BENJAMIN THOMPSON, COUNT RUMFORD 19 



tinue his investigations on gunpowder, he volunteered to go on a 

 cruise of the British fleet under Sir Charles Hardy, in 1779. As 

 no enemy was encountered, he persuaded his friends among the 

 captains "to make a number of experiments, and particularly by 

 firing a greater number of bullets at once from their heavy guns 

 than had ever been done before, and observing the distances at 

 which they fell in the sea ... which gave me much new light 

 relative to the action of fired gunpowder." 



On this cruise also he devised a simpler and more systematic 

 code of marine signals than that in use. Another result of this 

 three months' cruise was the plan of a swift copper-sheathed frigate. 



When, on account of overwork, his health failed and he went to 

 Bath to recuperate, he made a series of experiments on cohesion. 

 These experiments introduced him to Sir Joseph Banks, President 

 of the Royal Society, with whom he was afterwards associated in 

 founding the Royal Institution, and in 1779 he was elected a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society. 



Thompson rose rapidly in the Colonial Office, where he became 

 Secretary for Georgia, inspector of all the clothing sent to America, 

 and Under Secretary of State. About the time of the fall of his 

 patron, Lord Germain, on account of the surrender of Cornwallis, 

 he returned to a military career, and was made Lieutenant-Colonel 

 of the King's American Dragoons, a regiment of cavalry which he 

 was to recruit on Long Island. His ship, however, was driven by 

 storms to Charleston, South Carolina, where he reorganized the 

 remains of the royal army under Colonel Leslie, and conducted 

 a successful cavalry raid against Marion's Brigade. 



In the spring he arrived at Long Island, and by August i, 1782, 

 he got the King's American Dragoons in shape to be inspected in 

 their camp about three miles east of Flushing by Prince William 

 Henry, Duke of Clarence, the third son of the King, and after- 

 wards King William the Fourth. The royal cause was, however, 

 hopeless, and the troops under Colonel Thompson did nothing 

 during the year but exasperate the patriots among whom they 

 were quartered. The inhabitants of Long Island preserved for 

 more than one generation the memory of their depredations, 



