Military Dictatorship, and his success in saving the City from the combined attacks of the French and Austrian Armies, were described-the Lecturer observing that, even during this period of intense excitement and overwhelming work, we still find him applying his philosophy to the management of the garrison fires and soup boilers, which were temporarily erected to supply the wants of his increased army. The dangerous illness which followed this overstrain, Rumford's return to England, his work in founding the Royal Institution, and his labours in Edinburgh, Dublin, etc.;-the circumstances connected with his second marriage to the widow of Lavoisier, his separation from his wife, and seclusion from the world during the last eight years of his life, spent in the vicinity of Paris, were narrated. The Lecturer attributed the change of character displayed by Rumford at this period to organic disease of the brain, and disputed the estimate of character formed by his French biographers, maintaining that these do not describe the brilliant and successful Benjamin Thompson, but the shattered victim of an overwrought brain, who was slowly dying all the while they knew him. The hardness, moroseness, egotism, and irritability which they describe as Rumford's natural characteristics, were, in the opinion of the Lecturer, the symptoms of cerebral disease. The Lecturer then took a general survey of some of Rumford's most important philosophical work, noticing the principles he had laid down for the economy of fuel, the construction of fire-places, chimneys, stoves, etc. Copies of Rumford's diagrams were exhibited, showing that our best modern fireplaces are now constructed nearly in accordance with his directions; that the square coverings and large high chimney throats of his day, which he so vigorously condemned, are now generally abandoned. Also that the modern kitchener is a degenerated and bad copy of Rumford's original kitchen stove, which the Lecturer maintained to be far superior to any sort of range or kitchener now in common use in this country. He supported all Rumford's arguments against the folly of making a fire do several kinds of work, and showed the greater economy and efficiency of division of labour among fireplaces, steam engines, etc. The experiments by which Rumford proved that gases and liquids are nonconductors of heat-that they merely transmit heat by convection—were then described, and their results tabulated. The lecture was concluded by a description and illustrations of the cannon-boring apparatus, and the experi ments by which Rumford proved that the supply of heat obtainable by friction is inexhaustible; that it could not be anything taken away from the cannon, the borer, the borings, the machinery, the atmosphere, or other surroundings; and, therefore, that it could not be a material substance of any kind, however ethereal; that the only conception we can form of such an entity thus perpetually maintained by mechanical action is some kind of MOTION. The great importance of these and his other experiments on the imponderability of heat as fundamental contributions towards the great modern generalisation that heat, light, electricity, magnetism, etc., are but different and interchangeable modes of motion of matter, and not separate existences, was then pointed out. [W.M.W.] Additional Class Journals.-In future the following Journals will be regularly supplied to the Pamphlet Room: The Architect, The Engineer, The Mechanics' Magazine, The English Mechanic, The Law Times. in the Colonial Office, under Lord Sackville, in 1776. His habit of dealing philosophically with everything he handled, led him, in the early stages of his military career, to make his important experiments on the Force of Fired Gunpowder, and subsequently to follow up these investigations in their applications to naval artillery during a cruise in the Victory, which was followed by the production of his essay on Naval Architecture and Navy Signals. His connection with the affairs of the American Revolution, while he held the office of Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, and his subsequent military service in America, were described, as well as the adventures which led to the cure of what he himself describes as his "martial folly," and to his devotion to philanthropic objects; and also the circumstances leading to his introduction to the Elector of Bavaria, and finally to his engagement in the service of that monarch, after his knighthood in England. His successful efforts in reorganising the army of Bavaria, on the principle of making "the citizen a soldier and the soldier a citizen," his systematic education of the soldiers and their families, not only in the ordinary routine of common school knowledge, but also in technical matters, whereby he rendered the army an agent in the promotion of social improvement, by introducing in the soldiers' gardens connected with every garrison the most recent improvements in agriculture, such as the rotation of crops, the cultivation of turnips for feeding cattle, and that of the potato for domestic use, were described, and their valuable practical results were pointed out. The Lecturer then read Rumford's own description of the frightful prevalence of mendicity in Bavaria, and of the crimes connected with it, and sketched in a condensed summary the scheme of Count Rumford's "House of Industry" at Munich, and the history of its inauguration and successful operation; whereby the mendicity of Bavaria was eradicated, and the paupers, rogues, and vagabonds were made, by Rumford's system of industrial education, not only to pay all the expenses of their own feeding, clothing, lodging, etc., but to leave a handsome balance of profit, and thereby contribute to the clothing and maintenance of the military police employed in apprehending them. The Lecturer then proceeded to show the connection between these important practical successes and the strictly scientific method of proceeding which Rumford adopted in everything; how Rumford's most important scientific discoveries were suggested by his experimental investigations on the philosophy of clothing, when he sought to improve the uniforms of the soldiers; how he applied his discoveries in the convection of heat in gases and liquids to the practical problems, not only of clothing the soldiers, but of warming and ventilating their barracks and quarters, and of the preparation of their food. That when the problem of