A lecture on pneumatics at the Royal Institution, London. Coloured etching by J. Gillray, 1802.

  • Gillray, James, 1756-1815.
Date:
May 23 1802
Reference:
1i
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A lecture on pneumatics at the Royal Institution, London. Coloured etching by J. Gillray, 1802. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Description

A gathering of twenty-five ladies and gentlemen in the lecture hall of the Royal Institution, London. The lecturer, identified by M.D. George as Thomas Young, demonstrates the effect of nitrous oxide by inserting a pipe attached to tubing into the mouth of Sir J.C. Hippisley whose breeches are burst by a fiery explosion. Next to the lecturer stands Humphry Davy, holding bellows. Before him are an air pump containing a frog, two vessels marked "Hydrogen" and "Oxigen", a pig's bladder, a windmill, and a bell jar. In the preparation room behind is a Nairn electrostatic machine. Among the fashionable audience are Count von Rumford and Lord Stanhope

Publication/Creation

[London] (St. James's Street) : H. Humphrey, May 23 1802.

Physical description

1 print : etching, with watercolour

Lettering

Scientific researches! - New discoveries in pneumaticks! -or- an experimental lecture on the powers of air. - J.s. Gillray inv. & fect.

References note

T. Wright, The works of James Gillray, 1873, p. 289
M.D. George, Catalogue of political and personal satires in the British Museum, 1947, vol. 10, No. 9923

Reference

Wellcome Collection 1i

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