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Lectures on natural philosophy in London, 1750–1765: S. C. T. Demainbray (1710–1782) and the ‘Inattention’ of his countrymen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

A. Q. Morton
A. Q. Morton
Affiliation:
Science Museum, South Kensington, London SW7 2DD.
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Extract

Over the last forty years several historians have drawn attention to aspects of the activities of lecturers on natural philosophy in Britain in the eighteenth century. Hans and others looked at the part these lecturers played in the development of education, particularly adult education. Musson and Robinson considered the possible connection between the work of the lecturers and the growth of industry, and Inkster and others have explored the relationship between lecturers and the institutions set up to support science, especially around 1800.4 More recently, Schaffer has pointed to the parallels between the performances of the lecturers on natural philosophy and other contemporary cultural activities. As a consequence of these studies we know much more about the work of the lecturers, its significance, and, to a lesser extent, their relationship to their audience.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , December 1990 , pp. 411 - 434
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1990

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References

1 I should like to thank many friends and colleagues who assisted me in the preparation of this paper including Jane Wess, G.L'E Turner, Steven Shapin, James Secord, J. Millburn, Ghislaine Lawrence, Margaret Fagan, D.J. Bryden, Robert Bud and Tim Boon.

2 For a general account of the development of scientific lecturing see Heilbron, John L., Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries. A study of early modern physics, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1979.Google Scholar

3 See Hans, N., New Trends in Education in the Eighteenth Century, London, 1951Google Scholar, and Inkster, Ian, ‘The public lecture as an instrument of science education for adults—the case of Great Britain, c. 1750–1850’, Paedagogica Historica, (1980), 20, pp. 80–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Musson, A.E. and Robinson, E., Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution, Manchester, 1969.Google Scholar See Inkster, Ian, ‘Science and Society in the Metropolis: A preliminary examination of the social and institutional context of the Askesian Society of London, 1796–1807’, Annals of Science, (1977), 34, pp. 1–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and also Inkster, Ian and Morrell, Jack (eds), Metropolis and Province. Science in British culture 1780–1850, London, 1983.Google Scholar

5 See Schaffer, S., ‘Natural Philosophy and Public Spectacle in the Eighteenth Century’, History of Science, (1983), 21, pp. 1–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

6 See Desaguliers, J.T., A Course of Experimental Philosophy, 2nd edn, London, 2 vols 1744, 1745Google Scholar, Introduction. The lists of subscribers to such books is another possible source of information about some of the audience, though not all attending lectures would buy books (or vice versa). See Millburn, John R., An analysis of the subscribers to George Adams Junior's Lectures on natural and experimental philosophy (1794), AylesburyGoogle Scholar, 1985, and R.V. and Wallis, P.J., Biobibliography of British Mathematics and its Applications Part Il 1701–1760, Letchworth, 1988.Google Scholar

7 See Chaldecott, J.A., Handbook of the King George III Collection of Scientific Instruments, London, 1951Google Scholar and A. Q. Morton and J. A. Wess forthcoming.

8 See Holmes, Geoffrey, Augustan England. Professions, State and Society 1680–1730, London, 1982Google Scholar and Schaffer, S. in Porter, Roy et al. (eds), Science and Profit in 18th-Century London, Cambridge, 1985.Google Scholar

9 See Heilbron, op. cit. (2) pp. 162–163Google Scholar, and Cantor, G.N., Optics after Newton Theories of light in Britain and Ireland, 1704–1840, Manchester, 1983, p. 51.Google Scholar

10 See Rudé, George, Hanoverian London 1714–1808, London, 1971Google Scholar, especially pp. xi and 69, and Paulson, Ronald, Popular and Polite Art in the Age of Hogarth and Fielding, Notre Dame, 1979.Google Scholar

11 If the outline of these changes can be established then it may be possible to make a more detailed study of these changes by looking at the individuals who were members of the Society of Arts or those who took a medical training. See McKendrick, Neil ‘George Packwood and the Commercialization of Shaving. The Art of Eighteenth-century Advertising’ in Brewer, McKendrick J. and Plumb, J. H. (eds), The Birth of a Consumer Society. The Commercialization of Eighteenth-century England London, 1982Google Scholar, for another study.

12 The only extensive account of Demainbray's life is Rigaud, Gibbes, ‘Dr. Demainbray and the King's Observatory at Kew’, The Observatory, (1882), 5, No. 66, pp. 279–285Google Scholar, from which most of the information about his early years has been taken.

13 The Newcastle Courant for 11/18 03 1749Google Scholar mentioned that Demainbray's ‘…Knowledge and extensive Apparatus are allowed to be little inferior, if not equal to those of his Master the late Doctor Desaguliers…’

14 See Caledonian Mercury 12 07 1744, No. 3716.Google Scholar See also other advertisements No. 3737 30 August 1744, No. 3899 9 October 1745, No. 3963 7 March 1746. I am grateful to D.J. Bryden for providing these references. See also Law, Alexander, ‘Teachers in Edinburgh in the Eighteenth Century’, Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, (1966), 32, pp. 108–157.Google Scholar

