of a clerk at a dry goods store at Boston, kept by a Mr. Capen, and was
thus engaged during the famous riots which took place in that town, on
the attempt to land a cargo of tea from a British vessel, contrary to
a resolution of the colonists against admitting British goods. These
disturbances caused Mr. Capen's business to decline as Mr. Appleby's
had formerly done, and Thompson was again obliged to return to Woburn.
He now seriously turned his attention to the acquisition of scientific
knowledge, and in company with his friend Baldwin attended a course
of lectures on experimental philosophy delivered at Harvard College,
instituting at the same time many experiments of his own, some of which
proved the germs of valuable conclusions published in after life. In
particular may be mentioned a course of experiments which he began in
order to ascertain and measure the projectile force of gunpowder.
Thompson, though still only in his seventeenth year, had now acquired
a certain amount of reputation; he was also endowed with much natural
grace and many personal advantages, which subsequently proved the means
of gaining him access to the first circles in Europe.
Towards the close of the year 1770 he was invited by Colonel Timothy
Walker, one of the most important residents in the village of Rumford,
now Concord, in New Hampshire, to take charge of an Academy in that
place. Two years later, at the age of twenty, he married Mrs. Rolfe, a
colonel's widow possessed of a considerable fortune. After his marriage
Thompson took his place as one of the wealthiest inhabitants of the
district in which he resided, mixing with the best society the colony
afforded. Among others he made the acquaintance of the governor John
Wentworth, who, wishing to attach to the British party so influential
a colonist, gave Thompson the commission of major in a regiment of the
New Hampshire Militia, in which a vacancy had occurred. This act of
attention, while gratifying to Thompson, procured him much ill-will
from the officers already in the service, and over whose head he had
been promoted.
From this period he began to be unpopular in his native country. He
was represented as a friend of Great Britain, and an enemy to the
interests of the colonies. The public hatred of him at length rose to
such a height, that he only escaped by flight from the ignominy of
being tarred and feathered in the open streets. Leaving his wife and
an infant daughter, Thomas first took refuge in his native town of
Woburn, and then proceeded to Charlestown where he remained for several
months. From Charlestown he went to Boston, at which place he was well
received by General Gage and the officers of the British army at that
time in garrison at Boston. Returning in the spring of 1775 to Woburn,
he again ran the risk of being tarred and feathered, but was saved by
the interference of his friend Baldwin.
The commencement of open hostilities between the Colonists and the
British troops in May, 1775, made Thompson's position still more
critical, and finding that he could not overcome the prejudice felt
against him, he came to the desperate resolution of quitting his
native country, and leaving his wife and child. To effect this he
first escaped to Boston, where he remained, with his friend General
Gage, until the evacuation of the town by the British troops, when
he embarked on board the Scarborough, and set sail for England, with
despatches from General Gage to Lord George Germain, the British
Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs.
Although Thompson arrived in England the bearer of gloomy tidings, and
sustaining the equivocal character of a deserter from the American
cause, he soon showed that he was a man capable of commanding his
fortune anywhere. The capacity in which he had come over introduced
him to various public men who were both struck by his abilities and
charmed by his manners. But a short time elapsed after his arrival
before he was offered a post in the Colonial Office, and four years
after, in 1780, was raised by his patron Lord Germain to the post of
under secretary for the colonies, an instance of rapid promotion which,
considering the circumstances in which the subject of it stood, is
almost unexampled.
The income and consequence which Thompson derived from this office
gave him admission to the highest metropolitan circles, and he had
thus opportunities not only of becoming known, but also of exercising
his inventive mind in many pursuits not immediately connected with his
official duties. Fertility of resources, and a disposition to propose
improvements in all departments, appear to have been his most striking
characteristics, and it was probably this ready genius for practical
reform in everything which came under his notice, that recommended
him so much to public men. While engaged generally in a variety of
matters, Thompson was at the same time following out certain specific
lines of scientific investigation. His experiments on the heat caused
by friction, deduced from the boring of cannon, are among the best we
possess.
In 1777 he made some curious and interesting experiments on the
strength of solid bodies, which were, however, never published. In
1778 he employed himself in further experiments on the strength of
gunpowder and the velocity of military projectiles; and these were
followed up by a cruise of some months in the Channel fleet, where he
proposed to repeat his experiments on a larger scale. He communicated
the result of his researches on this subject, in several papers, to the
'Philosophical Transactions' of the Royal Society, of which he became a
member in the last-mentioned year.