cheaply feeding the paupers was presented to him, he at once studied the question in the most thorough and philosophical manner, and made a large number of experimental investigations on the nutritive value of different kinds of food, on the philosophy of cookery, on the economy of fuel, the construction of boilers, roasters, stew-pans, kitchen fire-places, ovens, saucepans, and kettles, treating all such subjects in their humblest details with the same rigid philosophical consideration as he exercised when making his early calculation of the course of the moon's shadow during the solar eclipse. The Lecturer attributed Rumford's marvellous success mainly to this scientific thoroughness of all his proceedings, and maintained that scientific training of the highest order is the best preparation for practical business success. In the second Lecture the biographical sketch was continued. Rumford's illness and retirement loaded with honours; his return to England, with the intention of devoting himself to scientific pursuits; the publication of his Essays, and sudden recal to Bavaria, when his friend and patron, the Elector, 'was in danger; the flight of the Elector from Munich, and Rumford's assumption of Military Dictatorship, and his success in saving the City from the combined attacks of the French and Austrian Armies, were described the Lecturer observing that, even during this period of intense excitement and overwhelming work, we still find him applying his philosophy to the management of the garrison fires and soup boilers, which were temporarily erected to supply the wants of his increased army. The dangerous illness which followed this overstrain, Rumford's return to England, his work in founding the Royal Institution, and his labours in Edinburgh, Dublin, etc.;-the circumstances connected with his second marriage to the widow of Lavoisier, his separation from his wife, and seclusion from the world during the last eight years of his life, spent in the vicinity of Paris, were narrated. The Lecturer attributed the change of character displayed by Rumford at this period to organic disease of the brain, and disputed the estimate of character formed by his French biographers, maintaining that these do not describe the brilliant and successful Benjamin Thompson, but the shattered victim of an overwrought brain, who was slowly dying all the while they knew him. The hardness, moroseness, egotism, and irritability which they describe as Rumford's natural characteristics, were, in the opinion of the Lecturer, the symptoms of cerebral disease. The Lecturer then took a general survey of some of Rumford's most important philosophical work, noticing the principles he had laid down for the economy of fuel, the construction of fire-places, chimneys, stoves, etc. Copies of Rumford's diagrams were exhibited, showing that our best modern fireplaces are now constructed nearly in accordance with his directions; that the square coverings and large high chimney throats of his day, which he so vigorously condemned, are now generally abandoned. Also that the modern kitchener is a degenerated and bad copy of Rumford's original kitchen stove, which the Lecturer maintained to be far superior to any sort of range or kitchener now in common use in this country. He supported all Rumford's arguments against the folly of making a fire do several kinds of work, and showed the greater economy and efficiency of division of labour among fireplaces, steam engines, etc. The experiments by which Rumford proved that gases and liquids are nonconductors of heat-that they merely transmit heat by convection-were then described, and their results tabulated. The lecture was concluded by a description and illustrations of the cannon-boring apparatus, and the experiments by which Rumford proved that the supply of heat obtainable by friction is inexhaustible; that it could not be anything taken away from the cannon, the borer, the borings, the machinery, the atmosphere, or other surroundings; and, therefore, that it could not be a material substance of any kind, however ethereal; that the only conception we can form of such an entity thus perpetually maintained by mechanical action is some kind of MOTION. The great importance of these and his other experiments on the imponderability of heat as fundamental contributions towards the great modern generalisation that heat, light, electricity, magnetism, etc., are but different and interchangeable modes of motion of matter, and not separate existences, was then pointed out. [W.M.W.] Additional Class Journals.-In future the following Journals will be regularly supplied to the Pamphlet Room: The Architect, The Engineer, The Mechanics' Magazine, The English Mechanic, The Law Times. PERMANENT CIRCULATING LIBRARY. CATALOGUE OF BOOKS Purchased for, or Presented to, the Circulating Library, to Dec. 31, 1870. 219. AINSWORTH (W. H.) The Lord Mayor of London. 220. 221. Cardinal Pole; or, the Days of Philip and Mary. The Constable of the Tower. 203. ANCIENT CLASSICS FOR ENGLISH READERS. 204. 205. 206. 207. 400. Homer's Iliad. Homer's Odyssey. Herodotus. Cæsar. Virgil. Primeval Man. Emma. Mansfield Park. Northanger Abbey. Persuasion. 2. BAKER (Sir SAMUEL 3. 407. BARHAM (R. H. D.) 408 W.) The Albert N'Yanza. Vol. i. Vol. ii. Life of the Rev. R. H. Barham (Ingoldsby). Vol. i. 25. BICKMORE (ALBERT S.) 409. BRAMLEY-MOORE. Six 9. BRONTË (CHARLOTTE). 195. 193. Vol. ii. Travels in the East Indian Archipelago. 194. BRONTË (The Sisters). The Professor. By C. Brontë. Poems. 131. 192. Wuthering Heights. Agnes Grey. Memoir. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. By Anne Bronte. 65. BUCKLAND (FRANK T.) Curiosities of Natural History. Ist Series. 66. 67. 68. 410. BULWER (Sir HENRY LYTTON). Life of Viscount Palmerston. 411. 24. CAMPBELL (Sir NEIL). Napoleon at Fontainebleau and Elba. 91. CARLYLE (THOMAS). The French Revolution: a History. 92. 86. 87. 88. 98. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches. Life of Schiller. Life of John Stirling. Vol. ii. Vol. iii. Vol. iv. 100. 99. foI. 89. go. Sartor Resartus. Lectures on Heroes. Chartism. Past and Present. Wilhelm Meister. By Goethe. A Translation. Vol. i. Vol. 11. 79. CARLYLE (THOMAS). History of Friedrich the Second. Vol. i. 203. COLLINS (Rev. W. LUCAS). 204. ... 207. Vol. ii. Vol. iii. Vol. iv. Vol. v. Vol. vi. Vol. vii. Homer's Iliad for English Readers. 1. CREASY (Sir EDWARD). Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World. |