Thermometer and temperature scales
Termómetro y escalas de temperatura
- Date
- c. 1593 (termoscopio) / 1714 (Fahrenheit) / 1742 (Celsius) · confidence high
- Place
- Padua/Florence, Italy; Amsterdam (Fahrenheit); Uppsala (Celsius)
- Credited to
- Galileo Galilei (thermoscope), Santorio (scale, 1612), Ferdinando II de' Medici (sealed thermometer, 1654), Daniel Fahrenheit (mercury, 1714), Anders Celsius (1742)
- People
- 👤 Galileo Galilei1564–1642👤 Santorio Santorio1561–1636
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
An instrument that measures temperature by the expansion of air, alcohol or mercury; the sealed thermometer of the Accademia del Cimento and Fahrenheit's mercury thermometer with fixed points made it reproducible. It turned the sensation of heat into a quantified measure.
Galileo, Santorio, Drebbel and Fludd either claimed or were credited with the thermoscope around 1593–1610; Fahrenheit and Celsius established the scales. Celsius set 0 at boiling and 100 at freezing; Linnaeus and Strömer reversed it.
What it led to
- Meteorology and systematic climate records
- Quantitative medicine (fever, Santorio, Boerhaave)
- Thermodynamics and the study of heat (Black, 18th century)
- The control of chemical and industrial processes
Built on
- Philo's and Hero's thermoscope
- Precision blown glass
- Torricelli's barometer