BOTANICAL 



THE RUMFORD FUND. 



Awards of the Premium and Grants for Research in Light 



AND Heat. 



Compiled by Charles R. Cross. 



Received April 29, 1921. Presented May 11, 1921. 



A number of years since the Rumford Committee came to realize 

 that there was a great lack of knowledge in the educated community 

 in general and to some extent even within the Academy itself regard- 

 ing the Rumford Fund and the part it had played in stimulating 

 scientific research in' this country. For this reason it was decided to 

 issue a somewhat detailed printed statement which should give an 

 account of the origin of the Rumford Fund and the circumstances 

 under which it came to assume its present important position. Of 

 still greater moment was the fact that no collected statement had 

 ever been published of the grants for research which had been made 

 during the previous years, of the papers which had been published with 

 aid from the Fund, or even of the Rumford Medals which had been 

 awarded by the Academy. To remove this deficiency the Rumford 

 Committee prepared a comprehensive paper which was printed by the 

 Academy in 1905, making a pamphlet of thirty-two pages, enjitled "The 

 Rumford Fund." Together with a historical sketch were given a list 

 of the awards of the Rumford Premium bv the American Academv of 

 Arts and Sciences, 1839 to 1904, a list of the awards of the Rumford 

 Premium of the Royal Society of London, 1802 to 1904, a list of the 

 grants for research made from the Rumford Fund, 1832 to IMay 1905, 

 and a list of papers published with aid from the Rumford Fund in the 

 Memoirs or Proceedings of the Academy, 1833 to 1905. 



A Supplement of nineteen pages to this publication was issued in 

 1912, which continued the list of awards of the Rumford Premium 

 of the Academy up to and including 1912, and gave data regarding the 

 individual medals of the complete series which had not been ascer- 

 tained previously. It also continued the lists of the Royal Society's 

 awards of that Premium, from 1905 to 1910, and the Grants for Re- 

 search made by the Rumford Committee from October, 1905 to IVIay, 

 1912 together with a list continued up to that date of the papers pul)- 

 lished by the Academy from 1905 to 1912 with aid from the Rumford 



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