On May 17, 1804, a new proposal was made for the advancement of science at the Royal Institution. A special meeting of the managers and visitors was held, and an address to the proprietors and subscribers was read and approved, and ordered to be circulated, respecting the formation of a mineralogical collection and an assay office on a large scale for the improvement of mineralogy and metallurgy.
The Hon. G. F. Greville, Sir J. St. Aubyn, Sir A. Hume, proposed to raise a fund of 4,000l. to arrange a collection in a manner which should exhibit all the interesting series of mineralogical facts; and they proposed to establish an assay office, to be exclusively employed for the advancement of mineralogy and metallurgy. They thought that the whole time of a mineralogist of considerable talent would be employed; and that the continued attention of a chemist of approved abilities would be required.
It was proposed that a mineralogical institution like the library institution should be united to the Royal Institution.
The address relating to the formation of this economic museum ended thus: ‘The proprietors and subscribers may be assured that the managers and visitors will never consider their labours as finished, while there remains any effort to be made for the diffusion and useful application of practical science in this country. They would indeed have deemed themselves extremely culpable if there had been any delay or neglect on their part in submitting to the consideration of their members, and of the public, a plan which promises essentially to promote the prosperity of the Royal Institution, and at the same time to contribute to the extension of useful science and to the increase of our national resources.’
A plan was drawn up. There were to be hereditary patrons, paying 100l. and upwards, and patrons for life, paying 50l., and subscribers of smaller sums might unite when they had subscribed sixty guineas and select one of themselves as patron. The patrons were to elect a chairman, a deputy-chairman, a treasurer and a secretary, committees and sub-committees.
In 1804 Lord Dartmouth gave 200l. worth of minerals, and Mr. Hatchett gave the cases for them.
In 1805 Davy gave his own collection of minerals, valued at 100 guineas.
The committee rooms were made into the mineral room, and 250l. was spent in fitting it up. Davy went to Wales and Ireland to collect minerals, and the following year he again went to the west and north of Ireland, and took with him William Payne, the boy belonging to the laboratory.
At the end of 1805 the rooms for the mineralogical collection were ready, and the arrangement of the mineralogical and geological specimens was made under the directions of Mr. Davy. The minerals and fossils were removed from the model room, where they had been deposited, and in consequence the models were arranged to more advantage.