Title

Chemical lecture, 1802. Artist: James Gillray

Caption

Chemical lecture; 'Scientific Researches! - New Discoveries in Pneumaticks! or - an Experimental Lecture on the Powers of Air!', 1802. A shocked audience witnesses experiments with laughing gas at the Royal Institution. A volunteer has a tube inserted into his mouth, the consequence of which is the blowing out of the seat of his trousers; a member of the audience holds his nose at the stink. Thomas Garnett is the lecturer and Humphry Davy is operating the hydraulic bellows filled with laughing gas. Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, the founder of the Royal Institution, is standing near the doorway.
Oxford Science Archive

Date

1802

Credit line

Photo12/Heritage Images

Reference

HRM19B63_357

Model release

No

License type

Rights managed

Available size

18,0Mb (3,2Mb) / 9,9in x 7,1in / 2970 x 2116 (300dpi)

Keywords

animal London Humphry Davy Sir Benjamin Thompson Count von Rumford Graf von Rumford Garnett Gillray James England female women woman people male job man men education laughing wind audience air science oxygen guy occupation research color colour humour frog amphibian dress explosion gas laboratory scientist chemistry experiment Westminster century profession laughter lecture trousers lecturer clothing lady concept shocked smell blast element laboratory equipment Scientific Instrument 19th century laughing gas hydrogen Educational Institution nineteenth century bellows City of Westminster Oxford Science Archive breaking wind fart pneumatics Royal Institution scientific institution TGN Benjamin Thompson Humphry Davy Thomas Garnett Thompson etching caricature satire Thomas Benjamin James Gillray etching caricature satire