In 1878 the City and the guilds bowing to pressure, and seeing the opportunity for a new leadership role, responded by founding the City and Guilds of London Institute for the Advancement of Technical Education.
The consequence was the founding of a new institution in 1878: the City and Guilds of London Institute for the Advancement of Technical Education (incorporated in 1880).
Thus, for example, John Donnelly, Playfair's successor at the Science and Art Department, Thomas Henry Huxley, and Henry Roscoe (president of the Chemical Society) were among those who had a say in plans for the Central Institution.(119) The Science and Art Department did hand over the running of the national science and trades examination system to the City and Guilds of London Institute and the Institute then set up exams at different levels in technical fields such as cotton manufacture, gas production, glassmaking, carpentry, plumbing, telegraphy, and others.(120) By 1883 about twenty-five hundred people took these exams annually, and approximately half of them passed.