Count Rumford
| Sir Benjamin Thompson | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
March 26, 1753 Woburn, Massachusetts |
| Died | August 21, 1814 (aged 61) Paris |
| Residence | Woburn, Massachusetts, England; Munich, Bavaria; and France |
| Citizenship | British |
| Nationality | Anglo-American |
| Fields | Physics |
| Known for | Thermodynamics |
| Influenced | Humphry Davy |
| Notable awards |
Copley Medal (1792) Rumford Medal (1800) |
Signature
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Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, FRS (German: Reichsgraf von Rumford; March 26, 1753 – August 21, 1814) was an American-born British physicist and inventor whose challenges to established physical theory were part of the 19th century revolution in thermodynamics. He served as lieutenant-colonel of the King's American Dragoons, part of the British Loyalist forces, during the American Revolutionary War. After the end of the war he moved to London, where his administrative talents were recognized when he was appointed a full colonel, and in 1784 he received a knighthood from King George III. A prolific designer, Thompson also drew designs for warships. He later moved to Bavaria and entered government service there, being appointed Bavarian Army Minister and re-organizing the army, and, in 1791, was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire.
Thompson was born in rural Woburn, Massachusetts, on March 26, 1753; his birthplace is preserved as a museum. He was educated mainly at the village school, although he sometimes walked to Cambridge near ten miles distant with the older Loammi Baldwin to attend lectures by Professor John Winthrop of Harvard College. At the age of 13 he 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 with Loammi Baldwin and others about them. 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.
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