Jasmine Porter
Physics 1010
SLCC
Discoveries in Thermodynamics: Thermometer
Everyone in the world today knows what a thermometer is and how they work but many
people don’t know the history behind them including myself. A thermometer is a scale that
measures temperature. Thermometers use two types of materials that change when heated and
cooled. One material is mercury and expands when heated and contracts when cool. In the
United States we measure temperature in Fahrenheit. Other places use Celsius and even Kelvins.
Before the thermometer was invented there was something call the thermoscope that was
very similar to the thermometer just without the scale. The thermoscope only could tell you when
something was getting hotter, and it could also not tell you exact temperature. It would rise and
expand and that is how you would know it was getting hotter and then when it would cool it
would slowly contract back together.
The thermometer was invented by many scientists. It was perfected so much by
each inventor that it finally is today what it is. In 1592 Galileo Galilei was the first one to invent the
thermometer. “It was simply a round bottom flask with a glass tube coming out the top, which was
placed upside down in a container of water or wine.”(True Physics). Galileo’s made a scale for
his thermometer to measure the degrees of it. He didn’t specify a certain
degrees to be the boiling point of water for his scale on his thermometer.
Which made his thermometer not very accurate.
In 1641 a man named Ferdinand II Grand Duke of Tuscany created a new thermometer
that was closed. He had a colored alcohol in a glass tube. His thermometer worked by when the
alcohol would heat up it would expand and the heat would be measured in degrees.
Another man then updated the thermometer in 1741, named Gabriel
Fahrenheit. This man invented using mercury in the thermometer and that is
what we used still up until it became a safety concern. This thermometer gives
you a very accurate reading of temperature. Gabriel Fahrenheit also came up with a measurement
of degrees based on our body temperature. This is where we get __ degrees F. He created a
freezing point and a boiling point of water. He also established how warm our average body
temperature should be. This measurement is mostly just used in America today.
Another measurement of temperature used today is Celsius. In
1742, there was a Swedish scientist named Anders Celsius. He invented
a different way to measure degrees in something called Celsius. He
came up with his measurements by dividing the boiling and freezing
point by 100 degrees. Celsius is used widely around the world to
measure temperature.
The last measurement people may use today are the Kelvin. Kelvin degrees
were invented by a man named Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelvin of Scotland.
“The Kelvin scale is the current standard unit for measuring temperature” (True Physics). This
man decided to make 0 degrees the lowest degrees possible. One kelvin is equal to one degree
Celsius.
I had no idea that that we measured temperature in Kelvins. That was something that I
learned that was new. I also never knew that so many people helped invent the thermometer and
perfect it, into what it is today. Many people get credibility for this invention because they all
made it better in a drastic way. This was interesting to learn about the history behind the
thermometer. I enjoyed reading about all the men who contributed in this invention and learned
about why we have the degrees names that we do. I learned a lot and am glad I got this chance.
Work Cited
Bellis, Mary. The History of the Thermometer.
http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/History-Of-The-Thermometer.htm. 2013.
May, 4.
Caldwell, Anthony. Holmes, Declan. History of Thermometers. http://physics.ie/leaving-certphysics/heat/history-of-thermometers/. 2013. May 4, 2013.