Benjamin Thompson.

Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford (in German: Graf 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. http://clippix. ... http://clippix. ... March 26 is the 85th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (86th in leap years). ... 1753 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1814 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... See Anglo-America for the term denoting mixed English and American influence or heritage or those parts of (or groups within) America which have a tie to or which are influenced by England or simply English-speaking America. ... When stuff moves. ... An inventor is a person who creates new inventions, typically technical devices such as mechanical, electrical or software devices or methods. ... Theoretical physics attempts to understand the world by making a model of reality, used for rationalizing, explaining, predicting physical phenomena through a physical theory. There are three types of theories in physics; mainstream theories, proposed theories and fringe theories. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Look up Revolution in Wiktionary, the free dictionary This article is about revolution in the sense of a drastic change. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Early life in America

Born in Woburn, Massachusetts, in America, Thompson was educated mainly at the village school, and, 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. Woburn is a city located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. ... Merchants function as professional traders, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves. ... Salem Maritime National Historic Site Salem is a city located in Essex County, Massachusetts. ... // What is science? There are different theories of what science is. ... 1769 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... A red-hot iron rod cooling after being worked by a blacksmith. ... Colonel Loammi Baldwin was an American politician, engineer, surveyor and a soldier in the American Revolutionary War. ...

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. 1772 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Portsmouth, New Hampshire is the largest city in Rockingham County in the State of New Hampshire in the United States of America. ... State nickname: The Granite State Other U.S. States Capital Concord Largest city Manchester Governor John Lynch Official languages English Area 24,239 km² (46th)  - Land 23,249 km²  - Water 814 km² (3. ... A militia is a group of citizens organized to provide paramilitary service. ...

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. The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was a war fought primarily between Great Britain and revolutionaries within thirteen North American colonies. ... Loyalists (often capitalized L) were British North American colonists who remained loyal subjects of the British crown during the American Revolutionary War. ... This article concerns Patriots in the American Revolution. ... Engraving of Thomas Gage Sir Thomas Gage (1719 – April 2, 1787) was a British general and commander in chief of the North American forces from 1763 to 1775 during the early days of the American Revolution. ... George Sackville, 1st Viscount Sackville (January 26, 1716 - August 26, 1785) was a British soldier and politician who was Secretary of State for America in Lord Norths cabinet during the American Revolution. ...

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. 1781 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society is the oldest scientific journal printed in the English-speaking world, and was only three months shy of being the oldest in the world. ... The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is claimed to be the oldest learned society still in existence. ... St. ...

Bavarian maturity

In 1785, he moved to Bavaria where he became an aide-de-camp to the Elector Karl Theodor. He spent eleven years in Bavaria, reorganizing the army and establishing workhouses for the poor. During his work he also invented the Rumford Soup, a nutritious soup for the poor, and established the cultivation of the potato in Bavaria. 1785 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... With an area of 70,553 km² (27,241 square miles) and 12. ... An aide-de-camp (French: camp assistant) is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state. ... An elector can be: In the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation, the collegiate of seven Electors (eight since 1648) (Kurfürsten) consisted of those lay or clerical princes who had the right to vote in the election of the king or Holy Roman Emperor; see prince-elector. ... Karl Theodor (born in 1724) reigned as Duke of Bavaria from 1777 until his death in 1799. ... The Poor Law was the system for the provision of social security in operation in England and the United Kingdom from the 16th century until the establishment of the Welfare State in the 20th century. ... Nutrition is the study of the relationship between diet and states of health and disease. ... Soup is a savoury liquid food that is made by boiling ingredients, such as meat, vegetables and beans in stock or hot water, until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth. ... Binomial name Solanum tuberosum L. The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a perennial plant of the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family, grown for its starchy tuber. ...

Experiments on heat

To understand the significance of Rumford's work in the context of the development of thermodynamics, see Thermodynamics timeline

His experiments on gunnery and explosives led to an interest in heat. He devised a method for measuring the specific heats of solids but was disappointed that Johannes Wilcke had priority. Wikipedia Logo File links The following pages link to this file: Talk:Amino acid Australian Army Boxing Bioterrorism Brick Broadway (Manhattan) Geography of Canada Transportation in Chile Confucius Colorado Rockies Origins beliefs Democracy Document Type Definition Equuleus East Slavic languages Flanders Fifth Monarchy Men Grenada Geyser Harry Potter Information explosion... Timeline of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and random processes 1738 - Kinetic theory of gases first proposed by Daniel Bernoulli but fails to gain recognition in the face of Joseph Blacks caloric theory. ... This article is about firearms and similar devices. ... This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ... The specific heat capacity (symbol c or s, also called specific heat) of a substance is defined as heat capacity per unit mass. ... A solid is a state of matter, characterized by a definite volume and a definite shape (i. ...

