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After too many eBooks to list, I've just started reading a truly fascinating book in dead-tree format. It's a biography of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, who lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was a scientist, spy, inventor, politician, soldier-of-fortune, patriot, traitor, genius. On a personal level, he seems to have been so crooked he makes a pretzel seem straight. At the same time, he was a major benefactor of the poor. Overall a bundle of contradictions.
As a scientist, he: disproved the caloric theory of heat, did groundbreaking work in ballistics, designed more efficient fireplaces and improved stoves (and much much more). As a politician and do-gooder he fed and housed the (many many) poor of Bavaria, reformed the Bavarian army, and a whole lot more. Meanwhile, he made and lost at least five fortunes, spied on all and sundry, was a Tory patriot during the American revolution, attempted to sell the British Channel Fleet to the French, abandoned his wife and daughter, fathered at least two illegitimate children... The guy was so busy doing so many different things that it's amazing he ever had time to get any science done!
The particular book I'm reading is this one: Brown, S.C. (1981). Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. Cambridge USA: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-02138-2. You can read about the scientific part of Thompson's life at Wikipedia, but they omit all the juicy stuff. Beware of biographies much older than the one I reference above -- most of the dirt on Thompson was thought to be "scurrilous rumor" up 'till WWII, when a War Office employee found the documents on Thompson that included his spy reports from the American Revolution and much much more. Sanford Brown (a MIT Physicist) spent 40+ years gathering up all the information he could find on Thompson, with a heavy emphasis on original sources. His book is of particular interest because it shows the importance of his work alongside the unsavory aspects of his character.
Absolutely fascinating, and very highly recommended! Thompson could have a mini-series made about his life -- there's enough dirt to keep Hollywood happy and enough educational meat to make PBS's day!
Xenophon
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