RESULTS. First Month, 1815.2. Slight hoar frost: misty cloudy. 3. Breeze fresh, and drier air: slightly clouded. 4. The same. 5. The same: a little snow. 6. The same. 7. a. m. A bank of Cirrostratus in the S. E.: during the forenoon these clouds passed over in flocks, and becoming denser at night, there fell a little rain or sleet. 8. A fine day, with Cirrus: bright star-light night. 9. Clear morning, but a Cirrostratus over the marshes, and Cirrus above in lines from N. E. to S. W.: at mid-day a little snow: windy evening. 10. Cirrostratus and Cumulostratus: max. of temp. for the day this morning. 11. Brisk wind: Nimbi to the S., succeeded by Cumulus and Cirrus: a little snow after dark. 13. a. m. Barom. falling: hoar frost : red lowering Cirrus and Cirrostratus clouds, in lines from N. to S.: these indications were followed by rain after two p. m. 15. Cloudy smart breeze: S.E. in the night. 16. a. m. The sky overcast with Cirrostratus: this modification continued through the day, with a dry air. 17. Cloudy: windy night. 18-23. Snow fell at intervals during these six days, often in regular and beautiful crystallizations. 24. a. m. Much rime on the trees and shrubs: misty from Cirrostratus: temp. 18° about nine wind easterly in the night. 25. Somewhat misty: overcast snow. 26. Cloudy, a. m.: snow, p. m. in flakes of all sizes, varying from the simple union of six prisms in a minute star to broad feathery flakes of the most regular compound structure: it was nearly calm during this time; so that the crystals escaped the derangement consequent on being driven about in their descent. 27. Snow and sleet, p. m. : a thaw, interrupted by a little frost, in the evening: max. of temp. in the night. 28. Wind and rain in the night. 30. a. m. Misty: the trees dripping: rain. REMARKS. 1 Winds Northerly till near the close of the period. ANNALS OF PHILOSOPHY. APRIL, 1815. ARTICLE I. A Biographical Account of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Knt. Count Rumford. By Thomas Thomson, M.D. F.R.S. SIR BENJAMIN THOMPSON was born in the year 1752, in the little town of Rumford, in New England. His parents, who were in middling circumstances, gave him the best education the place could afford. He married, early in life, the school-master's daughter of the place; and I have been told, though I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information, that he himself for some time discharged the duties of school-master. This is by no means inconsistent with the rank which he held, as Major of the Militia of this district; as in America the military officers did not constitute a separate profession, but were selected out of the most respectable inhabitants of the country, who still retained their old situations, and continued their old pursuits. When the American revolutionary war commenced, Mr. Thompson embraced the side of the mother country, and was of considerable service, from his local knowledge of the country. He soon came over to London, with proposals to raise a regiment in America for the service of his Majesty; and such was his address and insinuating manners, that he acquired the confidence and friendship of Lord George Germaine, at that time at the head of the Colonial Department, who gave him, it is said, a situation in his office. He was afterwards sent over to New York to raise the proposed regiment, which he accomplished. In consequence of this, when the peace was concluded in 1783, he became entitled to half-pay. In 1784 he was knighted by his present Majesty. He had been elected a Member of the Royal Society in the year VOL. V. N° IV. Q 1779; and he began to distinguish himself as an experimental philosopher in 1781. In 1784 he made a tour on the Continent, and became acquainted with the present King of Bavaria at Strasburgh, who was at that time Prince of Deux Ponts. He insinuated himself so successfully into the good graces of this Prince, that he recommended him in the most powerful manner to his relation and predecessor the then Elector Palatine, who invited him into his service on the most honourable terms. He accepted the offers that were made him, and was employed by the Elector in new modelling the army, and in introducing various changes and reforms into different departments of government. He received a pension from the King of Bavaria amounting to about 9007. a-year, which constituted, I believe, almost the whole of his income. I have been told, though I do not believe the statement, that the Elector Palatine had applied to the British Government for a proper person to organize his army, and that Sir Benjamin Thompson was recommended by Ministry for that purpose. Be that as it may, he seems to have enjoyed the full confidence of the Elector Palatine; and he remained in Bavaria till 1799, when he returned to Great Britain; still, however, retaining his Bavarian pension. During this long interval he had distinguished himself by various papers published in the Philosophical Transactions, on the Force of Gunpowder and on Heat, all of them written in the most pleasing and fascinating style, and containing much curious and important information. On his return to London in 1799 he began to make known those speculations which seem to have occupied a good deal of his attention during his residence in Germany. They regarded chiefly improvements in the construction of our fire-places, and in the mode of preparing food for the poor. His alterations in our fire-places constituting a real improvement; and Rumford grates, as they were called (for by this time Sir Benjamin Thompson had been created a Baron of the German Empire), very soon became almost universal in Great Britain. These improvements gave him a degree of popularity very uncommon among literary men in this country; so that for some time Count Rumford constituted the general subject of conversation. 