Thompson next investigated the insulating properties of various materials including fur, wool and feathers. He correctly appreciated that the insulating properties of these natural materials arise from the fact that they inhibit the convection of air. He then made the somewhat reckless, and incorrect, inference that air and, in fact, all gases, were perfect non-conductors of heat^[1][2]. He further saw this as evidence of the argument from design, contending that divine providence had arranged for fur on animals in such a way as to guarantee their comfort. Based on this work he created the Baked Alaska in 1804. This page refers to thermal insulation. ... The term fur refers to the body hair of non-human mammals also known as the pelage (like the term plumage in birds). ... Long and short hair wool at the South Central Family Farm Research Center in Boonesville, AR Wool is the fiber derived from the hair of domesticated animals, usually sheep. ... Closeup on a single white feather A feather is one of the epidermal growths that forms the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on a bird. ... Convection is the transfer of heat by the motion of or within a fluid. ... Air is a name for the mixture of gases present in the Earths atmosphere. ... Inference is the act or process of drawing a conclusion based solely on what one already knows. ... Gas (actually, as), the GNU assembler, is the default GCC back-end. ... Heat flow along perfectly insulated wire Heat conduction is the transmission of heat across matter. ... A teleological argument (or an argument from design) is an argument for the existence of God based on evidence of design in nature. ... Divine Providence, or simply Providence, is a theological term which refers to the sovereignty, superintendence, or agency of God over events in peoples lives and throughout history. ... Baked Alaska is a dessert made of ice cream, straight from the freezer placed in a pie dish lined with slices of sponge cake, Christmas pudding or similar and topped with meringue. ... 1804 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

In 1797, he extended his claim about non-conductivity to liquids^[3]. The idea raised considerable objections from the scientific establishment, John Dalton^[4] and John Leslie^[5] making particularly forthright attacks. Instrumentation far exceeding anything available in terms of accuracy and precision would have been needed to veryify Thompson's claim. Again, he seems to have been influenced by his theological beliefs^[6] and it is likely that he wished to grant water a privileged and providential status in the regulation of human life^[7]. 1797 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... A liquid will assume the shape of its container. ... John Dalton (September 6, 1766 – July 27, 1844) was a British chemist and physicist, born at Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth in Cumberland. ... The name John Leslie may refer to several people: John Leslie (philosopher) Sir John Leslie (physicist) John Leslie (television presenter) John Leslie (rugby player) John Leslie (porn actor) Shane Leslie, Irish writer, born John Randolph Leslie This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might... In science, engineering, industry and statistics, accuracy is the degree of conformity of a measured or calculated quantity to its actual, nominal, or some other reference, value. ... Theology is literally rational discourse concerning God (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογος, logos, rational discourse). By extension, it also refers to the study of other religious topics. ... Water (from the Old English word wæter and the German word Wasser) is a colorless, tasteless, and odorless substance in its pure form that is essential to all known forms of life and is known also as the most universal solvent. ...

However, his most important scientific work took place in Munich, and centered on the nature of heat, which he contended in An Experimental Enquiry Concerning the Source of the Heat which is Excited by Friction (1798) was not the caloric of then-current scientific thinking but a form of motion. Though this work met with a hostile reception, it was subsequently important in establishing the conservation of energy later in the 19th century. Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: München (pronounced listen) is the state capital of the German state of Bavaria. ... A red-hot iron rod cooling after being worked by a blacksmith. ... An Experimental Enquiry Concerning the Source of the Heat which is Excited by Friction, (1798), Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society 102 is a scientific paper by Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford that provided a substantial challenge to established theories of heat and began the 19th century revolution in thermodynamics. ... 1798 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... While phlogiston theory was widely accepted, phlogiston was thought to be the matter of heat. ... In physics, motion means a change in the position of a body with respect to time, as measured by a particular observer in a particular frame of reference. ... Conservation of energy also known as the first law of thermodynamics is possibly the most important, and certainly the most practically useful, of several conservation laws in physics. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Inventions

