Synopses & Reviews
The liquid-in-glass thermometer is a relatively simple instrument and structurally almost invariable. The interest in its history lies in the controversies about its discovery and about the establishment of the various scales of temperature that have been in favor from time to time and in different places. In this book, W. E. Knowles Middleton untangles this often contentious history, from the thermometer's invention in the early seventeenth century (an achievement attributed to at least four scientists, including Galileo) through its various permutations and meteorological applications over the next three centuries. Part of the difficulty of the subject, Middleton notes, lies in the concept of temperature itself--the quantification of the subjective sensations "hot" and "cold"--and he chronicles various attempts at thermometry, finding that only around 1800 did scientists understand what they were measuring with thermometers. He also details the search for a rational temperature scale, from Fahrenheit and Celsius to the now-forgotten Reaumur, Delisle, and Christin scales.
Synopsis
This history of the thermometer includes controversy about its invention, the story of different scales, Fahrenheit and centigrade, and the history of the gradual scientific then popular understanding of the concept of temperature. Not until 1800 did people interested in thermometers begin to see clearly what they were measuring, and the impetus for improving thermometry came largely from study of the weather -- the liquid-in-glass thermometer became the meteorologist's instrument before that of the chemist or physicist. This excellent introductory study follows the development of indicating and recording thermometers until recent times, emphasizing meteorological applications.