A free day in London! A daydream of mine during my four years of working in Mayfair. What to do when you are so spoiled for choice?? It didn’t take me too long to come up with an idea. Time to make amends for something I’m almost too embarrased to admit as a graduate in Electrical Engineering. On an almost daily basis I used to trod down Albermarle Street. Never once did I drop in to visit the Royal Institution’s Faraday Museum.
In my defence, it was always a bit out of the way. Coming out of Berkley Square, I would head up Hay Hill and make a right turn on Dover Street, never missing the opportunity to walk through the foyer of the famous Brown’s Hotel to see how the other half live and exiting on the hotel’s Albermarle entrance to miss the Faraday by about 80 yards down on the left.
Albermarle has historic connections to Lord Byron and Oscar Wilde who ended up in prison as a result of losing a litigation stemming from his membership in the Albermarle Club.
Franklin Delano Rooseveldt and his wife Eleanor spent their honeymoon in Brown’s. Writing home to his mother, he proudly proclaimed that it was the most expensive in London. Forget the Ritz, I’m reliably informed that London’s best afternoon tea is served at Brown’s. Should you win the lottery and are in need of a guest, let me know!!
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WALL CLOCK, FORTNUM AND MASONS, PICCADILLY
Walking up from Pall Mall through the Piccadilly Arcade (who can afford this stuff?), I pass Fortnum and Masons on Piccadilly at exactly the stroke of noon and for the very first time in my life catch the appearance of the two butlers normally hidden in their sentry boxes. I take this to be propitious.
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION
MICHAEL FARADAY
THE PERIODIC TABLE
Researchers of the Royal Institution were responsible for the discovery of 10 elements in the periodic table.
STRUCTURE FACTOR TABLES, KATHLEEN LONSDALE 1936
In 1936, Kathleen Lonsdale published a book, composed entirely of her neat handwriting, entitled “Simplified structure factor and electron density formulae for the 230 space groups of mathematical crystallography” on behalf of the Royal Insititution. Whew! Hope you got that!! Probably never made the New York Times best seller list.
For me, it brought back nightmare memories of a third year engineering calculus exam! Nevertheless, it was heartening to be reminded that the human mind is capable of extremely complex scientific concepts without the modern aid of quantum computing and artificial intelligence. Congratulations Kathleen!
A MOCK UP OF FARADAY’S LABORATORY