102 COUNT RUMFORD. 



the attention of the governor, and on the day following 

 he was the great man's guest. So impressed was 

 Wentworth with his conversation that he at once made 

 up his mind to attach Thompson to the public service. 

 To secure this wise end he adopted unwise means. " A 

 vacancy having occurred in a majorship in the Second 

 Provincial Eegiment of New Hampshire, Governor 

 Wentworth at once commissioned Thompson to fill it." 

 Jealousy and enmity naturally followed the appoint- 

 ment of a man without name or fame in the army, over 

 the heads of veterans with infinitely stronger claims. 

 He rapidly became a favourite with the governor, and 

 on his proposing, soon after his appointment, to make 

 a survey of the White Mountains, Wentworth not only 

 fell in with the idea, but promised, if his public duties 

 permitted, to take part in the survey himself. It will 

 be remembered that at this time Thompson was not 

 quite twenty years old. 



For a moment, in 1773, he appears in the character 

 of a farmer, and invokes the aid of a friend to procure 

 for him supplies of grass and garden seeds from Eng- 

 land. But amid preoccupations of this kind his 

 scientific bias emerges. After a brief reference to the 

 seed procured for him by his friend Baldwin, he pro- 

 poses to the latter the following question : " A certain 

 cistern has three brass cocks, one of which will empty 

 it in fifteen minutes, one in thirty minutes, and the 

 other in sixty minutes. Qu. How long would it take 

 to empty the cistern if all three cocks were to be 

 opened at once? If you are fond of a correspondence 

 of this kind, and will favour me with an easy question, 

 arithmetical or algebraical, I will endeavour to give as 

 good an account of it as possible. If you find out an 

 answer to the above immediately, I hope you will not 

 take as an affront my proposing anything which you 