Thompson was an active inventor, developing improvements for chimneys and fireplaces and inventing the double boiler, a kitchen range, and a drip coffeepot. The Rumford fireplace is considered to be a very thermally efficient way to heat a room. Furthermore he was socially active as founder of Munich's English Garden (German Englischer Garten) in 1789. The Rumford fireplace is a tall, shallow fireplace designed by Benjamin Thompson, an Anglo-American physicist who was known for his investigations of heat. ... Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: München (pronounced listen) is the state capital of the German state of Bavaria. ... The Englischer Garten or English Garden is a large park in central Munich, Germany. ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Later life

After 1799, he divided his time between France and England. With Sir Joseph Banks, he established the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1799. The pair chose Sir Humphry Davy as the first lecturer. He endowed the Rumford medals of the Royal Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and endowed a professorship at Harvard University. 1799 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks (February 13, 1743 - June 19, 1820) was the British naturalist and botanist on Cooks first great voyage (1768-1771) and some 75 species bear Banks name. ... The Royal Institution of Great Britain was set up in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, including Henry Cavendish and its first president George Finch, the 9th Earl of Winchilsea, for diffusing the knowledge, and facilitating the general introduction, of useful mechanical inventions and improvements; and for... Humphry Davy Sir Humphry Davy (December 17, 1778 - May 29, 1829), often incorrectly spelled Humphrey, was a Cornish chemist. ... Not to be confused with the Rumford Prize In 1796, Benjamin Thompson, known as Count Rumford, gave $5000 separately to the Royal Society of London and the other by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to give awards every two years for outstanding scientific research on heat or light. ... The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is claimed to be the oldest learned society still in existence. ... The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an organization dedicated to scholarship and the advancement of learning, particularly in areas of political science. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ...

In 1804, he married Marie-Anne Lavoisier, the widow of the great French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, his American wife having died since his emigration. They soon separated, but Thompson settled in Paris and continued his scientific work until his death. 1804 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... A chemist is a scientist who specializes in chemistry. ... Portrait of Monsieur Lavoisier and his Wife, by Jacques-Louis David Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (August 26, 1743 – May 8, 1794) was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry, finance, biology, and economics. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ...

Honours

• Knighted, 1784.
• Count of the Holy Roman Empire 1791
• The Rumford crater on the Moon is named for him.

A statue of an armoured knight of the Middle Ages For the chess piece, see knight (chess). ... 1784 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... This page is about the Germanic empire. ... 1791 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Crust composition Oxygen 43% Silicon 21% Aluminium 10% Calcium 9% Iron 9% Magnesium 5% Titanium 2% Nickel 0. ...

Notes

1. ^ Rumford (1786) "New experiments upon heat" Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society p.273
2. ^ Rumford (1792) "Experiments upon heat" Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society p.48
3. ^ Rumford (1797) "On the propagation of heat in fluids" Nicholson's Journal 1 pp298-341
4. ^ Cardwell (1971) p.99
5. ^ Leslie, J. (1804). An Experimental Enquiry into the Nature and Propagation of Heat. London. .
6. ^ Rumford (1804) "An enquiry concerning the nature of heat and the mode of its communication" Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society p.77
7. ^ Cardwell (1971) p.102

The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society is the oldest scientific journal printed in the English-speaking world, and was only three months shy of being the oldest in the world. ...

Bibliography

• Bradley, D. (1967). Count Rumford. Van Nostrand. ISBN B0000CM48T.
• Brown, G.I. (2001). Count Rumford: The Extraordinary Life of a Scientific Genius - Scientist, Soldier, Statesman, Spy. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0262021382.
• Brown, S.C. (1981). Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. MIT Press: Cambridge USA. ISBN 0262021382.
• Cardwell, D.S.L. (1971). From Watt to Clausius: The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial Age. Heinemann: London. ISBN 0435541501. pp95-107
• Larsen, E. (1953). An American in Europe: The life of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. Rider. ISBN B0000CII01.
• Orton, V. (2000). The Forgotten Art of Building a Good Fireplace: The Story of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, an American Genius & His Principles of Fireplace Design Which Have Remained Unchanged for 174 Years. Alan C. Hood and Company Inc. ISBN 0911469176.
• Sparrow, W.J. (1964). Knight of the White Eagle: A biography of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, 1753-1814. Hutchinson. ISBN B0000CM48T.

External links

• Eric Weisstein's World of Science. "Rumford, Benjamin Thompson". (1753-1814)
• Virtualology. "Benjamin Thompson Rumford", Virtual American Biographies.
• "Gen. Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" by Varick Vanardy Jr, The Gay Review, 1990