THOMPSON
THOMPSON
grand jury, a complimentary letter from the vice-
roy of Ireland, and election to the Irish Royal
Acailemy and Society of Arts. While in England,
Count Riunford was joined by his daughter, Sarah
Thompson, who was then twenty-two years of age,
her mother having died Jan. 19, 179.?, at Rumford,
N.H. She was received at the court of ^lunich as
a countess, and pensioned by the elector. Count
Rumford was recalled to Munich as head of the
Council of Regency, with absolute powers, and
chief in command of the Bavarian army by reason
of the war then waging between Austria and
France, accomplishing the withdrawal of both
armies from the city without involving the Bava-
rian governments in the war. His health again
compelled him to leave Bavaria in 1798, and he
was appointed Bavarian minister to England, but
as he was a British subject he was not accepted.
The Countess Sarah returned to America about
this time, and Count Rumford also thought seri-
ously of going back to his native country, and to
that end engaged in correspondence with Rufus
King, U.S. minister in England, as to the pos-
sibility of a repeal of legal disabilities in his
favor, should he present himself, which resulted
in a cordial acknowledgment from President
Adams of his achievements, and the choice of
the offices of lieutenant and inspector of artillery
or engineer and superintendent of the Military
academy, an offer of which he did not avail him-
self, becoming involved in the founding of the
Royal Institution at London in 1799, and serving
as its secretary until he resumed his residence on
the continent in May, 1802. Meanwhile his pa-
tron, Charles Theodore, had died, and his succes-
sor being disinclined to reinstate Count Rumford
in his former place of eminence, he made his
home iu Paris, where he was married, Oct. 2-1,
1805. to Marie Anne Pierset Paulze, widow of
Lavoisier, the celebrated chemist. After their
separation in 1809 his wife retained possession
of their city mansion, and he retired to a villa in
Auteuil, where his daughter joined him, and
where; occupied with philosophical experiments
and in the composition of essays on scientific
subjects, he passed the remainder of his life.
Count Rumford was a member of the academies
of Munich and Mannheim. He gave $•'5,000 to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and
also to the Royal society of London, for the es-
tablishment of a Rumford medal to be awarded
for the most valuable practical investigations in
light and heat, and was himself the first recipient
of the medal from the Royal society. With his
daughter, he founded the Rolfe and Rumford
asylums in Concord, N.H.. Countess of Rumford,
who died in Concord in \>i')2, bf-qucathing $1.5,000
to the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane,
and other liberal sums to public charities. In his
will Count Rumford left to Harvard college a sum
for the founding of the Rumford professorship
and lectureship on the application of science to
the useful arts, and his collection of apparatus,
specimens and original models with £1,000 to the
Royal Institution in London. In ad(litit)n to his
monument in tiie English Garden at Munich, he
is also commemorated by a bronze statue in its
principal .street, and by a portrait in the Royal
Society's rooms in London, and one at Harvard uni-
versity, Cambridge, Mass. His name in Class H,
Scientists, received nineteen votes for a place in
the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, New Yoik
university, October, 1900, and was fifth in the class
of nineteen names suggested. He is the author
of: Essays, Political, Economical and Pldloso})})-
ical (3 vols., London, 1796; Vol. IV., 1802; Amer-
ican ed., 1798-1804); many of which were origin-
ally published as pamphlets in French, English
and German, and Rmnford's Complete Works,
published posthumously (Boston, 1870-75), with
a memoir of the author by George E. Ellis, and
containing the correspondence of his daughter,
Sarah Thompson. His life was also written by
James Renwick, in Sjoarks's " American Biogra-
phy " (1845). Count Rumford died in Auteuil,
France, Aug. 25, 1814.
THOMPSON, Charles Oliver, educator, was born at East Windsor Hill, Conn., Sept. 25, 1836; son of the Rev. William (q.v.) and Eliza Welles (Butler) Thompson. He prepared for college under Dr. Paul Ansel Chadbourne (q.v.); was graduated from Dartmoutii college, A.B., 1858, A.M., 1861, and was principal of the Caledonia County academy, afterwards known as Peacham academy, Vt., 1858-64, with the exception of a few months in 1860, when he was engaged as a civil engineer at Piermont, N.Y. He was married, May 14, 1862, to Maria, daughter of Dr. Horace and Elizabeth (Dickinson) Goodrich of Ware, Mass. He was principal of the Cotting High school, Ar- lington, Mass., 1804-68, meanwhile studying chem- istry at Harvard imiversity, and in 1808 he be- came the first principal of the Worcester (Mass.) Free Institute of Industrial Science, a position he held until 1882, together with the professor- ship of chemistry. In preparation for the work of organizing the Institute (the name being changed to the Worcester Polyteciniic school during his administration), which was one of the first of its kind in the United States, he spent several months in Europe studying methods of technical education. He devised and developed the method of instruction in mechanical engin- eering, which consists in combining the instruc- tion in the theoretic branches of the art with practical work in machine shops, operated under the supervision of the institution, but conducted on strictly business and commercial principles in
