Benjamin Thompson

Sir Benjamin Thompson was born in 1753 in Massachusetts. Thompson worked as a storekeeper in Salem before becoming apprenticed to a physician in Boston. He attended lectures at Harvard but never graduated. In 1772 his apprenticeship ended and he became a schoolteacher. In 1773 he was made a major in the second provincial regiment. In March 1776, when the British army withdrew from Boston, Thompson travelled to England. He conducted research on a range of electrical and mathematical projects, including lamps and stoves. His work on the nature of advanced heat was rewarded with a range of titles, including that of Count Rumford. He died at Auteuil, near Paris, in 1814.

Also recorded as Count Rumford.