In a message dated 2/14/00 11:49:20 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
<< during the British occupation of Long
Island by the later scientist known as "Count Rumford," the Presbyterian
churches were torn down or occupied and the gravestones removed for other
purposes. One such fort in Huntington, NY had the "frightening" appellation,
"Fort Golgotha," ("place of skulls," in the Christian Bible) and once held
Nathan Hale after his capture across the Long Island Sound in Connecticut. I
cannot wonder what the British leader was thinking when he named it >>
"Physics For The Inquiring Mind" - Eric M. Rogers
p-434
At the end of the 18th century, Count Rumford produced the first strong
experimental evidence that heat is not a conserved fluid but something that
can be manufactured in unlimited amounts at the expense of mechanical energy.
Rumford, whose original name was Benjamin Thompson, was a remarkable man.
Born in New England he made as unwise choice in the Revolution and had to
leave for England under some pressure. He proved to be a magnificent
organizer with great ability and strong interest in scientific experimenting.
He also showed skill in gaining popularity and honor. He was knighted for his
services, and then he set out to travel across Europe. In Bavaria he made so
favorable impression as an organizer that he was given the post as war
minister to reorganize the army. Having done that, he used the army to round
up the many beggars who troubled Munich at that time, and put them in
comfortable barracks and set them to work. He was made a Count by the
grateful Bavarian government and chose the name Rumford (near Concord, New
Hampshire). He turned and inquiring scientific mind on many of his
activities. He developed cheap wholesome diets and cooking equipment for his
beggars, and did so much research on economical stoves and good chimneys that
he was called in as a consultant far and wide on his return to England.
In the Bavarian arsenal, Rumford investigated the heat developed when
brass cannon were being bored. A blunt borer removed hardly any metal, but
produced a huge supply of heat. Rumford boiled kettles on the cannon while
horses drove a very blunt borer. He concluded that the supply of heat was
inexhaustible, depending only on the horse continuing to work. He was feeling
his way towards the idea of heat as a form of energy. And he gave the
calorists a severe blow by measuring the specific heat of the borings of the
cannon. The chips had the SAME specific heat as the rest of the cannon, just
as much room for "caloric."
Eighth Printing 1966 Princeton University Press, Oxford University Press.
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