Count Rumford
Our story now takes us back to the time of the American Revolution. In America, we find a young man of nineteen, Benjamin Thompson by name, serving as major in the Second Regiment of New Hampshire. The appointment of so young a man as major, and his evident hold on the governor's favor, aroused the jealousy of the older officers. He was accused of being unfriendly to the cause of liberty. He denied the charge, and was acquitted by the committee of the people of Concord. A mob gathered round his house, but he escaped. Driven from his refuge in his mother's home, he fled to England, leaving his wife and child. Appointed lieutenant-colonel in the British Army, he returned to America and fought against his former friends.
The war having ended, he returned to England, thence to the Continent, intending to take part in an expected war between Austria and Turkey. A chance meeting with a Bavarian prince, Maximilian, changed the course of his life. This prince, while commanding on parade, saw Thompson among the spectators mounted on a fine English horse, and addressed him. Thompson informed him that he came from serving in the American war. The prince, pointing to a number of his officers, said: "These gentlemen were in the same war, but against you. They belonged to the Royal Regiment of Deux Ponts, that acted in America under the orders of Count Rochambeau." Thompson dined with the prince and French officers. They conversed of war and the battles in which they met. The prince, attracted to the colonel, induced him to pass through Munich, and gave him a letter to his uncle, the Elector of Bavaria.
It was in Bavaria, the country to which such unexpected turns of fortune led him, that his greatest work was done. He entered the service of the Duke of Bavaria as aide-de-camp. It was his aim while in the service of the Bavarian Government to better the condition of the people. He introduced reforms in the army, used the soldiers to rid the country of beggars and robbers, and took steps to provide for the infirm and find employment for the strong, his motto being that people can best be made virtuous when first made happy.
A Military Workhouse was opened for the beggars, and a House of Industry for the poor. A Military Academy was formed with a view to the free education of young people of talent for the public service. He became absorbed in the one aim of helping the poor. So thorough was his devotion to the people, and so deeply did he win their affection, that when he was dangerously ill a multitude of hundreds went in procession to the church to make public prayers for his recovery.
He saw that the poor may be helped by teaching them to save, and in nothing is there greater need of saving than in fuel and heat. In the kitchens of the Military Academy and the House of Industry he carried out a series of experiments on the economy of fuel, and succeeded in greatly reducing the amount of fuel needed for cooking the food. He did this by using a "closed fireplace," the forerunner of the stove. The closed fireplace was in reality a brick stove, and was a great improvement over the open chimney fireplaces then in common use. He made the covers of the cooking utensils double, to save the heat, for he had found that heat cannot escape through confined air.
Benjamin Thompson was knighted by George III., and in 1791 he was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, and is known to the world of science as Count Rumford.
Count Rumford's Experiment with the Cannon
While in the service of the Duke of Bavaria, it became his duty to organize the field artillery. To provide cannon for this purpose, he erected a foundry and machine-shops. Being alert for any unusual fact relating to heat, he observed the very high temperature produced by the boring of the cannon. He was eager to learn how so much heat could be produced. For this purpose he took a cannon in the rough, as it came from the foundry, fixed it in the machine used for boring, and caused the cannon to be turned by horses while a blunt borer was forced against the end of the cannon. He first tested the temperature of the metal itself as it turned. Then he surrounded the end of the cannon with water in an oblong box fitted water-tight (Fig. 20).