Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.9323
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“Scientific Researches!” [Royal Institution lecture]
Date
23 May 1802
Creator
James Gillray (1757 - 1815, British) , Caricaturist
Object type
Library reference
MS/849
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 253mm
width (print): 354mm
width (print): 354mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Interior, humorous view of an experimental lecture in progress at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, including caricatures of: Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829) [centre, holding bellows]; Thomas Garnett (1766-1802) [centre, conducting experiment]; Sir John Coxe Hippisley (1748-1825) [centre, breathing gas]; and Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford (1753-1814) [looking on, right, with star and ribbon].
The print is inscribed above: “Scientific Researches! – New Discoveries in PNEUMATICS! – or – an Experimental Lecture on the Power of Air.-“ On the central table, where the experiment is being conducted, are various retorts and items of scientific apparatus, including jars marked “Oxygen” and “Hydrogen”, an air-pump containing a frog in a glass bell-jar, and a clay pipe burning tobacco. More equipment is visible through a door at the rear of the theatre. The audience includes women and children and on the lower right is an open notebook inscribed: “Hints on the Nature of air requir’d for the new French Diving Boat”.
Inscribed below: “J.Gillray inv. & Fect. Pubd. May, 23d, 1802 by H.Humphrey, St James’s Street.
The print is inscribed above: “Scientific Researches! – New Discoveries in PNEUMATICS! – or – an Experimental Lecture on the Power of Air.-“ On the central table, where the experiment is being conducted, are various retorts and items of scientific apparatus, including jars marked “Oxygen” and “Hydrogen”, an air-pump containing a frog in a glass bell-jar, and a clay pipe burning tobacco. More equipment is visible through a door at the rear of the theatre. The audience includes women and children and on the lower right is an open notebook inscribed: “Hints on the Nature of air requir’d for the new French Diving Boat”.
Inscribed below: “J.Gillray inv. & Fect. Pubd. May, 23d, 1802 by H.Humphrey, St James’s Street.
Object history
Print from Charles Richard Weld's 2 volume A history of the Royal Society... (London, John W. Parker, 1848) grangerized by the writer and collector Alexander Meyrick Broadley (1847–1916) into 8 volumes, adding illustrative material and manuscript items to Weld's text. The books were initially owned by Ludwig Mond FRS (1839–1909), and according to an inscription by his son Robert Ludwig Mond FRS (1867–1938) they were intended for presentation to the Society. This eventually happened in late 1959, the donor being the politician Harry Nathan (1889–1963), Lord Nathan of Churt.
Associated place