Benjamin Thompson

Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford (in German: Reichsgraf von Rumford), (26 March 1753 - 21 August 1814), was an Anglo-American physicist and inventor whose challenges to established physical theory were part of the 19th century revolution in thermodynamics.

Early life in America

Thompson was born in rural Woburn, Massachusetts, in America; his birthplace is preserved to this day as a museum. He was educated mainly at the village school, although he sometimes walked to Cambridge with the older Loammi Baldwin to attend lectures by Professor John Winthrop at Harvard College. At the age of 13 was apprenticed to John Appleton, a merchant of nearby Salem. Thompson excelled at his trade and, coming in contact with refined and well educated people for the first time, adopted many of their characteristics, including an interest in science. While recuperating in Woburn in 1769 from an injury, Thompson conducted experiments concerning the nature of heat and began to correspond about them with Loammi Baldwin and others. Later that year, he worked for a few months for a Boston shopkeeper and then apprenticed himself briefly, and unsuccessfully, to a doctor in Woburn.

Related Topics:
Woburn, Massachusetts - Birthplace - Loammi Baldwin - John Winthrop - Harvard College - Merchant - Salem - Science - 1769 - Heat

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Thompson's prospects were dim in 1772 but in that year they changed abruptly. He met, charmed and married a rich and well-connected heiress named Sarah Rolfe, moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and through his wife's influence with the governor, was appointed a major in a New Hampshire militia.

Related Topics:
1772 - Portsmouth, New Hampshire - New Hampshire - Militia

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When the American Revolution began, Thompson was a man of property and standing in New England, who had important connections to the British government. He threw in his lot with the British, and was active in recruiting loyalists to fight the patriots. This naturally earned him the enmity of the popular party, and a mob attacked Thompson's house. He fled to the British lines, abandoning his wife, as it turned out, forever. Thompson was welcomed by the British, to whom he gave valuable information about the American forces, and became an advisor to both General Gage and Lord Germain.

Related Topics:
American Revolution - British - Loyalist - Patriot - General Gage - Lord Germain

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While working with the British armies in America, he conducted experiments concerning the force of gunpowder, the results of which were widely acclaimed when eventually published, in 1781, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Thus, when he moved to London at the conclusion of the war, he already had a reputation as a scientist.

Related Topics:
1781 - Philosophical Transactions - Royal Society - London

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