The
Royal Institution of Great Britain has a long history of public
lectures and demonstrations given by prominent experts in the field. In the 19th century, the popularity of the public lectures given by
Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution was so great that the volume of carriage traffic in
Albemarle Street caused it to become the first one-way street in
London. The
Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures for young people are nowadays also shown on
television.
Alexander von Humboldt delivered a series of public lectures at the
University of Berlin in the winter of 1827–1828, that formed the basis for his later work
Kosmos.