The Rumford medallists of the American Academy of Arts And Sciences

Fellows of the Royal Society are familiar with the Rumford Fund, which was founded as a result of a gift of £1000, made by Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, F. R. S., on 12 July 1796, ‘in order that the interest of it should be given once every second year as a premium to the author of the most important discovery or useful improvement which shall be made or published by printing, or in any way made known to the public in any part of Europe during the preceding two years, on heat or on light, the preference always being given to such discoveries as shall, in the opinion of the President and Council, tend most to promote the good of mankind. The premium is to take the form of two medals, the one of gold and the other of silver.' The first Rumford Medal was very appropriately awarded in 1802 to Count Rumford himself.