Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997.
Do you need
volunteer, community service, work, military or court hours?
|
|
Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997.
|
|
Click here and add this page to your favorites!
|
Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: RON-SAC |
|
|
RUMFORD, BENJAMIN THOMPSON, COUNT (1753-1814) , British-American man of science, philanthropist and administrator, was born at Woburn, in Massachusetts, on the 26th of March 1753. The Thompson family had been settled in New England since the middle of the previous century, and belonged to the class of moderately wealthy farmers. His father died while he was very young, and his mother speedily married a second time. But he seems to have been well cared for, and he was at the age of fourteen sufficiently advanced " in algebra, geometry, astronomy, and even the higher mathematics," to calculate a solar eclipse within four seconds of accuracy. In 1766 he was apprenticed to a storekeeper at Salem, in New England, and while in that employment occupied himself in chemical and mechanical experiments, as well as in engraving, in which he attained to some proficiency. The outbreak of the American War put a stop to the trade of his master, and he. thereupon left Salem and went to Boston, where he engaged himself as assistant in another store . He was at that 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 Colonel Benjamin Rolfe, and the daughter of Timothy Walker, " a highly respectable minister, and one of the first settlers at Rumford," now called Concord, in New Hampshire . His wife was possessed of considerable property, and was his senior by fourteen years.This marriage was the foundation of his success. Soon after it he became acquainted with Governor Wentworth of New Hampshire , who conferred on him the majority of a local regiment of militia. He speedily became the object of distrust among the friends of the American cause, and it was considered prudent that he should seek an early opportunity of leaving the 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 London Lord George Germain, secretary of state, appointed him to a clerkship in his office. Within a few months he was advanced to the post of secretary of the province of Georgia, and in about four years he was made under-secretary of state. His official duties, however, did not interfere with the prosecution of scientific pursuits, and in 1779 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Among the subjects to which he especially directed his attention were the explosive force of gunpowder, the construction of firearms, and a system of signalling at sea. In connexion with the last, he made a cruise in the Channel fleet, on board the " Victory," as a volunteer under the command of Admiral Sir Charles Hardy
government to accept the prince's offer, he received the honour of knighthood
economy
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 people happy," he says, " it has generally been supposed necessary first to make them virtuous. But why not reverse this order? Why not make them first happy, and then virtuous? "In 1791 he was created a count of the Holy Roman Empire, and chose his 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 journey being the loss of all his private papers, including the materials for an autobiography, which were contained in a box stolen from off his postchaise in St Paul's Churchyard. During his residence in London he applied himself to the 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 French army. The elector fled from his capital , and it was entirely owing to Rumford that a hostile occupation of the city was prevented. It was now proposed that he should be accredited as Bavarian 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 Heat which is excited by Friction," in which he combated the current view that heat was a material substance, and regarded it as a mode of motion. In 1799 he, in conjunction with Sir Joseph Banks, projected the establishment of the Royal Institution. It received its charter of incorporation from George III. in 1800, and Rumford himself selected Sir Humphry Davy as scientific lecturer there. Until 1804 he lived at the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street, London, or at a house
Rumford was the founder and the first recipient of the Rumford medal of the Royal Society. He was also the founder of the Rum-ford medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the Rumford professorship in Harvard University. His complete works with a memoir by G. E. Ellis were published by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1870-75. End of Article: RUMFORD, BENJAMIN THOMPSON, COUNT (1753-1814) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/RON_SAC/RUMFORD_BENJAMIN_THOMPSON_COUN.html"> RUMFORD, BENJAMIN THOMPSON, COUNT (1753-1814) </a> |
|
|
(Previous) RUMELIA, or ROUMELIA (Turkish Rumili, " the lan... |
(Next) RUMI, (1207-1273) |
|
Sponsored Advertisements