Life of Count Rumford. 169 



successfully planned, he introduced, indeed he depended 

 mainly upon, some facilities of process, or means of 

 diminishing expense, which he had mastered by his own 

 severely scientific investigations. In the Philosophical 

 Transactions of the Royal Society, published periodi- 

 cally in England, during his first eleven years' absence 

 on the Continent, are found papers of his, for the 

 most part addressed to his friend, Sir Joseph Banks, 

 the President. They record Thompson's Experiments 

 on Heat ; Experiments on the Production of Dephlo- 

 gisticated Air from Water, with various Substances ; 

 Experiments made to determine the Positive and Rela- 

 tive Quantities of Moisture absorbed from the Atmos- 

 phere by Various Substances under Similar Circum- 

 stances; Further Experiments on Heat; An Account 

 of a Method of measuring the Comparative Intensities 

 of the Light emitted by Luminous Bodies ; and An 

 Account of some Experiments on Colored Shadows. 

 These had appeared in print before his return to Eng- 

 land. His membership of the Scientific and Literary 

 Academies of Berlin, Munich, and Mannheim also 

 required of him to keep himself in communication with 

 their officers or members. Indeed, he was attaining his 

 high repute as a philosopher while he was most en- 

 grossed in seemingly inconsistent labors. Thompson's 

 first experimental Institution was the Military Work- 

 house at Mannheim. This he undertook and estab- 

 lished under some peculiar difficulties and obstacles, 

 additional to those for which he was prepared. He 

 regarded it as only partially successful, and he improved 

 upon it greatly in the one at Munich. The marshes 

 cf Mulhau, near Mannheim, which till then had been 

 only unwholesome bogs, worthless for culture and 