On the retirement of Lord George Germain from office, Thompson was
sent out to New York in the year 1781, with the royal commission of
major, afterwards changed to that of lieutenant-colonel, charged with
the task of organizing an efficient regiment of dragoons out of the
broken and disjointed native cavalry regiments which had been fighting
on the royalist side. This regiment was, however, of no avail; peace
was concluded between Great Britain and the United States, and Colonel
Thompson on his return to England obtained leave of absence to travel
on the Continent. In crossing from England to France, it happened
that he had as a fellow-traveller the celebrated historian Gibbon,
who, in some subsequent correspondence, spoke of him as "the soldier,
philosopher, statesman--Thompson."
While on his way to Vienna, Thompson attended a review of the garrison
of Strasbourg, and, attracting general attention by his superb English
horse and uniform of colonel of dragoons, became introduced to the
notice of Prince Maximilian, nephew and presumptive heir of the Elector
of Bavaria. This prince was agreeably impressed by the manners and
address of Thompson, and furnished him with letters of introduction
to his uncle, the Bavarian Elector. When Thompson arrived at Munich
(so great seems to have been his power of conciliating favour), he
was offered, on his first interview with the elector, an important
situation at court, if he would take up his residence there. After a
little delay, Thompson accepted this offer, conditional upon receiving
permission from his Britannic Majesty. Proceeding to London to obtain
the required consent, he was very favourably received by George III.,
who conferred on him the honour of knighthood, and allowed him to
retain his title of lieutenant-colonel, together with the half-pay
attached to it.
Towards the close of the year 1784, Sir Benjamin Thompson, at the age
of thirty-one, took up his residence at Munich, and filled the posts of
aide-de-camp and chamberlain to the Elector; being thus connected both
with the military and civil service of the Bavarian dominions. Into
these twin branches of government he soon introduced many important and
salutary reforms; he reorganized the Bavarian army, and introduced many
improvements into the art of agriculture as practised in that part of
Europe; he also took wise and effectual measures for the suppression
of mendicancy, and for the ameliorization of the condition of the
poor at Munich, introducing among them some excellent plans for the
economization of food and fuel.
While investigating this latter subject, Sir Benjamin paid particular
attention to the construction of grates and fireplaces, and to the
scientific properties of light and heat. He so improved the methods
of heating apartments and of cooking food, as to produce a saving in
the precious element of heat varying from one-half to seven-eighths
of the fuel previously consumed; so that it was wittily said, that he
would never rest satisfied until he had cooked his dinner with his
neighbours' smoke. To him also is the honour due of being the first to
explain the manner in which heat is propagated in fluids. In requital
of these important services to the Bavarian state, Thompson was
decorated with two orders of Polish knighthood; he also received the
appointments of member of the Council of State and lieutenant-general
in the army, was created commander-in-chief of the general staff,
minister of war, and superintendent of the police of the electorate,
and was finally, in 1790, raised to the dignity of Count of the
Holy Roman Empire, by the title of Count Rumford, in memory of the
American village where he had formerly officiated as schoolmaster. The
scientific part of the community also showed their esteem for him, by
electing him a member of the Academies of Munich and Manheim; and in
1787, when on a visit to Prussia, he was chosen a member of the Academy
of Sciences at Berlin.
When the advance of the French army under Moreau compelled the Elector
to quit his capital, Count Rumford was for a short time placed at the
head of the Regency, and in this capacity succeeded in the arduous task
of freeing the Bavarian state from foreign invasion. This important
service increased Rumford's reputation with the Elector and the people,
and he was permitted to settle one-half of the pension which he enjoyed
on his daughter, to be paid during her lifetime.
In the year 1798, the Elector appointed him his ambassador to the court
of Great Britain; but on arriving in London, Rumford, much to his
mortification, found that, as a British subject he could not hold that
office. Shortly after this, in 1799, his friend and patron the Elector
Charles Theodore died. Deeply grieved by the loss he had sustained,
Rumford contemplated returning to his native country, in compliance
with a formal invitation which he had received from the United States
government. He was, however, led to change this design, and remain for
several years in London, during which period he devoted the greatest
portion of his time to the interests of the Royal Institution, of which
he may be considered the founder. The objects of this institution,
now one of the recognised scientific establishments of the world, and
which can boast of having given employment to such men as Young, Davy,
Brande, and Faraday, were "to diffuse the knowledge and facilitate the
general introduction of useful mechanical inventions and improvements,
and to teach by courses of philosophical lectures and experiments
the application of science to the useful purposes of life." Such an
institution was precisely the one which Rumford was qualified to
superintend; and in its early history, the influence of his peculiar
habits of thought is discernible, in the choice of subjects for
investigation by the members. Rumford's name will ever be connected
with the progress of science in England, from the establishment of
this institution, and also from the foundation by him of a perpetual
medal and prize in the gift of the Royal Society, for the reward of
discoveries connected with light and heat.
