So great has been the achievement of science during the past century, that, were I to do no more than to recite the titles of its major discoveries, my allotted hour would scarce suffice. Indeed my hearers are well enough acquainted with the outline and general course of scientific discovery during the last hundred years: to epitomise it would be superfluous as well as arduous.

That remarkable soldier, statesman and man of science, Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, has many claims on the interest of the historian of science. He is remembered for certain experiments and conclusions of fundamental importance regarding the nature of heat; he founded the Royal Institution; he was the author of a series of Essays on various aspects of pure and applied science which were celebrated in their day; and he was a pioneer in that field of activity which he described himself as “the application of science to the common purposes of life”. His methods of conservation of heat and economy of fuel, his designs of stoves, fireplaces and cooking utensils were widely used during his lifetime. He was consulted on the laying out of kitchens in hospitals and institutions and his advice was sought by his friends on household problems such as the curing of smoky chimneys and the efficient warming of rooms. He taught his contemporaries to recognise the fire built on an open hearth, the only means of domestic heating and cooking with which they were acquainted, for the ineffective and wasteful contrivance it really was. He held the most enlightened views, which were far in advance of his time, on the waste of fuel and the evils of atmospheric pollution in cities.