Cambridge 39, Massachusetts of June 28, 1953 the Massachusetts

MIT Institute Archives & Special Collections. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. News Office (AC0069)

From the News Service For Release in SUNDAY Papers Mass. Institute of Technology Cambridge 39, Massachusetts of June 28, 1953

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Count Rumford in Woburn (Massa- chusetts) during a special two-oweek sumner program in thermodynamics which starts tomorrow. M.I.T. is also celebrating the bicentennial with an exhibition of the scientific works of Count Rumford, which is now on display in the lobby of Building 7 at the Institute. Count Rumford was born as Benjamin Thompson in Woburn in 1753 and spent some of his boyhood as a.drygoods clerk in Salem and

Boston. He later became a school teacher in Bradford. Having embraced the Tory cause in the Revolution, he left for

England in 1776 to spend his life as a scientist soldier of fortune. He performed experiments on the generation of heat during the fir- ing of cannon and his conclusions were anfong the first theories of what has now become the science of thermodynamics. The displays in the exhibit at M4.I.T., which is open to the public, duplicate many of Rumford's experiments in his theoretical studies and illustrate some of the practical applications he drew

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from them. They have been especially prepared for the American

Academy of Arts and Sciences by Professor Sanborn C. Brown of the Department of Physics at I..I.T. Count Rumford designed the modern fireplace and also cooking

stoves from which the modern kitchen range is directly descended. He introduced ovens for roasting, a pressure cooker, the modern double boiler, and the use of steam heat for heating rooms. Since Count Rumford was a military man, many of his experiments centered on the improvement and design of guns and ammunition and some of these are reproduced in the exhibit. Some of the apparatus may be operated by the viewer so that

he may see how Rumford reached his conclusions. One of these is

a crank apparatus which allows the operator to measure the conver- sion of work to heat through friction. Two coffee pots in the exhibit were made especially for it by

Peter Pots of Providence, who have duplicated handicraft work for

Sturbridge Village and other historical re-creations. Count Rumford spent fifteen years trying to make a truly su-

perior cup of coffee before writing a long essay on the subject. His study of the roasting of coffee beans led him to the drip

method of coffee-making. He also invented a wick-level reservoir for the oil lamp which was a decided improvement for the lamp of his day. Because it was easy to make and functionally dependable, the Rumford lamp was

popular until the middle of the nineteenth century when the intro-

duction of mineral oil did away with the need for the design.

An original Rumford lamp made in the middle of the nineteenth century in France is in the exhibit. This lamp was presented to

the American Academy of Arts and Sciences during their bicenten.

nial celebration of Rumford's birth by 1r. and MIrs. Julius Daniels of Brookline. The exhibit also includes a number of original publications

and some of Rumford's correspondence with the firm of Cadwell and

Davies, his exclusive publishing agents in London. This material is on loan from Professor Browns personal collection.