During the latter portion of his life, Count Rumford, retaining an
income of 1200_l._ a year from the Bavarian court, resided chiefly at
Auteuil, a small villa near Paris. Here he was married again to the
widow of the eminent French chemist Lavoisier, his former wife having
died in 1792. Rumford's death took place at Auteuil, on the 21st of
August, 1814, in the sixty-second year of his age. His only daughter
by his first wife inherited the title of Countess of Rumford, with
the continuation of her father's Bavarian pension. She married Cuvier
the naturalist, and survived until a few years ago, forming a link
between the age of Lavoisier and those of the middle of the nineteenth
century.--_Chambers' Miscellany_, No. 161.--_Encyclopædia Britannica_,
eighth edition.--_Voyage de trois mois en Angleterre, en Ecosse, &c.,
par Marc-Auguste Pictet, F.R.S., &c._ Geneva, 1802.
DANIEL RUTHERFORD, M.D.
Born November 3, 1749. Died November 15, 1819.
Daniel Rutherford was born at Edinburgh and educated at the University
of his native city. He took his degree of M.D. in 1772, and in the
Thesis which he published upon this occasion, entitled 'De Aëre Fixo,'
he pointed out for the first time a new gaseous substance, since
distinguished by the name of Azote or Nitrogen. On the 6th of May,
1777, he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and
in a paper on Nitre, read before the Philosophical Society in 1778, he
described, under the name of Vital Air, what is now called Oxygen gas.
On the death of Dr. John Hope in 1786, Rutherford was elected Professor
of Botany and Keeper of the Botanical Gardens at Edinburgh, a duty
which he discharged until the time of his death, in 1819, at the age of
seventy.--_Edinburgh Philosophical Journal_, vol. 3. May 1820.
WILLIAM SMITH, LL.D.
Born March 23, 1769. Died August 28, 1839.
William Smith, the 'Father of English Geology,' was born at Churchill,
a village in Oxfordshire. His father died when he was eight years old,
and his mother marrying again, William was brought up under the care of
his uncle, to part of whose property he was heir. From this kinsman,
who had little sympathy with his nephew's early displayed taste for
collecting specimens of the various stones in the neighbourhood, young
Smith with difficulty obtained money for the purchase of a few books
fit to instruct a boy in the rudiments of geometry and surveying. He,
however, continued to prosecute these studies without instruction
or sympathy, but still with ardour and success until the year 1787,
when, having attained the age of eighteen, and being tolerably versed
in the geometry and calculations at that time thought sufficient for
engineers and surveyors, he became assistant to Mr. Edward Webb, of
Stow-on-the-Wold, who had been appointed to make a complete survey of
the parish of Churchill. Being speedily entrusted with the management
of all the ordinary business of a surveyor, Mr. Smith traversed in
continual activity the counties of Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and
Warwickshire, carefully noticing all the varieties of soil over which
he passed, and comparing them with the general aspect and character
of the country. Between the years 1791 and 1793, he also made minute
subterraneous surveys of the High Littleton collieries, which afforded
him an opportunity of confirming views previously conceived as to the
regularity in formation of the different strata composing the earth's
crust. At this period the services of civil engineers were in great
request, and the duties entrusted to them were such as Mr. Smith was
well qualified to perform. Several gentlemen in the neighbourhood
interested themselves in forwarding his professional career, and he
obtained an engagement to make surveys and levels for a proposed line
of canal in Somersetshire. In the course of these operations, Smith
discovered that the strata lying above coal were not laid horizontally,
but inclined in one direction--viz., to the eastward; resembling on a
large scale the ordinary appearance of superposed slices of bread and
butter. This fact he had previously imagined to be the case, and it was
now proved to be true.
