Chemistry was always a primary object of the Institution. A laboratory was therefore erected at an early period, and was furnished with such apparatus as was immediately requisite; but, as the Institution was then in a nascent state, great attention was paid to economy in the chemical department, and although much was in reality wanted to render the laboratory complete, yet nothing more was expended on this part than was absolutely necessary to the immediate demands of the lectures delivered in the Institution. On this account the laboratory has remained in a state inferior to that which might justly be expected in such a liberal and splendid establishment; but, as some extension may now be expected in a department so instructive, so interesting, and so eminently useful, the following intended regulations are submitted to the consideration of the Committee of Managers: 1st. That the workshop lately occupied by Mr. Feetham shall in future be annexed to the laboratory. 2nd. The forge to be adapted to chemical purposes. 3rd. An air-furnace and reverberatory furnace to be built. 4th. Presses and shelves to be added to contain vessels and chemical preparations.
This laboratory will be equal, or indeed superior, to any in this country, and probably to any on the Continent. Such a laboratory, therefore, will accord with the respectability and liberal views of this Institution, which, on the other hand, may henceforward regard this part of its establishment not only as very conducive to its honour, but as likely to produce real and substantial advantages. But to procure these some further regulations appear necessary: 1. Crude materials to prepare pure products should be bought. 2. The Professor shall be assisted by a person well versed in practical chemistry, who shall be expressly engaged to attend the laboratory and assist in the chemical lectures. 3. Operations in the laboratory should be taught. The Institution will derive therefrom honour and profit, and, as far as chemistry is concerned, that one of its chief purposes will be accomplished—the diffusion of knowledge and the application of science to the improvement of arts and manufactures.
On May 2 it was resolved ‘that a Committee of Science should be appointed from among the managers to regulate the lectures and public experiments; to direct the publication of the Journals; and to report as to any experiments, or additions to apparatus, or models.’ It was to meet weekly and be appointed monthly. Spencer, Banks, Cavendish, Hatchett, Symonds, formed the first committee.
On May 16 the managers resolved ‘that the Committee of Science should carry out improvements in the laboratory, that the workshops should be thrown into the laboratory and fitted up as a lecture room for 120 persons.’ For nearly sixty years this laboratory theatre remained unchanged.
Other traces of the activity of this Committee of Science are to be found. On May 27 Sir Joseph Banks, in the name of the Committee of Science of the Royal Institution, wrote to the Board of Agriculture:
The Committee do not expect in agricultural analysis the same degree of precise accuracy as is necessary in that intended to illustrate philosophical experiments; it will be enough for them if the component parts of substances and their respective proportions to each other are marked with sufficient precision to demonstrate the probable effects on vegetables.
The Committee are aware that at present the science of agricultural chemistry is in its infancy, and that till it has been more matured each analysis will take up a considerable portion of time; they trust, however, that it will not be long before Mr. Davy himself, or some one named by him and acting under his superintendence, will undertake the business of analysing soils and manures for individuals at a moderate fixed price for each substance that shall be brought to them.
The Royal Institution wish to have Mr. Davy’s lectures repeated at their house, and have desired me to ask whether the Board of Agriculture have any objection to a measure which appears to them likely to extend still further.
Having been requested to suggest what I think a proper recompense to Mr. Davy on account of his six lectures delivered at the Board, and also a plan for securing his services in future to the Board of Agriculture, I beg leave to propose that sixty guineas be given by the Board to Mr. Davy as a remuneration for his six lectures, being at the rate of ten guineas for each lecture, and that the office of Professor of Chemical Agriculture to the Board, with a salary of 100l. a year, be offered to his acceptance; the duty of his professorship to consist of reading lectures in the spring at such time as shall be fixed by the Board, on the application of chemistry to the improvement of the art of agriculture, and in making an analysis of such substances as shall be put into his hands by the Committee, in case he is of opinion that the result of such analysis is likely to throw light on the theory and practice of that most useful art.
This Committee of Science also, as early as July 18, proposed that in the ensuing session Mr. Dalton should be engaged to lecture.
The form which the Institution was at this time about to take is well seen in the joint report of the committees of science and accounts on the plan of the lectures and experiments and other proposed arrangements for the ensuing year. This was made on November 28, 1803; the reporters were Sir Joseph Banks, Henry Cavendish, Sir J. Hippesley, Mr. Bernard, Mr. Sullivan.
They said:
With regard to the lectures on Natural Philosophy, it is presumed that the subjects may be advantageously arranged in the three distinct courses. The first should be a complete course of experimental philosophy; the second should relate to practical mechanics; and the third should be on optics and astronomy.
Abstruseness should in all cases be avoided, the processes of the arts should be particularly described, and the operations should be on such a scale as to instruct by their applications and to interest and amuse by the distinctness and brilliancy of their appearance.
The lectures on Chemistry, it is supposed, may be included in two courses. The first would relate to the chemistry of natural history and the chemical economy of nature, and the second to theoretical and practical chemistry. From the progression of this branch of knowledge it will be easy to develope in both these courses many new objects, and it is supposed that they may at once be rendered useful and made to excite attention and gratify curiosity.
It would be very advantageous to institute a particular and distinct series of public experimental operations, showing such new facts in elementary and natural philosophy as are connected with splendid and curious phenomena or highly useful applications.
During the season it was proposed that there should be one hundred lectures and twenty public experiments—about four lectures weekly.
For affording more practical and minute information concerning the objects of science, first, in relation to mechanical sciences and arts, the models of useful inventions should be increased and made more available; second, in relation to chemistry, the examination of the private experimental processes performed in the laboratory might be given as private instruction, for which those who thought proper to attend should make some annual contribution for defraying the extra expense, as it would be impossible to admit all the proprietors and subscribers.
With the reduction of expenses and the strict economy that has taken place in the establishment, it is submitted to the managers that it will not be necessary to increase at present the annual subscription.
The Committee concludes the report with observations on the progress which has been recently made and is now making in the Institution. After mentioning the lectures and the apparatus for the lectures, it is said the laboratory for experimental processes has been enlarged by the addition of the former workroom, and has been improved by many new arrangements, and provision has been made in it for preparing the different reagents and tests employed in philosophical chemistry and for carrying on various new and interesting researches.
The foundation of a mineralogical collection has been laid by the exertions of Mr. Professor Davy. For the purpose of extending it one proprietor has offered 100l., and others promised to give minerals. A collection of fossils was also made.
The reading library is now completed. The room for the collection of reference, fitted up for 10,000 volumes, some part of which are already purchased. It was proposed to open it to the proprietors and subscribers early in the ensuing season. The funds subscribed amounted to 4,368l. 15s. As this would not be sufficient to purchase the whole of the desired collection, it was hoped that other proprietors and subscribers ‘would enjoy the pleasure of adding their contributions.’