15 Newcastle Courant 11/18 03 1749Google Scholar mentions that Demainbray had given a course of forty-six lectures in Edinburgh. The Newcastle Gazette of 5 04 1749Google Scholar advertises the start of Demainbray's course on the following day. The Newcastle Journal 13 05 1749Google Scholar mentions that Demainbray was about to leave for Durham. See Robinson, F.J.G., Trends in Education in Northern England during the Eighteenth Century: A Biographical Study, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Newcastle, 1972, vol ii.Google Scholar Demainbray is indexed as D187. Robinson suggests Demainbray was in Durham in July, Sunderland in August and York in December that year. See Plumb, p. 328Google Scholar in McKendrick, et al. op. cit. (11) for Leeds.Google Scholar

16 Edinburgh Evening Courant 28 08 1750.Google Scholar Demainbray's LLD diploma dated 26 July 1750 is in Aberdeen University Archives (MSS 2045/1). See also Anderson, P.J., Officers and Graduates of University and King's College Aberdeen MVD-MDCCCLX, Aberdeen, 1893, p. 111Google Scholar for an entry ‘Doctor of Laws 1750 July 26 Dr Stephanus Demembray, Armiger’. I am indebted to Dr J.S. Reid for this last reference.

17 In Dublin he was in contact with James Simon, a wine-merchant, who corresponded with Henry Baker. See the Baker correspondence in the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester. I am grateful to Professor G.L'E. Turner for drawing my attention to this correspondence. See Turner, G.L'E., ‘Scientific Toys’, British Journal for the History of Science, (1987), 20, pp. 377–398, especially p. 380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 For Bordeaux see Barrière, P., L'Académie de Bordeaux. Centre de culture internationale au XVIIIe siècle (1712–1792), Bordeaux and Paris, 1951.Google Scholar A set of notes taken by Pere Chabrol of Demainbray's lectures given in Bordeaux survives in the Bibliothèque Municipale there. On 13 May 1753 Demainbray was elected ‘academicien associe’ of ‘l'academie des belles lettres, sciences et arts’ at Bordeaux. (Extract of register, Aberdeen University MSS 2045/3.)

19 See Rigaud, op. cit. (12), p. 280.Google Scholar Demainbray had had a ‘lettre de correspondant’ from ‘La Société Royale des Sciences de Montpellier’ dated 31 01 1754.Google Scholar According to that extract ‘Mr Triboudette de Maimbray’ was also a member of the academies of Bordeaux and Toulouse by that time. (Extract Aberdeen University Archives 2045/4.) On 3 May 1754 ‘Mr Triboudet de Maimbray’ became an associate academician of ‘La Société Royale de Lyon’ (Aberdeen University MSS 2045/5.) The syllabuses of several of Demainbray's lecture courses are in the Museum for the History of Science in Oxford. Demainbray, Stephen, A short account of a course of natural and experimental philosophy: consisting of 40 lectures …, nd [1750–1752]Google Scholar, Demainbray, Triboudette, Programme, ou idée générale d'un cours de physique expérimentale, en trente-quatre leçons…, nd [1753].Google ScholarDe Mainbray, Triboudet, Programme, ou idée générale d'un cours de physique expérimentale, en trente-quatre leçons…, nd [1754].Google Scholar Desaguliers had an earlier connection with the Bordeaux Academy. See Heilbron, , op. cit. (2), pp. 280, 293–294.Google Scholar See also Barrière, , op. cit. (18), p. 136Google Scholar and McClellan, James E., Science Reorganized. Scientific Societies in the Eighteenth Century, New York, 1985, p. 135.Google Scholar See Roche, Daniel, Le siècle des lumières en province. Académies et académiciens provinciaux, 1680–1789, 2 vols, Paris, vol i pp. 257–258.Google Scholar

20 Roche, , op. cit. (19), vol i p. 380.Google Scholar

21 See Daily Advertiser Saturday 8 02 1755 no. 7492 p. 2.Google Scholar A syllabus for this course of lectures, Demainbray, Triboudet, A short account of a course of natural and experimental philosophy. Consisting of thirty-four lectures…, nd [1755]Google Scholar, is in the Museum for the History of Science in Oxford. For the quotation about Panton Street (not quite the present day Panton Street) made by Strype in 1755 see Phillips, Hugh, Mid-Georgian London, London, 1964, p. 88.Google Scholar Late in 1757 Demainbray moved to Carey Street. Westminster Local History Library rate books.

22 See Rowbottom, Margaret E., ‘John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683–1744)’, Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of London, (1968), 21, pp. 196–218Google Scholar, also ‘The Teaching of Experimental Philosophy in England, 1700–1730’, Actes du XIe Congres International d'Histoire des Sciences, (1965), 4, pp. 46–53Google Scholar, Heilbron, (1979) op. cit. (2)Google Scholar, Stewart, Larry, ‘Public Lectures and Private Patronage in Newtonian England’, Isis, (1986), 77, pp. 47–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarThackray, Arnold, ‘The business of experimental philosophy’, Actes du XIIe Congres International d'Histoire des Sciences, (1971), 3B, pp. 155–159.Google Scholar