In 1794 the Canal Bill on which he was engaged received the sanction
of Parliament, and one of the first steps taken by the committee of
management was to depute two of their members to accompany Mr. Smith,
their engineer, on a tour of investigation as to the construction and
management of other navigations in England and Wales. This journey
extended altogether through 900 miles of country, and occupied the
space of one or two months; the party reached Newcastle by one
route, and returned by another, through Shropshire and Wales to
Bath. During the whole tour Mr. Smith seized every opportunity of
observing all local peculiarities as to the aspect and structure of the
country passed through, and was able to verify on a large scale his
pre-conceived generalizations regarding a settled order of succession,
continuity of range at the surface, and general declination eastward
of the different strata. During the next six years he was engaged in
setting out and superintending the works on the Somersetshire coal
canal; being able, from the knowledge he had acquired, to inform
the contractors what would be the nature of the ground to be cut
through, and what parts of the canal would require particular care
to be kept water-tight. He also discovered, during the formation of
this work, that each stratum contained organised fossils peculiar
to itself, by examination of which, it might in cases otherwise
doubtful be recognised and discriminated from others like it, but in a
different part of the series. This fact was subsequently still further
investigated by him, and he proved that whatever stratum was found in
any part of England, the same remains would be found in it and no other.
Mr. Smith was now (1795) twenty-six years old, and at this period
removed from the village of High Littleton to Bath, in the vicinity
of which city he shortly afterwards purchased a small but beautiful
estate. In the following year he first contemplated publishing his
discoveries in geology, but it was not until the year 1799, after his
engagement with the Coal Canal Company had ceased, that he made public
his intention of publishing a work on the Stratification of Britain,
and prosecuting an actual survey of the Geological structure of England
and Wales. About this time he became acquainted with the Rev. Benjamin
Richardson and the Rev. Jos. Townsend, two gentlemen thoroughly
competent to estimate the truth and value of his views, and who, in
conjunction with him, drew up a tabular statement of the order of the
strata, with their imbedded organic remains, in the vicinity of Bath.
Copies of this document were extensively distributed, and it remained
for a long period the type and authority for the descriptions and order
of the superposition of the strata near Bath. The original document,
in Mr. Richardson's handwriting, drawn up from Smith's dictation, was
presented to the Geological Society in 1831. Mr. Smith now turned all
his energies to the prosecution of his profession, and the tracing out
the courses of the strata through districts as remote from Bath as
his means would permit. In 1799 an unusual amount of rain prevailed,
producing in the neighbourhood of Bath an extraordinary phenomenon.
Vast mounds of earth, displaced by the augmented force of the springs
and the direction of water into new channels below the surface, were
sliding down the sides of the hills, bearing away with them houses,
trees, lawns, and fields. To remedy such disasters and prevent their
recurrence was exactly what Smith had learnt from Geology, and many
operations of this kind were placed under his care and successfully
accomplished. His reputation for success in draining on new principles
became established, carrying him into Gloucestershire, the Isle of
Purbeck, Wiltshire, &c., and for the next few years he was almost daily
occupied in various parts of the country, first in draining land,
and secondly in irrigating it when drained. In 1801 he accomplished
the effectual drainage of Prisley Bog, a work which had often been
attempted before, but without success. Mr. Smith thoroughly deprived
the bog of its stagnant water, and converted this hitherto worthless
waste into valuable meadows, by conducting a running stream over its
surface. For the performance of this undertaking he received in 1805
the medal of the Society of Arts. Another great work, on which he was
engaged more or less during the space of nine years (1800-1809), was
the draining of the marsh lands in East Norfolk, between Yarmouth and
Happisburgh. These lands were continually liable to be flooded by
inundations from the German Ocean, which poured in through breaches in
the sand-hills lining the coast, and forming a natural barrier against
these inroads. Mr. Smith at once saw that the first thing to be done,
to prove an effectual remedy, must be the stopping out the sea from the
whole region of marsh land. This he accomplished by filling up the vast
breaches (amounting altogether to one mile in length) with artificial
embankments made of pebbles and sand as like as possible to the
natural barriers thrown up by the sea. This simple and effective plan,
requiring almost nothing but labour for its accomplishment, entirely
succeeded; and the sea now being effectually kept out, he was able to
suggest to the proprietors proper methods for draining and improving
the marshes.
In 1806 Mr. Smith's first published work appeared, being entitled, 'A
Treatise on the Construction and Management of Watermeadows.' Several
years previous to this he had been repeatedly urged by his friends
(among whom he now counted Francis, Duke of Bedford, Sir Joseph Banks,
Mr. Crawshaw, Thomas W. Coke, of Norfolk, and the Rev. B. Richardson,
before mentioned) to put in force his intention of publishing his
discoveries. Many difficulties had, however, occurred; his means
were continually exhausted by his scientific investigations; and an
attempt, first made in 1801, to publish by subscription a work on the
natural order of the strata of England and Wales, failed, partially
from the deaths of his patrons the Duke of Bedford and Mr. Crawshaw,
and ultimately from his proposed publisher, Debrett, falling into
difficulties.