108 Britain's Heritage of Science 



organizing the manufacture of implements of war. His 

 previous experiments had convinced him that in accordance 

 with the views of Robert Hooke and other early physicists, 

 heat consisted in a motion of the ultimate particles of a body, 

 and as he controlled the machinery at Munich for making 

 guns, he had the opportunity of testing the matter. While a 

 cannon was being bored he filled the hollow already formed 

 with water, and found that it became hotter and hotter until 

 it boiled. The conclusion was obvious : heat could actually 

 be generated by mechanical power. 



During an adventurous life Rumford rendered active 

 services to several countries. His family had settled in 

 Massachusetts, where he was born in 1753. At an early 

 age he showed mathematical tastes, but occupied himself 

 with abortive attempts to discover perpetual motion, and 

 with experiments on fireworks. After the outbreak of the 

 American war he entered a local regiment of militia on the 

 American side, where his position was rendered untenable by 

 the doubt which was cast on his loyalty to the caus^ of 

 freedom. He left the army and, when Boston was evacuated 

 in 1776, he came to England, where he was appointed to 

 a clerkship at the Colonial Office, rising rapidly within four 

 years to the position of Under Secretary of State. In the 

 meantime he carried on his scientific pursuits, and was 

 elected a Fellow of the Royai Society in 1779. He returned 

 for a time to Ameiica on active service, but resigned again 

 at the conclusion of the war, with the rank of Colonel. He 

 then determined to join the Austrian army, then engaged in 

 war with Turkey. While on the way to Vienna he was 

 introduced to Prince Maximilian, the future King of Bavaria, 

 and was persuaded to enter the government service of that 

 state. With the consent of King George III., who bestowed 

 the honour of knighthood upon him, he remained at Munich, 

 where he held consecutively the offices of Minister of War, 

 Minister o. Police, and Grand Chamberlain. In addition to 

 the improvements he effected in the Bavarian army, he 

 developed the industries of the country and did much to 

 mitigate he extreme poverty of a large part of the popula- 

 tion. His methods were strongly philanthropic. " To make 

 vicious and abandoned people happy," he said, " it has 