23 Hodgson died in 1755 but for many years he had been teaching at Christ's Hospital and had not given public lectures.

24 Some of the lecturers, e.g. Desaguliers and Hauksbee, did have affiliations with the Royal Society and lectures were given at the Academy in Little Tower Street. Desaguliers himself had lectured at Oxford University before coming to London and Whiston had done the same in Cambridge. For Oxford see Simcock, A.V., The Ashmolean Museum and Oxford Science 1683–1983, Oxford, 1984Google Scholar, and Turner, G.L'E., ‘The Physical Sciences’ pp. 659–681 in Sutherland, L.S. and Mitchell, L.G. (eds), The History of the University of Oxford, vol v, The Eighteenth Century, Oxford, 1986.Google Scholar For Cambridge see Gascoigne, John, ‘Politics, Patronage and Newtonianism: the Cambridge example’, The Historical Journal, (1984), 27, pp. 1–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Cowing, Ronald, Roger Cotes – natural philosopher, Cambridge, 1983.Google Scholar

25 See Force, James E., William Whiston Honest Newtonian, Cambridge, 1985Google Scholar, and Farrell, Maureen, The Life and Work of William Whiston, New York, 1981.Google Scholar So did Stirling, a supporter of the House of Stuart, who had found Oxford University uncongenial after he had spent some time in jail for his part in a riot on the birthday of the new king, George I. See Tweedie, Charles, James Stirling. A sketch of his life and works along with his scientific correspondence, Oxford, 1922Google Scholar, and Rigaud, S.P., ‘Some account of James Stirling FRS’, Edinburgh Journal of Science, (1831), 5, pp. 191–196.Google Scholar

26 See Millburn, John R., Benjamin Martin Author, Instrument-Maker, and ‘Country Showman’, Leyden, 1976CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ‘The London Evening Courses of Benjamin Martin and James Ferguson, Eighteenth-Century Lecturers on Experimental Philosophy’, Annals of Science, (1983), 40, pp. 437–455Google Scholar, Ferguson, James's Lecture Tour of the English Midlands 1771’, Annals of Science, (1985), 42, pp. 397–415Google Scholar, Benjamin Martin … Supplement, London, 1986Google Scholar, ‘The Office of Ordnance and the Instrument-Making Trade in the Mid-Eighteenth Century’, Annals of Science, (1988), 45, pp. 221–293Google Scholar, and Millburn, John R. with King, H.C., Wheelwright of the Heavens. The Life and Work of James Ferguson, FRS, London, 1988.Google Scholar

27 These individuals seem to have had no significant dealings with institutions connected with science. Consequently neither the records of an institution nor the ready made cohort of members exist which would allow, for example, ready use of the approaches demonstrated so effectively by Shapin, Steven and Thackray, Arnold, ‘Prosopography as a Research Tool in History of Science: the British Scientific Community 1700–1900’, History of Science, (1974), 12, pp. 1–28CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed, and Thackray, A., ‘Natural Knowledge in cultural context: The Manchester Model’, American Historical Review, (1974), 79, pp. 672–709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar But because these individuals were working before many of the institutions that later existed to sustain natural philosophy, in this respect the lecturers have a particular interest. For later developments see Inkster, (1977) op. cit. (4)Google Scholar and the articles by both Hays, J.N. ‘The London lecturing empire, 1800–50 and I. Inkster ‘Introduction’Google Scholar in Inkster, and Morrell, (1983) op. cit. (4).Google Scholar See also Porter in Bynum, W.F. and Porter, R. (eds), William Hunter and the Eighteenth-Century Medical World, Cambridge, 1985.Google Scholar

28 See Cranfield, G.A., The Development of the Provincial Newspaper 1700–1760, Oxford, 1962, p. 216.Google Scholar For a discussion of the coming of print and its effect on technical literature for an earlier period see Eisenstein, Elizabeth L., The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, 2 vols, Cambridge, 1979, vol ii pp. 520 ff.Google Scholar Many of her concerns seem relevant to a study of natural philosophy in the mid-eighteenth century. Printing had many effects on Natural Philosophy. It meant syllabuses and books, some published by the lecturers under discussion but there were a host of others, the text of lectures by Desaguliers, 'sGravesande, Nollet, for example. These were read and assimilated or plagiarized, according to taste, but they did help to establish patterns for lecture courses in experimental philosophy.

29 See Rudé, , op. cit. (10), p. 78.Google Scholar Similarly, in the rest of England there were no newspapers in 1700 and about 130 by 1760. See Cranfield, , op. cit. (28), p. v.Google Scholar

30 See Harris, Michael, London Newspapers in the Age of Walpole, London and Toronto, 1987, p. 190Google Scholar and Werkmeister, Lucyle, A Newspaper History of England 1792–1793, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1967, p. 30.Google Scholar

31 See Porter, Roy, Health for Sale, Manchester, 1989.Google Scholar The printers of the papers had a distribution network which could be used to sell small expensive items such as medicines. See Cranfield, , op. cit. (28), p. 249.Google Scholar John Newbery, for example, who had an interest in the Reading Mercury and published the early works of Benjamin Martin, also had a share in Dr James's Fever Powder.