1799 and 1800 were two years of very bad crops, which succeeded one another; the one from too much rain, the other from too long a continuance of dry weather. It was then that the prices rose to their present pitch; and they have never since fallen to what was formerly considered a reasonable rate. These high prices occasioned subscriptions in different parts for the relief of the poor. The Count's popularity enabled him to suggest a plan which he had put in execution in Germany, and to procure its adoption. Large quantities of soup were made, and distributed either by means of tickets, or sold at a very cheap rate. I had an opportunity of seeing this practised for two successive winters in Edinburgh upon a very considerable scale. But though the plan appeared good in an abstract point of view, it was not found upon trial to answer so well as had been expected. Many of the greatest objects of charity were deterred by a false shame from making application for the soup, because they considered such an application as a declaration of their poverty before the whole town, and as sinking them a step lower in the scale of society. Those who came forward with the greatest effrontery were sufficiently poor indeed; but too frequently their characters were not of the best stamp, and not a few of them by a vicious course of life had lost that regard for character, and that desire of the good opinion of others, which constitute so important a part of the feelings of the common people in those coun→ tries where they have not been vitiated by improper institutions and erroneous laws. Though those who had the office of preparing the soup discharged their duty with great fidelity and honour, yet the poor people were not satisfied, but complained loudly against the quality of the soup, and the honesty of the purveyors. These two years of scarcity seem to have directed the Count's attention to the art of cooking. Combining his notions of economy, and his opinions respecting heat, he contrived a new cooking appa ratus by means of steam, which he assured the public was greatly superior in every respect to the old mode. Such was his popularity at that time, that numbers of people adopted his ideas, and fitted up their kitchens according to his models; but I have not heard that his scheme was found to answer in a single instance. I remember going in 1802 to see the Count's own kitchen, which was fitted up according to his own plan, and was at Brompton, or somewhere about Knightsbridge. I was very much surprised to observe that not one of the utensils had ever been put to use. Hence it was likely that his notions of cooking were rather theoretical than practical. He had begun, soon after his arrival in London in 1799, to publish a series of essays in succession on different subjects; but all connected with his own favourite pursuits. These essays amount in all to 18 or 19, constituting two octavo volumes. They were exceedingly popular at their first appearance, and very generally read; and they contain many valuable facts, put together in a pleasing and entertaining manner. It was at this time that he had influence enough to procure the formation of the Royal Institution as a school for science in the metropolis of Great Britain, and a place where models of every kind were to be collected and exhibited. This Institution has flourished ever since, and has given birth to various others upon a similar plan, both in London and in other towns of Great Britain and Ireland. The uncommon popularity which the Count enjoyed for some years seems to have produced a bad effect upon his disposition, or perhaps rather induced him to display without reserve those dispositions which he had hitherto been at some pains to conceal. Pomposity, and a species of literary arrogance quite unsuitable to the nature of experimental philosophy, for some years characterized his writings, and injured their value. But in some of the last essays with which he favoured the world we find much valuable and curious information, respecting the heat evolved by different combustibles while burning, a subject of great interest, which he prosecuted for many years, and at last elucidated with considerable success. I pass over his quarrel with the managers of the Royal Institution, about the nature of which I am not fully informed, though I suppose it was an attempt on the part of the Count to retain in his own hands the entire management of that Institution. Be that as it may, the result of the dispute induced him to leave London, to which he never again returned. He settled at Paris, and some years after married the widow of M. Lavoisier, who had retained part of her unfortunate husband's property; but their tempers were not found to be congenial. Hence after some time they parted. He lived in a house at Auteuil, in the neighbourhood of Paris; and during the two or three last years of his life, his daughter, who had been brought up in America, but who came over to join him in France, lived with him in the same house. He died on Sunday, August the 21st, 1814, in the 62d year of his age. His writings, so far as I am acquainted with them, are the following: 1. New Experiments on Gunpowder. Phil. Trans. for 1781. P. 229.-This is an elaborate paper. The experiments appear to have been made with great care. His method was similar to that contrived by Robins, and universally known. I can only give a general idea of some of the points which he established. He found, as Robins had done, that when the powder was rammed into the piece the effect was greater than when it lay loose, and therefore recommends the use of the ramrod in charging a piece. The force of the charge increased as the piece acquired heat by firing. This is so well known in the navy that, after firing two or three times, it is customary to diminish the quantity of powder used. Our author found that the barrel became much hotter when the piece was only charged with powder than when a ball was employed. He conceives the heat to be produced by the vibration of the barrel, and supposes that this vibration will be greatest when there is no ball, because in that case the action on the barrel is only momentary. Here we have the first notice of our author's peculiar notions respecting heat, which he retained during the whole of life. It appears from his experiments that the relative velocities of the bullets, supposing every thing else equal, are in the subduplicate ratio of the weights of the charges nearly. This is conformable to preceding experience. The position of the vent produces very little effect on the charge. He points out a method of proving the relative goodness of powder with great accuracy. But the method had been already introduced by Dr. Hutton, and was in use at Woolwich. It consists in having a standard powder, the velocity with which a particular charge of which drives a bullet of a given |