SKETCH OF BENJAMIN THOMPSON. 233 



by a self-educated American, the subject of this sketch. The news- 

 papers say that he is dropping out of memory in this age, and was in 

 his day a distinguished smoke-doctor and improver of fireplaces ; but 

 in the scientific world his fame has been increasing in recent years, 

 and is destined to grow brighter with the further progress of physical 

 knowledge. As attention has latterly been drawn to what America 

 has done for science, it is desirable to give an account of the career 

 and labors of this eminent American investigator. 



Benjamin Thompson was born March 26, 1753, in Woburn, Mas- 

 sachusetts. He first saw the light in the west end of a substantial 

 farmhouse, which is still standing a few rods south of the meeting- 

 house in North Wcburn. The dwelling is said to be well preserved, 

 retaining its external and internal appearance unchanged, notwith- 

 standing its great age, and it has been recently purchased by the 

 citizens of Woburn, to be preserved as an object of public and histori- 

 cal interest. His father died in his infancy, and when the child was 

 three years old his widowed mother was married to Josiah Pierce, Jr., 

 of Woburn. His latest biographer, Mr. George E. Ellis, says that 

 the lad " indicated from his early years an inconstancy and indiffer- 

 ence to the homely routine tasks and the rural employments which 

 were required of him, while at the same time he exhibited an intense 

 mental activity, a spirit of ingenuity and inventiveness, and was 

 found seeking for amusement in things which afterward proved to 

 lead him to the profitable and beneficent occupations of his mature 

 life. He showed a particular ardor for arithmetic and mathematics, 

 and it was remembered of him afterward that his play-time and some 

 of his proper work-time had been given to ingenious mechanical con- 

 trivances, soon leading to a curious interest in the principles of me- 

 chanics and natural philosophy." 



He received the rudiments of a common-school education, and his 

 guardians, finding that he was unfit for a farm-drudge, apprenticed 

 him at thirteen to a merchant in Salem. While thus engaged, with 

 such spare time and private assistance as he could get, he studied 

 algebra, trigonometry, astronomy, and even the higher mathematics, 

 so that before the age of fifteen he was able to calculate an eclipse. 

 At sixteen he was sent to Boston to continue the dry-goods business, 

 and there attended an evening French school. In 1*771 he began the 

 study of medicine with Dr. John Hay, of Woburn, and at the same 

 time attended a few lectures at Cambridge. He taught school for a 

 short time at Bradford on the Merrimack, and afterward taught in an 

 academy in Concord, New Hampshire, higher up the same river, a 

 town which had been formerly known as Rumford. 



"When Benjamin Thompson went to Concord as a teacher he was 

 in the glory of his youth, not having yet reached manhood. His friend 

 Baldwin describes him as of a fine manly make and figure, nearly six 

 feet in height, of handsome features, bright blue eyes, and dark au- 