32 See Daily Advertiser Monday 1 11 1742 No. 3727 p. 1.Google Scholar His cure did not require the use of quicksilver.

33 See below note 34. Questions of status became particularly acute if individuals became involved in medical matters. King on one occasion was forced to deny ‘impudent advertisements’ which had stated that he had carried out various experiments on Iron Pear-Tree Water. See Daily Advertiser Monday 20 10 1755, No. 7727.Google Scholar

34 The earliest advertisement for King's lectures I have seen is in the Daily Advertiser for Wednesday 23 12 1741Google Scholar, No. 3409, announcing the end of a course. See Millburn, , (1986) op. cit. (26), p. 10.Google Scholar King lectured at Lambeth, see Nichols, op. cit. (33), vol iiGoogle Scholar in the section on the history of the parish of Lambeth, p. 66 “Mr Erasmus King 1, at the same time, read lectures and exhibited experiments on natural philosophy; admittance 6d.” The footnote reads ‘1 Who had been coachman to Dr Desaguliers, and read lectures at 1s each person, at North's Coffee house, in King-street, Cheapside, about 1750 or 51, and at his own house at the head of St Martin's court, near the King's Mews, where his wife kept a lace-shop; and on his death retired to Bath, where she is still living.’ As well as lecturing King had been involved in trials of a sea-gauge designed by Hales in the Baltic. See King, Erasmus, Catalogue of the Experiments made by Mr King, in his Course of Natural Philosophy, London?, [1750].Google Scholar He had also carried out some experiments on electricity after Demainbray had reported the results of his own experiments on the electrification of myrtle bushes performed while he was in Edinburgh. See Gentleman's Magazine, (1747), 17, pp. 80–81, 102.Google Scholar

35 For Jack see Dictionary of National Biography.

36 Ferguson was born in 1710, the same year as Demainbray. As well as lecturing in London he toured the provinces, see Millburn, 1985Google Scholar, and Millburn, and King, 1988, op. cit. (26).Google Scholar He was the only one of these lecturers to be a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was elected in 1763 at his own suggestion made in a letter which delicately mentioned he was able to pay his subscription. Ferguson died in 1776.

37 He continued to lecture until 1773 when he retired, afflicted by gout, and died in 1782. From 1777 Benjamin Donn gave lectures using Martin's premises. See Millburn, (1986) op. cit. (26), p. 38.Google Scholar

38 See Millburn, 1976, op. cit. (26), p. 35.Google Scholar

39 Newberry seems a shadowy figure. It is unlikely that he is a close relation of John Newbery, the publisher, since none of the standard works dealing with the publisher mentions this Newberry. The Daily Advertiser for Tuesday 23 11 1762Google Scholar, No. 9946 contains an advertisement from Newberry mentioning that he was Professor of Mathematics and Navigation, Corps of Noble Cadets at St Petersburgh, a post he may have held from around the time of an earlier reference to him in an advertisement by Richardson, , Daily Advertiser Wednesday 1 10 1755.Google Scholar

40 For another example of rivalry between lecturers being apparent from newspapers see Robinson, F.G.J., ‘A philosophic war: an episode in Eighteenth-Century scientific lecturing in North-East England.’ Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, (1970), 2, pp. 101–109.Google Scholar

41 Croker offered a course on Experimental Magnetism. Daily Advertiser Thursday, 27 11 1760 No. 9326p. 1.Google Scholar

42 Demainbray advertised a course to begin on Monday 2 November 1761. See Daily Advertiser for the date No. 9617 p. 2 It was a ‘Popular and Practical Course of Experimental Philosophy’, the cost was one and a half guineas and subscriptions were taken by Mr Frost, Cap-Maker in Carey Street. The course was not advertised after 3 November, suggesting that he was not successful in finding an audience.

43 Martin advertised his course on Tuesday 5 November 1765 to begin the following Monday but a severe fit of gout meant he was unable to lecture. See Daily Advertiser Nos 10872, 10877 p. 2.Google Scholar

44 In March 1755 he offered a course on Globes, etc.

45 In 1756 Oliver lectured on a model fortification at the shop of Bennet, a mathematical instrument-maker.

46 By comparison, a woman silkwinder in Spitalfields was hired for three shillings a week, labourers and journeymen in the lower-paid trades got between nine and fifteen shillings and a jeweller, instrument-maker or chair carver, £3–4 a week. Rudé, , op. cit. (10), p. 88.Google Scholar Rudé also says that in the 1730s tickets for the theatre were between one shilling (gallery) to three shillings (in a box) and that admission to Ranelagh was two shillings and sixpence in 1742.

47 One of the few explicit references to the audience in the advertisements in the Daily Advertiser is in the issue for Saturday 29 December 1750, No. 6232 p. 2 where King informs the ‘Nobility and Gentry’ that he has finished the most complete Astronomical Apparatus in Europe.

48 They lived in Leicester House, Leicester Fields (today the site of Leicester Square) not far from Demainbray in Panton Street.

49 The Royal Account of the Privy Purse for 1755 records that on May 14 he was paid £210 for a ‘Course of Natural & Experimental Philosophy for their Royal Highnesses’. (RA 55692). See also Brooke, J., King George III, London, 1972, p. 43.Google Scholar Lord Bute, who was responsible for the education of the princes, had his own large collection of apparatus. See Turner, G.L'E., ‘The Auction Sale of the Earl of Bute's instruments, 1793’, Annals of Science, (1967), 23, pp. 213–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Boswell had an allowance of £200 in 1763 when he arrived in London.

50 Demainbray's course was advertised to begin on Monday 20 November 1758. There were no advertise ments for it after Friday 24 November suggesting he stopped lecturing around then. He seems to have made one final attempt to lecture in November 1761 see note (42) but again there were only a few advertisements suggesting that his course was not successful.

