<i>Interior View of the Laboratory in the Royal Institution</i>
notes: label: Description
content: The Royal Institution was established in 1799 to advance scientific knowledge and promote the application of science to useful purpose. It was here that Humphrey Davy, young, brilliant and charismatic, began working 1801. In 1803, following a series of popular lectures and important experiments, he was promoted from assistant to professor of chemistry.
label: Description
content: William Thomas Brande, who succeeded to the post in 1813, commissioned three images of the Royal Institution laboratory for his <i>Manual of Chemistry</i> (London, 1819). These were drawn by William Tite (1798-1873), a young English architect, and engraved by James Basire (1769-1822), a London artist. Plate I showed a floor plan of lecture hall and laboratory. Plate III showed the major pieces of apparatus. And Plate II showed an interior view of the laboratory. Our example, taken from the third (1830) edition of Brande’s book, is marked “Wm. Tite, del.” and " Is Basire, sc.” and “Published by John Murray, Albermarle Street, London, March 1830” and “PL II.”
label: Description
content: The Royal Institution laboratory was, for a time, the best in Great Britain, if not the world. Brande explained that it comprised “all that can be required in the pursuit of experimental chemistry” and “may be well adapted to any public or private establishment. Most of the apparatus was furnished by “Mr. J. Newman, Philosophical Instrument-Maker to the Royal Institution, of Lisle-street, Leicester-square.”
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
topic: label: Subject
content: Chemistry
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Prints from the Physical Sciences Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.319031
label: catalog number
content: 319031
label: accession number
content: 236080
objectType: label: Object Name
content: print
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 1/4 in x 10 1/2 in; 20.955 cm x 26.67 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 1/2 in x 15 1/2 in x 1 in; 34.29 cm x 39.37 cm x 2.54 cm