Royal Institution Christmas Lectures

The Christmas lectures at the Royal Institution ( Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in English ) are a since 1825, organized by the Royal Institution Christmas lecture series.

The Christmas lectures developed from the afternoon lectures, which were held at the Royal Institution since 1800. The original plan was a series of 22 lectures on natural philosophy, aimed specifically at young listeners aged 15 to 20 years and should be done in the free time at Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. The first Christmas Lecture was held in 1825 by John Millington ( 1779-1868 ), Professor of Mechanics at the Royal Institution, the second a year later by a still unknown amateur astronomer by the name of John Wallis. After a second, less successful Easter lecture, which was held in 1827 by the Professor of Natural History John Harwood (ca. 1794-1854 ), the lectures were carried out only at Christmas time.

For the actually considered " youth lectures" ( Juvenile Lectures ) designated lecture series became common in the 1850s, in the parlance, the term "Christmas Lectures " ( Christmas Lectures ) a. The early 1860s he was officially used.

Until the early 1860s, Michael Faraday coined the design of the Christmas lectures essential. From 1827 he was responsible for a total of 19 episodes, which usually consisted of six individual lectures. The most famous Christmas lecture entitled Chemical History of a Candle ( natural history of a candle ) was held by him for the year 1860/1861. It was published in 1861 in book form and has been translated into numerous languages.

Until the 1890s, the lectures were mainly held by the professors of the Royal Institution, including William Thomas Brande (7 episodes ), John Tyndall (12 episodes ), James Dewar (9 episodes ), Edward Frankland, William Odling and John Hall Gladstone.

On December 29, 1927 exploded shortly after the Christmas lecture by Edward Andrade the institute's own transformer station, but no one was hurt. The hitherto thousand listeners comprehensive lecture hall was subsequently rebuilt. Today, it can take about 430 listeners.

In the late 1950s wanted to make their work known to the Royal Institution. Therefore Lawrence Bragg in 1959 produced a series of six 15-minute television programs entitled The Nature of Things, whose charisma reached about four million viewers and was considered a great success. The regular television broadcast of the Christmas lectures began 1966/67, with Eric Laithwaites The Engineer in Wonderland on BBC2.

Evidence

• Frank AJL James (ed. ): Christmas At The Royal Institution: An Anthology of Lectures by M. Faraday, J. Tyndall, RS Ball, SP Thompson, ER Lankester, WH Bragg, WL Bragg, RL Gregory, and I. Stewa. World Scientific, 2008, ISBN 9,789,812,771,087th