51 Daily Advertiser Saturday 8 02 1755, No. 7492 p. 2.Google Scholar

52 Ibid., Friday 1 March 1754, No. 7215. Earlier Desaguliers had said in his advertisements, ‘Note, Ladies attend the Lectures as well as Gentlemen’, Daily Advertiser Thursday 19 11 1741, No. 3380.Google Scholar

53 Ibid., Wednesday April 5 1758, No. 8497.

54 Desaguliers had advertised his premises as an Experimental Room. Perhaps it was unfinished!

55 Daily Advertiser, Friday 8 11 1754, No. 7413 p. 2.Google Scholar

56 See Stewart, , op. cit. (22).Google Scholar

57 Daily Advertiser, Wednesday 19 11 1755, No. 7753 p. 2.Google Scholar

58 Ibid., Thursday 2 November 1758, No. 8678 p. 2. Ferguson had sold an earlier one by subscription. See the Daily Advertiser, Friday 8 03 1754, No. 7221 p. 2.Google Scholar Some years before Desaguliers had objected to ‘pompous orreries’. See Daily Advertiser, Monday 2 11 1741, No. 3365 p. 2.Google Scholar Another novel piece of apparatus was the Glass Sphere invented by Dr Long, Cambridge. See Daily Advertiser, Monday 24 03 1755, No. 7547 p. 2.Google Scholar

59 Ibid., Monday 20 March 1758, No. 8483 p. 2. This model is now in the Science Museum, Inventory No. 1927–1641.

60 Ibid., Thursday 30 March 1758 No. 8492. p. 2.

61 Ibid., Tuesday 18 November 1755.

62 Ibid., Tuesday 8 November 1757, p. 2.

63 Ibid., Saturday 22 December 1753, No. 7156 p. 2.

64 Ibid., Saturday 15 December 1759, No. 9018 p. 2.

65 In 1755 Newberry offered a course on just Geography and Astronomy. Daily Advertiser, Wednesday 12 03Google Scholar. Ferguson had begun by lecturing just on Astronomy but after he bought further apparatus from King and others he included other topics. Millburn has suggested that some of the apparatus—which may have originally belonged to Desaguliers—was sold by King to Ferguson in April 1758. Millburn, 1985 op. cit. (26), p. 403Google Scholar, Millburn, and King, 1988, op. cit. (26).Google Scholar The interesting questions to answer would be why particular combinations of topics were offered and how they came to be defined.

66 Daily Advertiser, Friday 27 09 1754, No. 7395 p. 2.Google Scholar

67 Ibid., No. 7808, Thursday 22 January 1756, p. 2 for advertisements for both King and Demainbray's lectures on earthquakes. They both gave many lectures that month on earthquakes responding to the ‘late melancholy Catastrophe at Lisbon’.

68 Ibid., Wednesday 5 March 1755, No. 7531 p. 2. Both Martin and Oliver also offered lectures on fortification.

69 Ibid., Tuesday 30 November 1756.

70 Demainbray, to Ellis, 20 08 1756.Google Scholar Ellis Correspondence. I am grateful to the Linnean Society of London for permission to quote from this correspondence.

71 Daily Advertiser, Saturday 19 11 1757.Google Scholar

72 One way in which the press exacerbated the problems of those involved in the trade of natural philosophy was because the cost of advertising in the newspapers was considerable. The charge for one advertisement of ‘reasonable length’ in the Daily Advertiser was two shillings at the beginning of the 1750s and three shillings by the end, a result of the Stamp Act of 1757 which raised the tax on an advertisement by one shilling. As this cost was equivalent to the income from two, and later three, people at the lecture each evening, and at a time when audiences were dwindling, it is hardly surprising that the long and frequent adverts found at the start of this period gave way to fewer and terser by the end.

73 See London Magazine, (1760) 29, p. 107Google Scholar for 27 January 1760 which records King's death. I am grateful to Dr J. Appleby for this reference.

74 Quoted in Henderson, Ebenezer, Life of James Ferguson, FRS, in a brief autobiographical account…, 2nd edn, Edinburgh, London and Glasgow, 1870, p. 225Google Scholar and Millburn, and King, (1988) op. cit. (26), p. 93.Google Scholar

75 See Millburn, and King, (1988) op. cit. (26), p. 94.Google Scholar

76 See Labaree, Leonard W. (ed.) The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, voi viii, April 1, 1758 through December 31, 1759, New Haven, 1965, p. 416.Google Scholar

77 Daily Advertiser, Tuesday 14 11 1758, No. 8688 p. 2.Google Scholar See the anonymous adverts e.g. Daily Advertiser Friday 2 03, No. 8781 p. 2Google Scholar for a lecture at the Dove and Rainbow, the venue used by Griffiss for lectures on similar subjects.

78 See Fawcett, Trevor, ‘Popular Science in 18th-Century Norwich’, History Today, (1972), 22, pp. 590–595, p. 591Google Scholar who quotes Griffiss as advertising in Norwich in 1764 that his ‘…Instruments to be disposed of, or a Partner will be accepted.’ In 1766 Griffiss (or Griffith) sold his apparatus to Adam Walker. See Musson, and Robinson, op. cit. (4), p. 105Google Scholar who refer to an advertisement in the Manchester Mercury and Hans, , op. cit. (3), pp. 146–148.Google Scholar

79 See the advertisement by Snead, , Daily Advertiser, Friday 25 11 1757, No. 8385 p. 2.Google Scholar See also Altick, R. D., The Shows of London, London, 1978Google Scholar, especially Chapter II.

