Thermometer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A thermometer is a device which measures temperature or temperature gradient, using a variety of different principles. The word thermometer is derived from two smaller word fragments: thermo from the Latin (or Greek) for heat and meter from Latin, meaning to measure.

[edit] Early History

The first thermometer was a thermoscope. Different versions of the thermoscope were invented by several inventors around the same time. The first to put a numerical scale on the thermoscopes was the Italian inventor Santorio Santorio. In 1593, Galileo Galilei invented a rudimentary water thermometer (using the contraction of air to draw water up a tube). In 1714, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first mercury thermometer.This history of the thermometer, from its invention in the early seventeenth century (an achievement attributed to at least four scientists, including Galileo) through various changes and applications over the next three centuries, includes controversy about its invention, the story of different scales, from Fahrenheit and Celsius to the now-forgotten Reaumur, Delisle, and Christin scales, 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.

[edit] Types of thermometers

Thermometers have been built which utilise a range of physical effects to measure temperature. Most thermometers are originally calibrated to a constant-volume gas thermometer.

• Mercury-in-glass thermometer
• Bi-metal mechanical thermometer
• Electrical resistance thermometer
• Galileo thermometer
• Infrared thermometer
• Liquid Crystal Thermometer
• Reversing thermometer
• Silicon bandgap temperature sensor
• Six's thermometer- also known as a Maximum minimum thermometer
• Thermistor
• Thermocouple

[edit] Specialist uses of thermometers

• Candy thermometer
• Meat thermometer
• Medical thermometer

[edit] See also

• Timeline of temperature and pressure measurement technology

[edit] External links

• Development of the thermometer
• Making a Homemade Thermometer

[edit] References

• History Channel - Invention - Notable Modern Inventions and Discoveries
• About - Thermometer - Thermometers - Early History, Anders Celsius, Gabriel Fahrenheit and Thomson Kelvin.

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