Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Benjamin Thompson (American-British Scientist)

Benjamin Thompson (1753–1814,) fully Sir Benjamin Thompson, count von Rumford, was an American-born British physicist and government administrator. His discoveries of heat upended the notion that heat is a liquid form of matter and instituted the understanding that heat is a form of motion. His work ushered the next revolution in thermodynamics.

Born in Woburn, Massachusetts, Thompson became a major in the 2nd New Hampshire regiment but fled to England in 1776—he was opposed to the American Revolutionary War, enrolled loyalists to fight the rebels, got attacked by a mob, ran to the British lines, and gave valuable information about the American forces. In England, he experimented with gunpowder and was elected FRS in 1779.

In 1784, Thompson entered the service of Bavaria, where his military, legal, and agricultural achievements led to his appointment as head of the Bavarian war department. He observed the immense heat generated by the boring of cannon, from which he deduced the relationship between the work done and the heat generated. He reported these findings to the Royal Society in 1798 in a classic paper of experimental science, “An Experimental Inquiry concerning the Source of Heat Excited by Friction.”

Thompson invented the Rumford shadow photometer, designed the so-called Rumford oil lamp, and introduced the standard candle concept. He endowed two Rumford medals of the Royal Society and two of the American Academy. In 1799, he left the Bavarian service, returned to London, and founded the Royal Institution.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) physicist Sanborn Brown wrote the biography Count Rumford: Physicist Extraordinary (1962.)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Benjamin Thompson

So great is the effect of cleanliness upon man, that it extends even to his moral character.—Virtue never dwelt long with filth; nor do I believe there ever was a person scrupulously attentive to cleanliness who was a consummate villain.
Benjamin Thompson

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