ABSTRACT
On the first of January 1950, Edward Neville da Costa Andrade formally took up his position as Director of the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory in the Royal Institution, as both Fullerian and Resident Professor of Chemistry and as Superintendent of the House Andrade thus occupied the major positions of power that an employee of the Royal Institution could hold. The Andrade Affair may have constituted a social experiment, undertaken by senior Fellows of the Royal Societies, to modernise a traditional scientific institution. The managers agreed unanimously that it would be a break in the tradition of the Institution to divorce the Directorship of the Davy-Faraday Laboratory from the Resident Professorship in the Institution. At the next meeting of Managers the letters between Brabazon and Andrade were read, Andrade was appointed and the process to elect him Fullerian Professor was started. Eric Rideal had explicitly provided a long notice of his intentions in order for the Managers to find a replacement.
