edited by ROOERR. FESTA School of Education. Box U-33 The Universiv of Connecticut Stons, CT 06268
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: The True Fairy Tale of Benjamin Thompson Olto T. Salzer Linden High Schwl, Linden. NJ
This is the story of a proud, ambitious, and handsome schoolmaster who lusted for knowledge, wealth, and power. He achieved all that he wished for, hut died alone, abandoned. His given name was Benjamin Thompson, but the world knows him by the name he chose for himselE Count Rumford. Falry Tales Benjamin Thompson was horn in Wohurn, Massachusetts, on March 26,1753. Benjamin grew up under the harsh tutelage of his stepfather. Like other children growingup on Colonial New England farms, the young Thompson left school at the age of 13, and was expected to pitch in with the hard and homely task of carving an existence out of the unyieldingsoil. Benjamin often credited his later fame and riches to his ardent desire to escape the tortuous environment of his youth. Once his stepfather realized that Benjamin would not he a good farmer, he helped him obtain a position as an apprentice to a dry goods imoorter. In 1776. Beniamin lost the oosition when, a re& of an accident, he al&t killed himshf while preparing fireworks for the celebration of the rrpeal of the Stamp Act. After recuperating from the burns sus~,tinedin the accident, Thompson decided UI study medicine. He paid for his instructions with money earned as a p a r t time school teacher in the neiahhorinr towns of Wilmineton and Bradford. His earnings were, askxpected, scanty.-yet Benjamin Thompson was delighted when a full-time position as a schoolmaster was offered to him by the Reverend Timothy Walker of Concord, New Hampshire, and he thus abandoned his plans t o become a physician. Fairy tales are woven from curious yarns; they twist even more splendidly when the tale is true. The good Reverend Walker had a daughter named Sarah. She was a 32-year old widow of the richest landowner in all of New Hampshire. She fell in love with the handsome, 19-year-old schoolmaster, and they were married. Sarah Thompson insisted that Benjamin leave teaching and settle down to the life of a gentleman farmer. She saw t o i t that he dressed as a man of means, and
secured him a commission as a major in the Second Colonial Regiment. Thompson employed deserters from the British Army as Farm workers with the intention of tricking them into returning to their regiments. Although his treasonous actions could not he proven, one cold December evening, the citizens of Concord marched to Thompson's mansion ready to tar and feather the major. Leaving his wife and infant daughter, Thompson escaped. He then actively sided with the British and became a s u s disoatchina information via messages written in invisibii ink hetweenihr lines of innocuous letilrs sent t uhscure fr~ends.His ink was made from aallotanir acid leeched from powdered nutgalls that grew on th;? leaves of oak trees. His British correspondents developed the messages with a solution of ferrous sulfate. When Boston fell to the Americans, Thompson embarked with the departing British soldiers. His pockets were lined with the copies of his intelligence reports, along with letters
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of introduction to men of power in England. He landed in London as a self-oossessed intellieence aeent reoortine" hack to his home office. His keen sense of observation, ability for the swift analvsis. and resolution of Drohlems never failed to attract the attention of his superiors. He was only 26 years old when his activities in practical military science earned his election to the Royal Society. Thomoson measured the Dower of various mixtures of eun powder by firing a verticaily mounted mortar, the nozzc of which was plugged with successively heavier weights. He also determined the most advantageous position of events in firearms. He was one of the first investigators who fired shots into a pendulum to measure the momentum of bullets. In 1780, Thompson was appointed Undersecretary of the Northern Department. He was responsible for recruiting and fully supplying the British forces fighting on the American Continent. As was customary for men in his position, he bought swords and saddles cheap, and resold them as dearly as he could to the Department of War. As the Inspector General of the British forces, Thompson turned his attention to the specific gravity, diameter, tensile strength, and cohesion of silk fibers. The Red Coats of the Army were made of silk. He noted to his delight that every pound of silk ahsorhed about eight pounds of water. He then could well afford "to sell the army silk without a markup" for he bought his hales in the drv weather of London and sold them in New York after a lonehumid journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Count of the Holy Roman Empire
