BENJAMIN THOMPSON, COUNT RUMFORD n 



ments and diversions in mathematics than his guardians and 

 employers thought proper in an apprentice. But in spite of the 

 variety of his pursuits, he seems to have done his work well and 

 to have made good use of what schooling he could get. His 

 teacher at Woburn was John Fowle, a graduate of Harvard Col- 

 lege in 1747. 



In the year 1766 he was apprenticed to John Appleton of 

 Salem, an importer of British goods and retailer of general mer- 

 chandise. It was here he was brought under the influence of the 

 Rev. Thomas Barnard, minister of the First Church of Salem, and 

 a man of unusual scholarship and ability. Thompson's accounts 

 and letters at this time show him to be accurate, orderly and skil- 

 ful in the use of the pen. He engraved a book-plate for himself 

 with a very elaborate heraldic device combining, in the common 

 symbolism of the day, an all-seeing eye, a ship, books, square and 

 compass, sword and a couchant lion. His friend Baldwin writes 

 of him: 



"He employed as much of his time, as he could by any means 

 steal from the duties of his station, to amuse himself with study 

 and little, ingenious, mechanical recreations, and would be more 

 frequently found with a penknife, file and gimlet under the coun- 

 ter, than with his pen and account books in the counting room." 



Benjamin Thompson was no exception to the old saying that 

 no man ever became a great physicist who did not attempt to 

 invent a machine for perpetual motion in his youth, for he walked 

 one night from Salem to Woburn to show Baldwin a contrivance 

 of wheels and levers which he thought would solve the problem 

 of perpetual motion. 



While he was at Salem the news of the repeal of the Stamp Act 

 was received, but young Thompson took less interest in its effect 

 upon the importation business in which he was engaged than he 

 did in the opportunity of making some chemical experiments 

 with materials furnished at the expense of the public. But in 

 grinding together the ingredients of the powder for his home- 

 made rockets, the mixture exploded, severely burning his face 

 and breast and temporarily destroying his sight. This accident 



