RUMFORD, BENJAMIN THOMPSON, COUNT 1814), British-American scientist, philanthropist and administra tor, was born at Woburn (Mass.), on March 26, 1753. The Thompson family to which he belonged settled in New England about the middle of the previous century and were moderately wealthy farmers. At the age of 14 Benjamin was sufficiently ad vanced "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 there occupied himself in chemical and mechanical experiments, and in engraving. At the outbreak of the American War when he was between 17 and 18 years of age he went to Boston, where he became assistant in another store. At 19 he married the widow of Col. Benjamin Rolfe, a woman possessed of considerable property, and his senior by 14 years.
This marriage was the foundation of his success. Soon after it he became acquainted with Governor Wentworth of New Hamp shire, who conferred on him the majority of a local regiment of militia. As he was distrusted by friends of the American cause, it was considered prudent that he should seek an early oppor tunity to leave the country. On the evacuation of Boston by the royal troops, therefore, in 1776, Governor Wentworth sent him with 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 under-secretary of state. He continued his scientific pursuits, however, and in 1779 was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. The explosive force of gunpowder, the construction of firearms, and a system of signalling at sea were subjects which particularly interested him. On the resignation of Lord North's administra tion, of which Lord George Germain was a member, he left the civil service, and was nominated to a cavalry command in the revolted provinces of America. But the War of Independence was practically at an end, and in 1783 he quitted active service, with the rank and half-pay of a lieutenant-colonel. He now de cided to join the Austrian army, to campaign against the Turks. At Strassburg he was introduced to prince Maximilian, afterwards elector of Bavaria, and was by him invited to enter the civil and military service of that State. Having obtained leave of the British Government to accept the prince's offer, he received the honour of knighthood from George III., and remained at Munich I I years as minister of war, minister of police, and grand cham berlain to the elector. During his stay in Bavaria he contributed a number of papers to the Philosophical Transactions. He re
organized the Bavarian army; he improved the condition of the industrial classes and he did much to suppress mendicity. In one day he had 2,600 beggars and depredators in Munich and its sub urbs alone arrested and transferred to an industrial establishment which he prepared for them. In this institution they were housed and fed, and they not only supported themselves, but earned a surplus for the electoral revenues. The principle on which he acted is stated by him in the following words : "To make vicious and abandoned people happy, it has generally been supposed necessary first to make them virtuous. But why not reverse this order? Why not make them 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 of the American township to which his wife's family belonged. In 1795 he visited England, where he lost all his private papers, including the ma terials for an autobiography. In London he applied himself to the discovery of methods for curing smoky chimneys and to im provements in fireplace construction. But he was quickly recalled to Bavaria, Munich being threatened at once by an Austrian and a French army. The elector fled, and it was entirely owing to Rumford that a hostile occupation of the city was prevented. It was now proposed that he should be Bavarian ambassador in Lon don; but the fact that he was a British subject presented an in surmountable obstacle. He returned to England, however, as a private citizen.
In 1798 he presented to the Royal Society his "Enquiry con cerning 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, with Sir Joseph Banks, projected the establishment of the Royal Institution. It received its charter from George III. in 1800, and Rumford selected Sir Humphry Davy as scientific lecturer there. He lived in London until 1804, when he went to Paris, marrying (his first wife having died in 1792) the wealthy widow of Lavoisier, the celebrated chemist. He separated from her eventually and took up his residence at Auteuil. He died there suddenly on August 21, 1814, in the 62nd year of his age.
Rumford was the founder and the first recipient of the Rum ford medal of the Royal Society. He was also the founder of the Rumford 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 187o-75.