A thermometer is an instrument used to measure temperature.
Galilei Galileo built the first thermoscope in the late sixteenth century. A primitive gas thermometer, the thermoscope used a well known principal that air expands as it is heated. He used water in a thin glass tube with a bulb on top with markings etched on to the glass tube.
Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1610–1670), devised the first sealed thermometer in 1654 dependent on the expansion of a liquid, and independent of air pressure. It was the forerunner of the common mercury thermometers of today.
These 1600's thermometers were filled with brandy instead of mercury. Apparently they were accurate enough.
The picture below shows fifty-degree thermometers from the mid-17th century on exhibit at the Museo Galileo with black dots representing single degrees and white represented 10-degree increments; used to measure atmospheric temperatures.
In 1714 Dutch scientist and inventor Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit constructed the first sealed-in-glass thermometer, using mercury instead of alcohol and water mixtures. He discovered a method for cleaning mercury so that it would not stick to a glass tube, which enabled him to use this element rather than alcohol, which gave less accurate results.
Fahrenheit also devised a method for measuring temperature, which is named after him.
On May 19, 1743 French physicist Jean-Pierre Christin published the design of a mercury thermometer with the centigrade scale, with 0 representing the freezing point of water and 100 its boiling point.
English physician Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt (1836 – 1925) is generally considered the model for the Middlemarch character Dr Lydgate. Allbutt is best known for reducing the then foot long thermometer to a more manageable size.
Ethanol, a flammable, colorless chemical compound, is the active fluid in modern (post-mercury) thermometers. It is also one of the alcohols that is most often found in alcoholic drinks, a solvent, an antiseptic and a fuel.
Another type is a digital thermometer, which uses electronics to measure temperature.
The world's smallest thermometer, which is 20,000 times smaller than a hair, is made of DNA, and is used to see temperature changes in cells.
Galilei Galileo built the first thermoscope in the late sixteenth century. A primitive gas thermometer, the thermoscope used a well known principal that air expands as it is heated. He used water in a thin glass tube with a bulb on top with markings etched on to the glass tube.
Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1610–1670), devised the first sealed thermometer in 1654 dependent on the expansion of a liquid, and independent of air pressure. It was the forerunner of the common mercury thermometers of today.
These 1600's thermometers were filled with brandy instead of mercury. Apparently they were accurate enough.
The picture below shows fifty-degree thermometers from the mid-17th century on exhibit at the Museo Galileo with black dots representing single degrees and white represented 10-degree increments; used to measure atmospheric temperatures.
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| By Museo Galileo - Own work |
In 1714 Dutch scientist and inventor Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit constructed the first sealed-in-glass thermometer, using mercury instead of alcohol and water mixtures. He discovered a method for cleaning mercury so that it would not stick to a glass tube, which enabled him to use this element rather than alcohol, which gave less accurate results.
Fahrenheit also devised a method for measuring temperature, which is named after him.
On May 19, 1743 French physicist Jean-Pierre Christin published the design of a mercury thermometer with the centigrade scale, with 0 representing the freezing point of water and 100 its boiling point.
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| Thermometer of Lyon (1743). By Science Museum of London |
English physician Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt (1836 – 1925) is generally considered the model for the Middlemarch character Dr Lydgate. Allbutt is best known for reducing the then foot long thermometer to a more manageable size.
Ethanol, a flammable, colorless chemical compound, is the active fluid in modern (post-mercury) thermometers. It is also one of the alcohols that is most often found in alcoholic drinks, a solvent, an antiseptic and a fuel.
Another type is a digital thermometer, which uses electronics to measure temperature.
The world's smallest thermometer, which is 20,000 times smaller than a hair, is made of DNA, and is used to see temperature changes in cells.
The original purpose of the hood ornament on a car, before they were artistic and ornate, was a visible thermometer for the motor vehicle's coolant.
great useful article
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