80 Daily Advertiser, Monday 12 12 1757.Google Scholar

81 Nichols, John, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, New YorkGoogle Scholar, Kraus Reprint, 1966, vol v p. 487. Desaguliers, likewise, reported the activities of a strongman that he saw off. ‘I don't hear that any of these Sampsons have attempted to impose upon People in the same manner in or near London.’ Desaguliers, , op. cit. (6) vol i p. 265.Google Scholar

82 Daily Advertiser, 5 01 1751, No. 5925 p. 1.Google Scholar

83 Ibid., Monday 10 April 1758, p. 2 No. 8501.

84 Ibid., January 14 1755, No. 7470 p. 2 ‘Physico-Chemical Lectures’.

85 Ibid., Monday 7 March 1757, No. 8159 p. 2 ‘Chemistry and Pharmacy’.

86 See Golinski, J.V., ‘Utility and Audience in Eighteenth-Century Chemistry: Case Studies of William Cullen and Joseph Priestley’, British Journal for the History of Science, (1988), 21, pp. 1–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

87 Brock, C. Helen in ‘The Happiness of Riches’Google Scholar in Bynum, and Porter, op. cit. (27) p. 38Google Scholar suggests that Hunter had an income of a few hundred pounds a year from lecturing after expenses.

88 Cf. Ferguson, Martin, etc.

89 Daily Advertiser, Monday 1 09 1755, No. 7685 p. 2.Google Scholar

90 Rudé, , op. cit. (10) p. 84Google Scholar who mentions the following hospitals, Westminster 1720–1724, Guy's 1725, St George's 1734, London 1740, Middlesex 1745. Bynum, W.F., ‘Physicians, hospitals and career structures in eighteenth-century London’Google Scholar, in Bynum, and Porter, , op. cit. (27).Google Scholar

91 Daily Advertiser, 16 12 1756, No. 8090 p. 2.Google Scholar See also a further advertisement by Jenty and Ingram, Ibid. 18 November 1758 No. 8692 ‘Gentlemen continue to be speedily qualified either for the Navy or the Army, &c.’.

92 Recent articles which deal with these issues are Gelfand, Toby ‘Invite the philosopher…’Google Scholar in Bynum, and Porter, , op. cit. (27)Google Scholar and Lawrence, Susan C., ‘Entrepreneurs and private enterprise: the development of medical lecturing in London, 1775–1820’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, (1988), 62, pp. 171–192.Google Scholar

93 The Royal College of Physicians had a different arrangement—an MD was required, that is being a student at Oxford or Cambridge.

94 See Lobb's advertisement Daily Advertiser, 1 11 1750Google Scholar who offered courses for those for ‘Sea or Country service’ for ‘Surgeons, Apothecaries who act as Physicians’.

95 St Bartholomew's ran courses on anatomy from 1738 and on surgery from 1765. See Rude, , op. cit. (10), p. 84.Google Scholar

96 See Emerson, William, The Principles of Mechanics explaining and demonstrating the general laws of motion …, London, 2nd edn, 1758, title page.Google Scholar

97 James Jurin lectured in Newcastle and became a Secretary of the Royal Society. Francis Hauksbee Jr and J. Robertson were lecturers who became the Librarian and Clerk at the Royal Society in succession. It is significant that the post of curator of experiments at the Royal Society was not filled when Desaguliers relinquished it in 1743. Another lecturer who did other things was Benjamin Robins, a candidate for professor at the Military Academy at Woolwich, who worked for the East India Co., and died at Madras in 1751. See Gunther, A.E., An introduction to the life of the Rev. Thomas Birch DD FRS 1705–1766, Halesworth, 1984Google Scholar, and Dictionary of National Biography. In discussing whether there was a group identity for those who lectured on natural philosophy it must be significant that on the rare occasions they described their trades both Jack and Ferguson called themselves teachers of Mathematicks. There were some institutions in the 1750s with an interest in natural philosophy, the Spitalfields Mathematical Society, the Royal Society, and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. Later, when natural philosophy was found a setting in institutions towards the end of the century, new institutions had to be created. See Inkster, (1977) op. cit. (4)Google Scholar and Hays in Inkster, and Morrell, op. cit. (27).Google Scholar

98 Daily Advertiser, Thursday 25 11 1742, No. 3698 p. 2.Google Scholar The advertisement by Dr Spence mentions courses in Experimental Philosophy, Astronomy, Chymistry, Anatomy, Physiology. Spence or Spencer eventually emigrated to America where he sold his apparatus to Benjamin Franklin, see Franklin, Benjamin, The Autobiography and other writings, (ed. Silverman, Kenneth), New York, 1986, p. 171Google Scholar and note. James Jurin (see note 97) lectured on natural philosophy to earn enough money to train as a physician at Cambridge.

99 King, e.g. Daily Advertiser, Saturday 12 10 1754, No. 7390 p. 2Google Scholar, Griffiss, , 8 12 1757, No. 8396 p. 2Google Scholar and Martin, Friday 5 12 1760, No. 9333 p. 2.Google Scholar Interestingly King also had another lecture in which an ‘Air Pump and Condensing Engine will be dissected’ Daily Advertiser, Saturday 9 12 1751.Google Scholar This suggests he thought this was the correct procedure to adopt.

