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Born
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early years
the age of 13 he was apprenticedto john appleton, a merchant of nearby salem. -
early years
he met, charmed and married a rich and well- connected heiress named sarah rolfe. -
early years
when the american revoution began, thompson was a man of property and standing in new england -
early years
during the american revolution, thompson was an active tory who surved the british king by spying on his country men. -
early years
after the fall of boston, he fled to england, leaving behind his wife and daughter. -
early years
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, -
early years
he joined the court of the elector of bavaria where he instituted numerous social reforms including work houses for munich beggars. -
bavarian maturity
he moved to Bavaria where he became an aide-de-camp to the Prince-elector Karl Theodor. -
Bavarian maturity
founded the Englischer Garten in Munich -
experiments on heat
he extended his claim about non-conductivity to liquids -
Mechanical equivalent of heat
However, Rumford's most important scientific work took place in Munich, and centred 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 -
later years
he started the royal institution in london as a center for technological innovations -
later years
he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. -
later years
thompson went to paris were he married the widow of antoine lavoisier. -
Died