THOMSON, SIR BENJAMIN, Count of Rum ford, a celebrated chemist, was born at Rumford, (now Concord,) New Hampshire, in 1753. Hav ing received, besides the ordinary education which the village afforded, some instruction in mathe matics from the Rev. Mr. Bernard, he was enabled to discharge the duties of a village schoolmaster. In the year 1772 he married a widow of the name of Mrs. Rolfe, through the influence of whose friends he obtained the commission of major of militia, and some other advantageous appoint ments. He was hence led to attach himself to the royalist party, but in consequence of the success of the independent forces, he was obliged in 1773 to quit Boston, where he had taken refuge, leaving behind him his wife, whom he never again met, and his infant daughter, who about 20 years afterwards joined him in Europe.
At the evacuation of Boston in 1776 he was sent with dispatches to England, where he acquired the confidence of Lord George Germaine, by whom he was appointed secretary to the province of Georgia, an office which he never exercised.
In 1777 he began his scientific labours by a se ries of experiments on the cohesive strength of dif; ferent substances, the communication of which to Sir Joseph Banks led to his admission as a mem ber of the Royal Society on the gd of April, 1779: In the preceding year he began his experiments on the strength of gunpowder, and in order to pursue them successfully, he went in 1779 on board the Victory, commanded by Sir Charles Hardy, where he spent the whole campaign. The practical knowledge which he thus acquired enabled him to furnish a chapter on marine artillery to Stalkart's Treatise on Naval Architecture. In 1780 he was appointed Under Secretary of State, and some time afterwards he succeeded, through the influ ence of his American friends, in raising the regi ment of the King's American Dragoons. Having been appointed first colonel commandant of it, he went to serve with it in America; and at Charles town he received the command of the remains of the British cavalry, which he often led on success fully against the enemy. In 1782 he assumed the command of his own regiment at New-York, and was sent with it to winter at Huntingdon, in Long Island. In 1783 he was appointed to conduct the
defence of Jamaica: but the termination of the war led him to the more glorious occupation of ad vancing the true interests of his species.
His fondness, however, for a military life in duced him to set out for Vienna in 1780, with the view of serving in the Austrian army against the Turks. His appearance on parade at Presburg attracted the attention of the late king of Bavaria, then prince Dlaximilian, who recommended him to his uncle the elector, by whom he was received at Munich with great kindness. He spent the winter at Vienna, where he met with a cordial reception; but as the war against the Turks did not take place, he returned again to Munich in 1784, after visiting Venice and the Tyrol.
Having been invited to enter the service of the Elector, he went to England to obtain leave, which he received from the king along with the honour of knighthood. On his return to Bavaria, he was appointed aid-de-camp general to the Elector, and colonel of cavalry, and he devoted the leisure which he now enjoyed to the continuation of his scientific researches, and to the preparation of those plans of reform which he wished to introduce into Bavaria. During a visit to Manheim, in 1786, he began his ex periments on heat. In 1785 he was made chamber lain to the Elector, and in the same year he was ad mitted into the academies of Munich and Manheim. In 1785 he received the order of Stanislaus from the king of Poland; in 1787 he was admitted into the Academy of Sciences at Berlin during a visit to that capital; in 1788 he was appointed major-general of the Bavarian cavalry, privy counsellor of state, and chief of the war department.
In 1789 he established the house of industry at Manheim, and in 1790 that at Munich, which he has described in his Essays. He founded the Mili tary Academy at Munich, improved the military police, and established schools of industry for the families of the soldiers. These great services to the state were rewarded by his promotion to be lieutenant-general of the Bavarian armies, and by a regiment of artillery. lie was created in 1791 a count of the Holy Roman Empire, and obtained the order of the White Eagle.