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27. C. Babbage, The Exposition of 1851, Views of the Industry, the Science and the Government of England (London: John Murray, 1851), 6.
28. Charles de Laet Waldo Sibthorp (1783–1855) was a politician who represented Lincoln from 1826 to 1855, with the exception of the period between 1833 and 1834. He was also a colonel in the South Lincoln Militia and served with the fourth Dragoon Guards in the Peninsula War. Sibthorp was an able if eccentric speaker who opposed Catholic emancipation and managed to get a reduction of grant to Prince Albert. See Robert R. James, Albert, Prince Consort (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1983), 198.
29. W. Reid, Lyon Playfair: Memoirs and Correspondence (London: Cassell, 1899), 115.
30. Ibid., 112.
31. Lord Granville (1823–1889) was a close friend of the Prince Consort and had great credibility with the Royal family. He was an M.P. for Buckinghamshire from 1846 to 1857, Lord of the Treasury in 1852, Privy Counsellor in 1866 and President of Council (1866–1867), Colonial secretary (1867–1868), and chairman of committees in the House of Lords (1886–1889).
32. Sir Lyon Playfair, first Baron Playfair of St. Andrews (1818–1898), was a chemist who discovered the nitroprussides (a new class of salts), as well as a Liberal M.P. who represented the universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews (1868–1885) and South Leeds (1885–1892). He studied chemistry in St. Andrews, London and Giessen, and was honorary professor of chemistry to Royal Institution, Manchester (1842–1845), chemist to the Geological Survey and professor to the School of Mines in 1845, professor of chemistry at Edinburgh University (1858–1869), secretary for science at the Science and Art Department in 1853, postmaster general in 1873, chairman and deputy speaker of the House of Commons (1880–1883), vice president of the Committee of Council in Education in 1886, and lord-in-waiting to Queen Victoria in 1992. He was an advocate of technical education, and he wrote and spoke about this issue with continued passion throughout his life.
33. Professor Justus von Liebig (1803–1873), founder of organic chemistry, was one of the foremost thinkers of the age at the time Playfair went to study with him in Giessen. He also had one of the best laboratories in Europe, which was populated by many students who were to rise in later years to key positions across the continent.
34. Reid, 117. The commissioners were able to report that £65,000 was available to them by the opening of the event.