^574 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 545. 



various branches of science, for they grad- 

 ually merge one into the other. In this 

 •country, however, we have grown to accept 

 the date of the arrival of Joseph Priestley, 

 June 4, 1794, as a most excellent time at 

 which to begin the modern history of chem- 

 istry. 



The younger Silliman's mastei'ly 'Amer- 

 ican Contributions to Chemistry'* gives 

 me the right, therefore, to mention first 

 Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford 

 ( 1751-1814 ),f whose studies in heat and 

 fuel were as practical as they are impor- 

 tant. His early knowledge of science was 

 acquired from John Winthrop (1717- 

 1779), who held the chair of mathematics 

 and natural philosophy at Harvard from 

 1738 till his death. Of Count Rumford I 

 have said elsewhere 4 'He investigated the 

 properties and management of heat, and 

 the amount of it that was produced by the 

 combustion of different kinds of fuel, by 

 means of a calorimeter of his own inven- 

 tion.' By reconstructing the fireplace he 

 so improved the methods of warming apart- 

 ments and cooking food that a saving of 

 fuel of almost one half was effected. He 

 improved the construction of stoves, cook- 

 ing ranges, coal grates and chimneys, and 

 showed that the non-conducting power of 

 cloth is due to the air that is enclosed in 

 its fibers. Silliman well says cf him : 'No 

 writer of his time has left a nobler record 

 of original power in physical science than 

 Rumford.' It will also be remembered 

 that by will he provided funds 'to teach 

 by regular courses of academical and pub- 

 lic lectures, accompanied by proper experi- 

 ments, the utility of the physical and 



* American Chemist, V., 1874, p. 70. 



t See ' Memoir of Sir Benjamin Thompson, 

 Count Rumford. with Notices of his Dauf^hter,' 

 by fieorffo E. Ellis, also ' Complete Works of Count 

 Rumford,' 4 Vols., pnldished by the American 

 Academy of Arts and Science (Boston, 1876). 



% ' Cyclopii'dia of American Bio;,n aphy,' V., p. 

 345, article Rumford, Beiijiuuin Thompson. Count. 



mathematical sciences for the improvement 

 of the useful arts, and for the extension of 

 the industry, prosperity, happiness and 

 well-being of society.'* Let me also re- 

 mind you that AVolcott Gibbs, the oldest 

 and now the Nestor of American chemists, 

 held the Rumford chair in the Lawrence 

 Scientific School of Harvard from 1863 till 

 1888, during which time many of those who 

 are now leaders in chemistry were students 

 under him. 



The last century was only a year old 

 when Robert Hare (1781-1858) commu- 

 nicated his discovery of the oxyhydro- 

 gen blowpipe to the Chemical Society of 

 Philadelphia. This in.strument held a 

 foremost place for the production of arti- 

 ficial heat until the recent introduction of 

 the electric furnace. The application of 

 the principle invented by Hare still finds 

 extensive use for lighthouse illumination 

 and similar purposes under the names of 

 'Drumond light' and 'calcium light.' It 

 is interesting to recall in this connection 

 that Hare was the first to receive the Rum- 

 ford medals from the Academy of Arts 

 and Sciences. 



Hare was also the inventor in 1816 of a 

 calorimotor, a form of battery by Avhich a 

 large amount of heat was generated, and 

 four years later he modified this apparatus, 

 with which, then known as Hare's defla- 

 grator, in 1823 he first demonstrated the 

 volatilization and fusion of carbon. His 

 memoir on the ' Explosiveness of Niter," 

 which was published by the Smithsonian 

 Institution in 1850, was one of the earliest 

 contributions by an American to the litera- 

 ture of explosives, t 



The original discovery of chloroform is 

 clearly of American origin and must be 



* American Chemist, V., 1874, p. 73. 



•j- ' Smithsonian ISIiscellaneous Collections,' II., 

 1805. Also see the memoir of him by the elder 

 Silliman in the American Jovrnal of Science (2). 

 XXVr.. 1S5S. p. 100. 



