.
Is there anything which can now afford me any consolation? Yes, she is not lost, but gone before; but still it is hard to have all our schemes of happiness wrecked when our bark was within sight of port. When we were promising ourselves more than common felicity it struck upon a rock; my only treasure went to the bottom, and I am cast ashore friendless and deprived of every comfort. My poor dead love had been as well as usual during the two or three last months, and even on the dreadful evening (Christmas Eve) she spoke with pleasure of the approaching event. My spirits were elevated to so uncommon a pitch by the birth of a lovely daughter, that they were by no means prepared for the succeeding scene; and they have been so overwhelmed that I sometimes hope it may be a dream out of which I wish to awake. The little infant is well, and I have called it Catherine, a name which must ever be dear to me, and which I wish to be able to apply to some object whom I love; for, though it caused the death of my hopes, it is dear to me as being the last precious relic of her whom everybody, who knew her, esteemed, and I loved. I must now bid adieu to every comfort and live only for the sweet babes. Oh! ’tis hard, very hard!
Thomas Garnett.
In the summer of 1799 Count Rumford wrote to Dr. Garnett, to whom he was then an entire stranger, for information regarding the nature and economy of Anderson’s Institution and the plan of the lectures given there. This led finally to the proposal that Dr. Garnett should become the first lecturer at Rumford’s new Institution in London.
On October 15 Dr. Garnett informed a special meeting of the managers of Anderson’s Institution of his wish to resign his situation in order to go to London. When Dr. Garnett arrived, December 23, the managers of the Royal Institution resolved that he should be styled Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry to the Royal Institution. He sent to the board a letter from which a view of the earliest lectures at the Institution can be obtained.
PROFESSOR GARNETT TO THE MANAGERS.
December 23, 1799.
To the Managers of the Royal Institution.—Count Rumford requested me to arrange and put on paper my ideas concerning the plan and economy of the Royal Institution for the perusal of the managers. On looking over the prospectus, however, I find the plan so well digested that I cannot make any improvement or even advantageous alteration. I shall therefore confine myself in the following observations to what I conceive to belong more particularly to my department—I mean the arrangement of the lectures—and shall propose a plan which, from experience, I think most likely to be useful; but I propose it with the utmost deference to the opinions of the managers, and shall be ready to make any alterations which they may think proper to point out.
Our object ought undoubtedly to be both amusement and instruction. We shall have two classes of auditors, the one consisting of those who will come chiefly for amusement or because it may be fashionable. These it is our business to amuse, while at the same time I hope we shall be able to interest them in the subjects, and communicate considerable knowledge without any trouble to themselves.
For these I would propose a popular course of experimental philosophy, in which all abstract reasoning shall be avoided, the most entertaining and interesting experiments introduced, and the whole calculated to afford pleasure and instruction to those who have not had an opportunity of examining these subjects and to refresh the memory of those who have.
On the supposition that the lectures of the Institution should open the first week in February, if we appropriate one evening a week to it, we can comprise this course in eighteen or twenty lectures, each lecture to continue only an hour, that the attention may not be fatigued.
A course of lectures on chemistry, popular and amusing, at the same time sufficiently scientific, might be given twice a week. This course would contain the elements of chemistry and the application of this science to the arts and manufactures, and would be illustrated by interesting and pleasing experiments.
For the sake of the second class of auditors, which would not at first be the most numerous, but which would continually increase in number, even though the auditors of the other course should diminish—I mean those attached to scientific pursuits—I would propose a full and scientific course of experimental philosophy on the plan generally adopted in universities. In this course particular attention should be paid to mechanics, hydrostatics, hydraulics, and pneumatics, which are the most useful branches of mechanical philosophy. The mathematical demonstration of the propositions would first be given, next the experimental proof, and lastly the application of each to the mechanical and chemical arts.
In this way those who could follow the mathematical demonstration would see the coincidence between theory and experiment, and those who could not would be satisfied with the experimental proof.