100 Ibid., Wednesday 23 November 1748.

101 Ibid., Monday 5 December 1748, No. 5589 p. 2 and Saturday 12 October 1754, No. 7390 p. 2.

102 Ibid., for Newberry Wednesday 11 December 1754, No. 7441 p. 2.

103 See Erlam, H.D., ‘Alexander Monro, primus’, University of Edinburgh Journal (1954), 17, pp. 77–105, 81Google Scholar and Lawrence, C.J., ‘Alexander Monro Primus and the Edinburgh Manner of Anatomy’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, (1988), 62, pp. 193–214.Google Scholar

104 One interesting example to do with the dissection of bodies is that after the Barbers and Surgeons had gone their separate ways, the Company of Barbers Theatre for Anatomical Lectures had to be pulled down. See the Daily Advertiser, Monday 23 09 1754, No. 7391 p. 2.Google Scholar

105 In the 1720s Cheselden, the celebrated lecturer on Anatomy, collaborated with Francis Hauksbee to offer ‘anatomy for entertainment’ where dissections were not carried out but demonstrations were, using special instruments designed by Hauksbee. See Holmes, , op. cit. (8), p. 234.Google Scholar Some aspects of these issues will be addressed in Morton and Wess (forthcoming).

106 Daily Advertiser Thursday 17 03 1757Google Scholar, No. 8168 p. 1. Demainbray's Wind Gun is in the Science Museum, Inventory No. 1927–1472.

107 Ibid., Monday 7 March 1757, No. 8158 p. 2. Earlier Rackstrow had disturbed other boundaries by offering beatification by electrical means. He had also shown a ‘Figure of Anatomy by Mr Abraham Chovet, surgeon’ Daily Advertiser, Tuesday 21 04 1747Google Scholar, No. 5079 p. 2. This contrasted with Chovet's own advertisement which read ‘Woman chain'd down upon a table…’ Daily Advertiser, Thursday 31 10 1734, No. 1172 p. 1, for example.Google Scholar

108 One facet of the changing audience for natural philosophy was that children began to be seen as consumers of the content of the lecture courses. This was reflected in new literature written especially for children such as the first volume of the lectures of Tom Telescope published by John Newbery in 1761. See Secord, James A., ‘Newton in the Nursery’, History of Science, (1985), 23, pp. 127–151.CrossRefGoogle ScholarMartin's General Magazine had had a section aimed at Young Gentlemen and Ladies, a slightly older age group. See Millburn, 1976, op. cit. (26), pp. 71–75.Google Scholar

109 In 1760 the issues of the Daily Advertiser regularly carried notices for more than a dozen different magazines; The Gentleman's Magazine, London Magazine, Universal Magazine, General Magazine, British Magazine, Imperial Magazine, Royal Female Magazine, Lady's Museum, Royal Magazine, Christians Magazine, Musical Magazine, and Monthly Melody. There was even a Magazine of Magazines. One lecturer, Martin, had himself been involved in publishing magazines in this period. In 1755 his ‘The General Magazine of Arts and Sciences, Philosophical, Philological, Mathematical, and Mechanical…’ appeared which he continued until early 1764. See Millburn, 1976, op. cit. (26), pp. 69–83.Google Scholar

110 Demainbray was drawing an interesting distinction between the sense of hearing used for lectures and sight used in the museum. One irony of history is that while Demainbray's attempt to capitalize on the collections of the British Museum was unsuccessful, his own apparatus has finished up in the Science Museum.

111 Daily Advertiser, Saturday 27 09 1755, No. 7708 p. 2.Google Scholar

112 Ferguson had his own brush with the Society of Arts. See Millburn, and King, (1988), op. cit. (26), p. 93.Google Scholar

113 See Wood, H.T., A History of the Royal Society of Arts, London, 1913Google Scholar, and Allan, D.G.C., William Shipley. Founder of the Royal Society of Arts: a biography with documents, revised edn, London, 1979.Google Scholar In the 1750s Hales was still designing ventilators for ships and prisons, a subject dear to Desaguliers's heart. Baker wrote on microscopes, another form of competition for the lecturers, and Short was a noted maker of telescopes, see Turner, G.L'E., ‘Portrait of James Short…’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, (1967), 22, pp. 105–112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarTurner, G.L'E., ‘Henry Baker FRS, Founder of the Bakerian Lecture’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, (1974), 29, pp. 53–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

114 Hales, Baker and Parsons were all Fellows of the Royal Society. In order to see how generally the points raised in this paper can be applied to London society it will be essential to examine the activities of members of both the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. I am indebted to Dr Allan of the Royal Society of Arts who brought Parsons to my attention.

115 See Nichols, , op. cit. (81 ), vol v p. 479Google Scholar quoting Maty. See also pp. 477–481.

116 Parsons himself was the Chairman of the Agriculture Committee of the Society of Arts.

117 Rousseau, G.S., Tobias Smollett, Edinburgh, 1982, p. 31 quoting Smollett.Google Scholar

118 See Brewer, John, ‘Commercialization and Polities’Google Scholar, Chapter 5 of McKendrick, et al. op. cit. (11), pp. 197–262.Google Scholar

119 In this context it is interesting that the word ‘Sciences’ was quickly dropped from the title of the Society and that agriculture became one of the main interests, presumably a consequence of the number of peers who became members.

