A young Humphry Davy gleefully works the bellows in this caricature by James Gillray of experiments with laughing gas at the Royal Institution. The lecturer is Thomas Garrett, Davy’s predecessor as professor of chemistry. Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford,

A young Humphry Davy gleefully works the bellows in this caricature by James Gillray of experiments with laughing gas at the Royal Institution. The lecturer is Thomas Garrett, Davy’s predecessor as professor of chemistry. Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, the founder of the Royal Institution, stands at the doorway.

Photograph by Gregory Tobias. Fisher Collection, the Institute Collections.