14 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I. 



good fortune to enjoy the necessary confidence and 

 support of my superiors, but which I conclude will be 

 extended to Sir Henry Clinton, my presumptive 

 successor.' 



In 1778 Mr. Thompson was with Lord Gr. Germain 

 at his house, Stoneland Lodge, Sussex. Whilst there 

 Thompson made experiments on testing gunpowder, 

 and on a new method of determining the velocity of 

 projectiles. The results were sent to the Royal Society, 

 in 1781, and were published at great length in the 

 4 Philosophical Transactions.' One good observation is 

 now of great interest. ' Being much struck with the 

 accidental discovery of the great degree of heat that 

 pieces acquire when they are fired with powder 

 without any bullet, and being desirous of finding out 

 whether it is a circumstance that obtains universally, 

 I was very attentive to the heat of the barrel after each 

 of the succeeding experiments, and I constantly found 

 the heat sensibly greater when the piece was fired with 

 powder only than when the same charge was made to 

 impel one or more bullets.' 



In order to pursue these experiments he went in 1779, 

 on board of the c Victory,' of 110 guns, commanded 

 by his friend Sir Charles Hardy. He passed the whole 

 of the campaign on board of the fleet, and the result of 

 the observations that he then made furnished the 

 materials for a chapter which he contributed to 

 Stalkart's * Treatise on Naval Architecture.' He added 

 to it a code of signals for the navy, which was not 

 published. In his paper on gunpowder, read in 1797 

 to the Koyal Society, he says : 



