Benjamin Thompson (later Count Rumford) aimed by his inventions and scientific research to increase the degree of comfort in daily life. His goals were practical and his contributions to our knowledge of the nature of heat proved extremely valuable. Between 1870 and 1875, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston published all of Rumford's papers that the Academy committee was able to find. The Academy edition, however, has long been out of print and practically unavailable. Here Sanborn Brown has rearranged the papers according to subject matter.

Volume I contains Rumford's papers on the nature of heat; the second covers its practical applications. This third volume contains his papers on devices and techniques, including “Use of Steam for Transporting Heat”; “Means of Heating the Hall of the (French) Institute”; “New Boiler for Saving Fuel”; “Steam Heat for Making Soap”; “Fires in Closed Fire-Places”; “Kitchen Fire-Places”; “Salubrity of Warm Rooms”; “Salubrity of Warm Bathing”; “The Strength of Silk”; “Quantities of Absorbed Moisture”; “Advantage of Wheels with Broad Felloes”; and “Proposals for Building a Frigate.”

Like his countryman and contemporary Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Thompson (later Count Rumford) aimed by his inventions and scientific research to increase the degree of comfort in daily life. During fourteen years spent in Munich, he made important reforms in the city's public service and social welfare institutions; he also introduced improvements in the hospitals and workhouses in Ireland, England, and Italy. His goals were practical, and his contributions to our knowledge of the nature of heat were as valuable as Franklin's to our knowledge of electricity. Rumford believed heat to be a form of energy, and worked to demolish the widely held material theory of heat.

Between 1870 and 1875 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston published Rumford's “complete” Works, financing the project with part of the increase of a fund that Rumford himself had given to the Academy in 1796. This edition presented, in order of their first appearance, all the papers that the Academy committee was able to find. The Academy edition has long been out of print and practically unavailable.

In this edition Sanborn Brown has rearranged the papers according to subject matter. Rumford's papers dealing with light and with armament are contained in this fourth volume. They include “Intensity of Light”; “Coloured Shadows”; “Harmony of Colors”; “Chemical Properties of Light”; “Management of Light”; “Source of Light in Combustion”; “Air from Water Exposed to Light”; “Description of a New Lamp”; “Experiments upon Gunpowder”; “Force of Fired Gunpowder”; and “Experiments with Cannon.”

An American of wide-ranging interests and overflowing energy, Benjamin Thompson applied his scientific and technical knowledge to the improvement of public service and welfare institutions in Bavaria (a service for which he was made Count Rumford), Ireland, England, and Italy. In the process, he made important discoveries in physics. In this new edition of Rumford’s Works, Sanborn Brown has arranged his writings according to subject matter: in this fifth volume are Rumford’s papers on public institutions: “Poor in Munich”; “Poor in All Countries”; “Feeding the Poor”; “Coffee”; “Public Institutions in Bavaria”; “Regulations for the Army of Bavaria”; “Public Institutions in Great Britain”; and “The Royal Institution.”

The Collected Works of Count Rumford is much more than a source book or a guide to methods of research in physics. It provides a unique portrait of the scientific, political, and social conditions of the turbulent early years of the Industrial Revolution.

Like his countryman and contemporary Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Thompson (later Count Rumford) aimed by his inventions and scientific research to increase the degree of comfort in daily life. During the fourteen years spent in Munich, he made important reforms in the city's public service and social welfare institutions; he also introduced improvements in the hospitals and workhouses in Ireland, England, and Italy. Rumford's contributions to our knowledge of the nature of heat were as valuable as Franklin's to our knowledge of electricity. Volume I of this edition of Rumford's Works contained his papers on the nature of heat. This second volume presents Rumford's work on the practical applications of heat. Of particular interest are his papers on the propagation of heat in liquids, chimney fire-places, supplementary observations on chimney fire-places, and the management of fire and the economy of fuel. Subsequent volumes contain papers on devices and techniques, light and armament, and public institutions.

An American of wide-ranging interests and overflowing energy, Benjamin Thompson applied his scientific and technical knowledge to the improvement of public service and welfare institutions in Bavaria (a service for which he was made Count Rumford), Ireland, England, and Italy. In the process, he made important discoveries in physics. In this new edition of Rumford's Works, Sanborn Brown has arranged his writings according to subject matter: this first volume contains his papers on the nature of heat, and includes one paper which has never before been published in English.

The volume begins with Rumford's paper on the production of heat by friction, and continues with descriptions of the experiments by which he showed that heat has no weight, and his essays on the propagation of heat in solids and fluids. Subsequent volumes contain papers on practical applications of heat, devices and techniques (including studies of fireplaces and chimneys), armament, light and color, and on such public establishments and organizations as poorhouses, the army of Bavaria, and the Royal Institution in London.