After the war, Thomoson moved to Europe. The Elector of Bavaria was most imprrssed with ~ h o m ~ s o nvast ' i knowledge of the Kevolutionary War and hired him as his aide-de-camp. Thompson skillfully rurned the job into the second must powerful position in Munich. After the death of the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold 11, the Bavarian Elector used his brief tenure as Vice Regent of the Empire to bestow on his friend the Knighthood of the Order of the White Eagle-he was now a Count of the Holy Roman Empire. As his title, he chose Count Rumford, after the old Colonial name of Concord, the town where his now foreotten wife and dauehter were still livine. euunt Humford w a s h y convinced th; all his achievements in Ravaria were due to his ahilirv to observe the ordinary course of events without emotions. here was a dire need for the radical reoreanization of the Bavarian Armv. Rumford was entrusted witc the task t o raise the morale the army. He eliminated the indenture of the foot soldier to the State, and, contrary to the age-old custom, he let the treasury provide the soldiers' food and clothine free of charee. Soldiers were taught horticulture and animal hushandry-while their wives were eiven eainful emolownent and their children were taught to read a d write. ~"mford's professed ambition was to make citizens hetter soldiers and soldiers hetter citizens. Rumford carried out studies that showed cotton, linen, and flannel keot a man warmer than the traditional silk uniform. His experiments included lowering a,test tuhe containing the various fibers and a thermometer into a warm water bath to achieve an equilihrium temperature of 70°C and then, plungina the test tuhe into ice water. He measured the time it took for the remperature of the tested materials to fnll from 70°C to 10°C. He fnund [hat fur and feathcri insulated better than silk, and that dry air was a hetter insulator than moist air. Rumford commented that flannel worn next to the skin insulated well because it ahsorhed the perspiration of the body, thus keeping the trapped air dry. The silk manufacturers resented the idea and cared little for his scientific proofs. They refused to change. So, Rumford huilt workhouses to produce textiles to his own specifications. The silk manufacturers conspired to constrict the lahor supply hut, as chief of police, Rumford huilt his own lahor supply by indenturing able-bodied beggars and teaching them the arts of weaving
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and sewing. The families of the heggar-workers were cleaned and fed. The children were taught to read and write. Good workers were rewarded with distinctive uniforms and became show persons for Rumford's social innovation. Every day 1,000 workers had to he fed in Rumford's workhouses. After much experimentation, Rumford found that a healthy worker could function happily with 4l/. ounces of solid food when i t was cooked in a large amount of water. He developed a potato soup with barley and peas. Discovering that slow eating gives the illusion of heing well fed, Rumford introduced crisp fried bread into the soup to necessitate slow chewing. In order to increase the efficiencv of his kitchens. the Count designed a new stove and special double boilers. TO find the best fuel, Rumford determined the heat of combustion of various materials in acalorimeter of his own design. With this calorimeter, he also measured the heat of condensation of various gases. The practical involvement with heat lead Rumford to understand the untenable nature of the Caloric theorv. In the prevailing theory of the time, heat was thought to be a fluid suhstance-a part of matter. With a very sensitive scale, the Count proved that there was no loss of weight when materials cooled. Rumford took equal volumes of water. soirits of wine. and mercury, kept ar 6 1 ; ~for 2 1 hours and then left them to cool to an eauilihrium temperature of 30°F. Since the swcific heat of water is higher than that of the other liquids,-it lost more heat, vet it did not become li~hter.Heat, therefore, could not possibly he a form of matter. TO Rumford, heat was a vihratory motion of particles, while a thermometer measured the "mean temperillun." of thc p a r t i d ~ s!hat came in contact with it. Essentially, heat meant to Humford in 1790 what it means to us today. ~~~
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London
In the fall of 1790, Rumford returned to London to publish his Bavarian achievements. The two years that he spent there were as productive as they were profitable. Shocked by the dirty and inefficient ways Londoners heated their houses, Rumford designed an efficient and smokeless fireplace. The design introduced a smokeshelf which separated the rising hot air from the descending cold air, thus preventing smoke from eushineinto the heated area. Furthermore. the hearth of the Ereplace was beveled to throw more heat into the room. Althoueh Rumford never oatented his inventions (he claimed theylbelonged to the the fireplace design brought him great wealth. He used some of the money to encourage research in the fields of heat and light. After a short return to Bavaria. he (as Suoreme Commander) took over the defense of thk ahandoneb city of Munich and by a series of brilliant negotiations, persuaded the French and The Austrians to withdraw. In spite of the bloodless victory in saving Munich from sure destruction, Rumford's presence became intolerable for the Bavarian eentrv. Rumford was then named Ambassador ~ l e n i ~ o t e ~ t ithe a ~Court t o of St. James. King George was furious to have one of his own suhiects reoresenting a sovereign state in his court and he deciared thh appointment unacceptable to the Crown. Hv the time Humford returned to h on don, he was without a job. I t must be said in Rnmford's favor that he thrived on adversity. For him, a sethnck indicnted a mrre shifting of gears, not a defeat. Within weeks, he had conceived the idea of a science museum which was to he the center of practical scientific investigations in Britain. Thereby, Rumford founded the Royal Institution, which consequently received its charter from King George in 1800. Although Rumford envisioned the Institution as a popular place of instruction, and not as a research facility, the building was fitted with a first-rate lahoratory. In this laboratory worked Humphrey Davy and, later, Michael Faraday.
