Whilst in England Rumford at this time strove to advance scientific knowledge not only by the publication of his own discoveries, but also by his benefactions for the promotion of discovery by others, and by the further practical application of some of the results which he had obtained. On July 12, 1796, he wrote to the Honourable John Adams, President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at Boston, to offer 5,000 dollars in the 3 per cent. stocks, ‘to the end that the interest may be spent every second year on a silver and gold medal as a premium to the author of the most important discovery or useful improvement on heat or on light; the preference always being given to such discoveries as shall, in the opinion of the Academy, tend most to promote the good of mankind.’ In 1829 the fund accumulated to 20,000 dollars, and in 1870 to 37,000 dollars. The Academy applied to the Legislature to use the money for the purchase of books and apparatus, and to pay for experiments, lectures, and treatises, and this was decided in 1831. During the first fifty years only one award of the medals was made. This was to Dr. Hare, of Philadelphia, 1839. They have been since given to Mr. Ericsson, Professor Treadwell, Mr. Alvan Clark, and Mr. Corliss. On the same day in 1796 Count Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society, offering 1,000_l._ stock on the same conditions to the Royal Society of London. Sir Joseph Banks was requested by the council to return their sincere thanks to Count Rumford, and at the same time to inquire ‘how far improvements or discoveries in optics and chemistry might come under the Count’s views.’ Count Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, from Munich, April 20, 1797: I think the premium should be limited to new discoveries tending to improve the theories of fire, of heat, of light, and of colours, and to new inventions and contrivances by which the generation and preservation and management of heat and of light may be facilitated. In as far, therefore, as chemical discoveries or improvements in optics answer any of these conditions they may, I think, fairly be considered as being within the limits assigned to the operation of the premium. The objects which I had more particularly in view to encourage, are such practical improvements in the generation and management of heat and light as tend directly and powerfully to increase the enjoyments and comforts of life, especially in the lower and more numerous classes of society.