Physicist

Early Life in America.

One of the greatest American scientists of his day was in some respects not "American" at all since he did virtually all his important work in Europe. Benjamin Thompson was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, in 1753 and later taught school in Concord, New Hampshire. During the American Revolution he remained loyal to the Crown, having married a rich widow and taken to the life of the elite, and was jailed for two weeks in 1775 when American authorities suspected him of treasonous behavior. After being released he joined the British army in Boston and left for England when the British were forced out of that city by Gen. George Washington. He then served in the office of the secretary of state for several years. Thompson returned to America in 1781 and commanded a regiment of dragoons, after which he went to...