George Porter - Famous Experiments

About this video

A celebration of the Royal Institution’s scientific heritage through a series of demonstrations and pioneering experiments.

On the occasion of his 65^th birthday and to mark his departure as director of the Royal Institution, George Porter takes a look at eight generations of science at the Ri.

Recreating some of the most pioneering experiments in the last 200 years, the Friday Evening Discourse not only illustrates the progression in scientific knowledge, but also the important role scientists at the Ri have played in propelling this forward.

Along the way Porter demonstrates how Michael Faraday came to unify electricity and magnetism, how John Tyndell almost discovered penicillin (a century before Fleming) and demonstrates how the Bragg's came to establish the technique of X-ray Crystallography. All that in under an hour.

Assisting throughout the lecture is technician Bill Coates, who himself holds a very special place within the Ri's heritage.

Filmed 6 December 1985.