by a self-educated American, the subject of this sketch. The newspapers say that he is dropping out of memory in this age, and was in his day a distinguished smoke-doctor and improver of fireplaces; but in the scientific world his fame has been increasing in recent years, and is destined to grow brighter with the further progress of physical knowledge. As attention has latterly been drawn to what America has done for science, it is desirable to give an account of the career and labors of this eminent American investigator.
Benjamin Thompson was born March 26, 1753, in Woburn, Massachusetts. He first saw the light in the west end of a substantial farmhouse, which is still standing a few rods south of the meetinghouse in North Woburn. The dwelling is said to be well preserved, retaining its external and internal appearance unchanged, notwithstanding its great age, and it has been recently purchased by the citizens of Woburn, to be preserved as an object of public and historical interest. His father died in his infancy, and when the child was three years old his widowed mother was married to Josiah Pierce, Jr., of Woburn. His latest biographer, Mr. George E. Ellis, says that the lad "indicated from his early years an inconstancy and indifference to the homely routine tasks and the rural employments which were required of him, while at the same time he exhibited an intense mental activity, a spirit of ingenuity and inventiveness, and was found seeking for amusement in things which afterward proved to lead him to the profitable and beneficent occupations of his mature life. He showed a particular ardor for arithmetic and mathematics, and it was remembered of him afterward that his play-time and some of his proper work-time had been given to ingenious mechanical contrivances, soon leading to a curious interest in the principles of mechanics and natural philosophy."
He received the rudiments of a common-school education, and his guardians, finding that he was unfit for a farm-drudge, apprenticed him at thirteen to a merchant in Salem. While thus engaged, with such spare time and private assistance as he could get, he studied algebra, trigonometry, astronomy, and even the higher mathematics, so that before the age of fifteen he was able to calculate an eclipse. At sixteen he was sent to Boston to continue the dry-goods business, and there attended an evening French school. In 1771 he began the study of medicine with Dr. John Hay, of Woburn, and at the same time attended a few lectures at Cambridge. He taught school for a short time at Bradford on the Merrimack, and afterward taught in an academy in Concord, New Hampshire, higher up the same river, a town which had been formerly known as Rumford.
"When Benjamin Thompson went to Concord as a teacher he was in the glory of his youth, not having yet reached manhood. His friend Baldwin describes him as of a fine manly make and figure, nearly six feet in height, of handsome features, bright blue eyes, and dark au-