As an instance we may take one proposition.
The momentum or force of a moving body is proportioned to the quantity of matter multiplied by its velocity; this will first be demonstrated mathematically, then experimentally, and afterwards applied to the explanation of mechanical powers in machinery, projectiles, &c., illustrated by familiar examples and calculations.
If we suppose that five mornings in the week should be devoted to this course, we shall be enabled to go through one hundred lectures before the conclusion of the session.
It is scarcely necessary to observe that in this course opportunity will be taken to show working models of machinery and chemical processes in their proper places.
This would be the most useful course, and, as was before observed, the numbers who attend it would gradually increase. At least this was the case at Glasgow. A morning hour would probably be best for this course.
My apparatus is elegant and good. It was made for me by the late Mr. Adams. What the Institution will chiefly want will be of the supplementary kind, and will not, I apprehend, cost more than 150l. or 200l., supposing we purchase the most complete and elegant instruments, which I would strongly advise. My own apparatus shall be at the service of the Institution while I continue among you, which I hope will be while I live, and it is my intention eventually to bequeath it to the Institution. As it will be necessary to come to an arrangement as speedily as possible, Mr. Webster and myself, after having carefully surveyed the house, are of opinion that the apparatus should be placed in cases with glass doors, and that the best situation for it would be round the large room[17] on the same floor with the lecture room, and what could not conveniently be placed there, either on account of their bulk or inelegant appearance, might be put in the small room[18] adjoining to it. This would render this room very interesting to strangers, and, even considering it as a lounging room, it would be much better to have an elegant apparatus to look at than bare walls. It would likewise be much the most convenient as an apparatus and model room with respect to its vicinity to the lecture room—a circumstance of no small importance.
With respect to a lounging room, in which persons might meet before the lecture, or to which they could retire during the lecture, I assume with submission that such a place should not on any account be allowed. Wherever I have had accidentally such a convenient room in the vicinity of a lecture room I have been obliged to lock it up; otherwise the disturbance to the company by persons coming in and going out is intolerable. The lectures will always begin at a certain hour to a minute. If any find themselves a few minutes too soon, they will find an elegant lecture room, well warmed. This will prevent their coming into the room in a body and disturbing the audience and the lecturer after the lecture is begun.
That matters might be put in a proper train it would, I think, be best to agree immediately upon the arrangement of the house, and to give Mr. Webster and myself, with one or more of the managers, the power of seeing the arrangement executed.
I am, with much respect, your most obedient Servant,
Thos. Garnett.
On January 6, 1800, the managers resolved that the morning lectures of Dr. Garnett should be given on Tuesday and Thursday at two, and the evening lectures at eight, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
The first lecture was on Tuesday, March 4. The two rooms which now make the upper library formed the theatre. It had been fitted up to accommodate the greatest possible number of auditors, ‘with a greater deference to their curiosity than to their convenience.’
In the first number of the Journal of the Institution the account of Dr. Garnett’s lectures for the week beginning April 7 shows the arrangements that then existed.
Morning Lectures.—On Tuesday, the 8th, the lecture will be on Charged Electrics and the Theory of the Leyden Phial, with experiments. On Thursday, Respiration and Animal Heat will be continued, with the Effects of Oxygen in the Blood. On Saturday, on Hydrogen Gas and the Composition of Water, Sulphurated and Phosphorated Hydrogen; and a specimen of the philosophical fireworks with the inflammable air will be exhibited.
Evening Lectures.—On Monday evening, the 7th, the subject will be Spontaneous Evaporation, Ignition, and Inflammation, with some Remarks on Light. On Wednesday evening, the Different Powers of Bodies as Conductors of Heat; and some Experiments with the Passage Thermometer. The method of confining heat and applying it to useful purposes with economy.
Friday being Good Friday, no lecture will be given on that day.
Those who come to the lectures in carriages are requested to give orders to their coachmen to set down and take up with their horses’ heads towards Grafton Street.
A contemporary account says: