[CONTENTS.]
| CHAP. | PAGE | |
| [I]. | THE LIFE OF COUNT RUMFORD BEFORE THEFOUNDATION OF THE INSTITUTION | 1 |
| [II]. | HIS LIFE AFTER THE FOUNDATION OF THE INSTITUTION | 69 |
| [III]. | THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE INSTITUTION, 1799-1800;WITH THE LIFE OF PROFESSOR GARNETT,1766-1802 | 114 |
| [IV]. | THE PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTION TO THERESIGNATION OF PROFESSOR YOUNG, 1801-3;WITH THE LIFE OF Dr. THOMAS YOUNG, 1773-1829 | 180 |
| [V]. | THE FURTHER PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTIONTO THE TIME OF FARADAY, 1804-14 | 258 |
| [VI]. | THE LIFE OF SIR HUMPHRY DAVY, 1788-1829 | 312 |
| APPENDIX | ||
| [I]. | ORIGINAL PAPERS REGARDING THE AMERICANWAR | 405 |
| [II]. | ORIGINAL LETTERS FROM Dr. THOMAS YOUNG | 417 |
| [III]. | INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTIONTO 1814 | 425 |
[THE ROYAL INSTITUTION.]
[CHAPTER I.]
LIFE OF RUMFORD BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE INSTITUTION.
1753 to 1799.
At Charlestown, Massachusetts, in the year 1630, James Thompson was among Winthrop’s company. He settled about ten miles inland, and the place was called Woburn. In 1752 Benjamin Thompson was there with his father, Captain Ebenezer Thompson, and he married Ruth Simonds, of that place. Their child, the future Count Rumford, was born in his grandfathers farmhouse, on March 26, 1753. The house is still to be seen near the meeting-house in North Woburn. When the child was a year old his father died, and when he was three years old his mother married again. ‘To the close of her life Rumford wrote to her full of affection, and by the munificent provision which he made for her he showed his tender, grateful regard for her.’
A small inheritance from his grandfather helped to support and to educate the boy. By the law of Massachusetts everyone had a good grammar-school education, and the village school teacher at Woburn was then a graduate of Harvard College and taught a little Latin. From his earliest years the boy was fickle and careless. He neglected regular work, but liked arithmetic. He was full of energy and quick to make what he wanted. When eleven he went to a better school in the neighbouring town of Medford. When thirteen Benjamin Thompson appeared unlikely to make a farmer. He was therefore apprenticed to an importer of British goods and a dealer in everything, at Salem, on October 14, 1766. ‘Instead of watching for customers over the counter, he busied himself with tools and instruments under it.’ When he could he played his fiddle, and played it well. When only fourteen his master allowed him to make small ventures in shipping goods that were paid for by a relative. He was clever at drawing and cutting names, and he thought he had ‘invented a machine for making motion perpetual.’ When the repeal of the Stamp Act occurred, he blew himself up with fireworks, and was in great danger of death. His master signed the non-importation agreement. Thus his apprentice became useless. When sixteen he returned to his mother. To an elder school-fellow, L. Baldwin, at this time he wrote questions on light, heat, and the wind.
In 1769, when seventeen, he was apprentice and clerk to a drygoods dealer at Boston. There he went to an evening-school to learn French, paying only for the hours he attended.