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RUMFORD, BENJAMIN THOMPSON, COUNT (17...

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 850 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RUMFORD, See also:BENJAMIN See also:THOMPSON, See also:COUNT (1753-1814) , See also:British-See also:American See also:man of See also:science, philanthropist and See also:administrator, was See also:born at See also:Woburn, in See also:Massachusetts, on the 26th of See also:March 1753. The Thompson See also:family had been settled in New See also:England since the See also:middle of the previous See also:century, and belonged to the class of moderately wealthy farmers. His See also:father died while he was very See also:young, and his See also:mother speedily married a second See also:time. But he seems to have been well cared for, and he was at the See also:age of fourteen sufficiently advanced " in See also:algebra, See also:geometry, See also:astronomy, and even the higher See also:mathematics," to calculate a See also:solar See also:eclipse within four seconds of accuracy. In 1766 he was apprenticed to a storekeeper at See also:Salem, in New England, and while in that employment occupied himself in chemical and See also:mechanical experiments, as well as in See also:engraving, in which he attained to some proficiency. The outbreak of the American See also:War put a stop to the See also:trade of his See also:master, and he. thereupon See also:left Salem and went to See also:Boston, where he engaged himself as assistant in another See also:store. He was at that See also:period, between seventeen and eighteen years old, and at nineteen, he says, "I married, or rather I was married." His wife was the widow of See also:Colonel Benjamin Rolfe, and the daughter of See also:Timothy See also:Walker, " a highly respectable See also:minister, and one of the first settlers at Rumford," now called See also:Concord, in New See also:Hampshire. His wife was possessed of considerable See also:property, and was his See also:senior by fourteen years. This See also:marriage was the See also:foundation of his success. Soon after it he became acquainted with See also:Governor See also:Wentworth of New Hampshire, who conferred on him the See also:majority of a See also:local See also:regiment of See also:militia. He speedily became the See also:object of distrust among the See also:friends of the American cause, and it was considered prudent that he should seek an See also:early opportunity of leaving the See also:country. On the evacuation of Boston by the royal troops, therefore, in 1776, he was selected by Governor Wentworth to carry despatches to England.

On his arrival in See also:

London See also:Lord See also:George Germain, secretary of See also:state, appointed him to a clerkship in his See also:office. Within a few months he was advanced to the See also:post of secretary of the See also:province of See also:Georgia, and in about four years he was made under-secretary of state. His See also:official duties, however, did not interfere with the See also:prosecution of scientific pursuits, and in 1779 he was elected a See also:fellow of the Royal Society. Among the subjects to which he especially directed his See also:attention were the explosive force of See also:gunpowder, the construction of firearms, and a See also:system of signalling at See also:sea. In connexion with the last, he made a cruise in the Channel See also:fleet, on See also:board the " Victory," as a volunteer under the command of See also:Admiral See also:Sir See also:Charles See also:Hardy. On the resignation of Lord See also:North's See also:administration, of which Lord George Germain was one of the least popular members, he left the See also:civil service, and was nominated to a See also:cavalry command in the revolted provinces of See also:America. But the War of See also:Independence was practically at an end and in 1783 he finally quitted active service, with the See also:rank and See also:half-pay of a See also:lieutenant-colonel. He now formed the See also:design of joining the See also:Austrian See also:army, for the purpose of campaigning against the See also:Turks, and so crossed over from See also:Dover to See also:Calais with See also:Gibbon, who, See also:writing to his friend Lord See also:Sheffield, calls his fellow-passenger, " Mr Secretary-Colonel-Admiral-Philosopher Thompson." At See also:Strassburg he was introduced to See also:Prince See also:Maximilian, afterwards elector of See also:Bavaria, and was by him invited to enter the civil and military service of that state. Having obtained the leave of the British See also:government to accept the prince's offer, he received the See also:honour of See also:knighthood from George III., and during eleven years he remained at See also:Munich as minister of war, minister of See also:police, and See also:grand See also:chamberlain to the elector. His See also:political and courtly employments, however, did not absorb all his time, and he contributed during his stay in Bavaria a number of papers to the Philosophical Transactions. But that he was sufficiently alert as the See also:principal adviser of the elector the results of his labours in that capacity amply prove. He reorganized the Bavarian army; he immensely improved the See also:condition of the See also:industrial classes throughout the country by providing them with See also:work and instructing them in the practice of domestic See also:economy; and he did much to suppress mendicity.

The multitude of beggars in Bavaria had See also:

long been a public See also:nuisance and danger. In one See also:day he caused no fewer than 2600 of these outcasts and depredators in Munich and its suburbs alone to be arrested by military patrols, and transferred by them to an industrial See also:establishment which he had prepared for their reception. In this institution they were both housed and fed, and they not only supported themselves by their labours but earned a surplus for the benefit of the electoral revenues. The principle on which their treatment proceeded is stated by him in the following memorable words: " To make vicious and abandoned See also:people happy," he says, " it has generally been supposed necessary first to make them virtuous. But why not See also:reverse this See also:order? Why not make them first happy, and then virtuous? " In 1791 he was created a count of the See also:Holy See also:Roman See also:Empire, and See also:chose his See also:title of Rumford from the name as it then was of the American township to which his wife's family belonged. In 1795 he visited England, one incident of his See also:journey being the loss of all his private papers, including the materials for an autobiography, which were contained in a See also:box stolen from off his postchaise in St See also:Paul's See also:Churchyard. During his See also:residence in London he applied himself to the See also:discovery of methods for curing smoky chimneys and the contrivance of improvements in the construction of fireplaces. But he was quickly recalled to Bavaria, Munich being threatened at once by an Austrian and a See also:French army. The elector fled from his See also:capital, and it was entirely owing to Rumford that a hostile occupation of the See also:city was prevented. It was now proposed that he should be accredited as Bavarian See also:ambassador in London; but the circumstance that he was a British subject presented an insurmountable obstacle.

He, however, again came to England, and remained there in a private station for several years. In 1798 he presented to the Royal Society his " Enquiry concerning the Source of See also:

Heat which is excited by See also:Friction," in which he combated the current view that heat was a material substance, and regarded it as a mode of See also:motion. In 1799 he, in See also:conjunction with Sir See also:Joseph See also:Banks, projected the establishment of the Royal Institution. It received its See also:charter of See also:incorporation from George III. in 1800, and Rumford himself selected Sir See also:Humphry See also:Davy as scientific lecturer there. Until 1804 he lived at the Royal Institution in See also:Albemarle See also:Street, London, or at a See also:house which he rented at See also:Brompton, and he then established himself in See also:Paris, marrying (his first wife having died in 1792) as his second wife the wealthy widow of See also:Lavoisier, the celebrated chemist. With this See also:lady he led an extremely uncomfortable See also:life, till at last they agreed to See also:separate. He took up his residence at Auteuil, where he died suddenly on the 21st of See also:August 1814, in the sixty-second See also:year of his age. Rumford was the founder and the first recipient of the Rumford See also:medal of the Royal Society. He was also the founder of the See also:Rum-See also:ford medal of the American See also:Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the Rumford professorship in Harvard University. His See also:complete See also:works with a memoir by G. E. See also:Ellis were published by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1870-75.

End of Article: RUMFORD, BENJAMIN THOMPSON, COUNT (1753-1814)

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