æThe Common Purposes of LifeÆ: Science and Society at the Royal Institution of Great Britain

by James,Frank A.J.L.

• ISBN13: 9780754609605
• ISBN10: 075460960X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

For more than two hundred years the Royal Institution has been at the centre of scientific research and has provided a cultural location for science in Britain. Within its walls some of the major scientific figures of the last two centuries - such as Humphry Davy, Michael Faraday, John Tyndall, James Dewar, Lord Rayleigh, William Henry Bragg, Henry Dale, Eric Rideal, William Lawrence Bragg and George Porter - carried out much of their research, with discoveries from sodium to x-ray crystallography. The success of the Royal Institution in research and in locating science within general culture led it to being used as a model for other institutions, most notably by the founders of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Much has been written about the scientific work in the Royal Institution, but much less about the cultural settings which allowed it to become such a major site for the creation of scientific knowledge. The purpose of this book is to examine these aspects of its history.

Author Biography

Frank James is Reader in the History of Science at the Royal Institution where he is also Keeper of Collection William H. Brock, University of Leicester J.D. Burchfield, Northern Illinois University Sophie Forgan, University of Teesside Jeff Hughes, University of Manchester Frank A.J.L. James, Royal Institution David Knight, University of Durham G.M. Prescott, Royal Institution Viviane Quirke, Oxford Brookes University H.J.V. Tyrrell, Royal Institution Katherine D. Watson, Oxford Brookes University

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii
Preface	ix
Susan Greenfield
Acknowledgements	xi
Notes on Contributors	xiii
Abbreviations	xv
Introduction	1	(16)
Frank A.J.L. James
`A national treasure house of a unique kind' (W.L. Bragg): Some Reflections on Two Hundred Years of Institutional History	17	(26)
Sophie Forgan
Acquiring and Constructing the Royal Institution in Mayfair	43	(16)
H.J.V. Tyrrell
Forging Identity: The Royal Institution's Visual Collections	59	(38)
G.M. Prescott
Establishing the Royal Institution: Rumford, Banks and Davy	97	(22)
David Knight
Running the Royal Institution: Faraday as an Administrator	119	(28)
Frank A.J.L. James
John Tyndall at the Royal Institution	147	(22)
J.D. Burchfield
Exploring the Hyperarctic: James Dewar at the Royal Institution	169	(22)
William H. Brock
`Temporary Hotel Accommodation'? The Early History of the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory, 1894--1923	191	(34)
Katherine D. Watson
Craftsmanship and Social Service: W.H. Bragg and the Modern Royal Institution	225	(24)
Jeff Hughes
`A Big Happy Family': The Royal Institution under William and Lawrence Bragg, and the History of Molecular Biology	249	(24)
Viviane Quirke
L'affaire Andrade or how not to Modernise a Traditional Institution	273	(32)
Frank A.J.L. James
Viviane Quirke
Appendix 1: Fifty Years at the Royal Institution	305	(12)
Ralph Cory
Appendix 2: Some Memories of the Royal Institution and its Laboratories 1900-1950	317	(14)
W.J. Green
Appendix 3: Officers and Staff of the Royal Institution 1799-2002	331	(10)
Appendix 4: Biographical Register	341	(72)
Bibliography	413	(14)
Index	427