120 Brewer, , op. cit. (118), pp. 201, 233.Google Scholar Demainbray was the brother-in-law of John Horne Tooke, a staunch supporter of Wilkes for a while. See Dictionary of National Biography for John Horne Tooke. See also Rudé, George, Wilkes & Liberty. A social study, London, new edn, 1983.Google Scholar

121 Perhaps this speculation can be extended. If the activities of the Society of Arts undermined the work of the lecturers and their programme for natural philosophy and at the same time the members of the Society were opposed to radical ideas, these factors may have contributed to the connection between natural philosophy and radical ideas in a later period to which Schaffer, op. cit. (5)Google Scholar has drawn attention.

122 Daily Advertiser, Wednesday 23 11 1748, p. 2.Google Scholar

123 It was not only societies like the Society of Arts who shared Demainbray's interest in technology. Demainbray lectured about saw-mills shortly before the first saw-mill was set up in London. The owner of the saw-mill, Charles Dingley, was a supporter of the Court and an anti-Radical and must have had much in common with Demainbray who received the patronage of Lord Bute. However, these views were not held by the mob who destroyed the Dingley's saw-mill in 1763. See Rudé, , op. cit. (10), p. 94.Google Scholar

124 See Allan, D.G.C., ‘The Laudable Association of Anti-Gallican's, Royal Society Arts Journal, (1989), 137, pp. 623–628.Google Scholar In fact both the Antigallicans and the Society of Arts had copied the system of premiums from the Dublin Society.

125 Brewer, , op. cit. (118). p. 234.Google Scholar

126 These model carts are in the collection at the Science Museum.

127 Daily Advertiser, Tuesday 2 01 1750, No. 5922 p. 2.Google Scholar

128 Demainbray's manuscript lectures were sold at the auction of Queen Charlotte's Library in 1819.

129 See Porter, Roy, ‘William Hunter: a surgeon and a gentleman’Google Scholar in Bynum, and Porter, , op. cit. (27), p. 25Google Scholar who mentions Joseph Black as another example.

130 Around 1760 becoming interested in the wholesale trade as well. See Daily Advertiser, Saturday 8 11 1760Google Scholar, No. 9320, for example.

131 An Air-Pump ‘fit to adorn a Museum’ was to be sold by subscription in 1758. See Daily Advertiser, Friday 24 03 1758, No. 8487 p. 2.Google Scholar

132 Ibid., Monday 23 December 1751, No. 6538 p. 3. George Adams, for his part, cheerfully plagiarized others in his published works but did not lecture. Perhaps he kept to instrumentmaking presumably because he was busy with his work for the Board of Ordnance or with the business of the Grocers' Company. See Brown, Joyce, Mathematical Instrument-Makers in the Grocers' Company 1699–1800 London, 1979Google Scholar, and Millburn, (1988), op. cit. (26).Google Scholar On Wednesday 29 October 1755, Adams advertised his new globes and a book to go with them; ‘Do it yourself’ lecturing, an instrument maker providing the wherewithal. See Turner, op. cit. (113)Google Scholar for Adams's attitude to Baker's work on the microscope. Baker was a prominent member of the Society of Arts and his publishing on the microscope illustrates the complex overlap of those involved in lecturing and the members of the Society.

133 Daily Advertiser, Wednesday 8 12 1756Google Scholar, No. 8083 and Gentleman's Magazine, (1758), 28, p. 80.Google Scholar Both this pump and another similar one by Sisson are in the Science Museum, Inventory Nos 1927–1251 and 2.

134 Ibid., 13 November 1754, No. 7417.

135 One important aspect of London in the mid-eighteenth century was the development of occupational groups. It is significant that the ‘Optical and Mathematical Instrument-Makers’ had meetings during this period Daily Advertiser, Saturday 30 10 1756Google Scholar, No. 8050 p. 2, Saturday 8 January No. [8110] p. 2. Perhaps this indicates that they now had common interests that fell outside the scope of the different city companies of which the instrument-makers were members. See Brown, , op. cit. (132) and Brewer, op. cit. (118).Google Scholar

136 Millburn, and King, (1988), op. cit. (26), p. 90Google Scholar suggests that there was a complicated arrangement between Ferguson and Martin; that in return for the plates for the globes, Ferguson received instruction from Martin on Optics and Optical Instruments.

137 However, on Wednesday 7 November 1753 the advertisement stated ‘He draws no Pictures of Children under seven Years of Age’, presumably because he had come off the worse in a wrangle with a child of six.

138 King's wife ran a lace-shop which may or may not have a bearing on this argument.

139 Ferguson was another who enjoyed patronage. He got a pension of £50 a year in 1761 from King George III. See Millburn, and King, (1988). op. cit. (26), p. 140.Google Scholar

140 He had several appointments one of which was inspector of unrated East-India goods in the port of London from July 1757. See London Magazine, (1757), 26, p. 365.Google Scholar

141 ‘M. Mainbrai est riche; il a un bon emploi à l'accise. Il est dégoûté d'en faire davantage. Il abandonne la physique. Il n'a pas même voulu fair voir ses instruments à M. Franklin.’ Lalande, Jérôme, Journal d'un voyage en Angleterre 1763Google Scholar, published with an introduction by Monod-Cassidy, Helène, Oxford, 1980, pp. 44–45.Google Scholar

142 His equipment remained at Kew until it was transferred to King's College, London later still coming to the Science Museum. He also acted as Librarian for Queen Charlotte.

143 See Porter in Bynum, and Porter, , op. cit. (27), pp. 31–32.Google Scholar