Count Rumford

Count Rumford (1753-1814), real name Benjamin Thompson, was a British soldier, philanthropist, and physicist, born at Woburn, Massachusetts. A fortunate marriage lifted him into affluence, relieving him from the necessity of teaching. He fought on the British side during the American War. He became a lieutenant-colonel, and for important services was knighted in 1782 on his return to England.

He entered the Bavarian service, and carried through a series of remarkable reforms, such as the suppression of mendicity, the amelioration of the poorer classes by the spread of useful knowledge, culinary, agricultural, &c. He was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, and placed in charge of the War Department of Bavaria. He was a generous patron of science in England and elsewhere. He retired from the Bavarian service in 1799, and five years later married the widow of Lavoisier the chemist. His later years were spent in retirement in a village near Paris, where he devoted himself to physical research, especially as regards heat.

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Count Vincent Benedetti, Count von Auersperg, Count von Beust, Count von Brunnow, Count von Moltke, Count von Nesselrode