A thermoscope is a device that shows changes in temperature. A typical design is a tube in which a liquid rises and falls as the temperature changes. The modern thermometer gradually evolved from it with the addition of a scale in the early 17th century and standardisation throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. [1] [2]
Devices employing both heat and pressure were common during Galileo's time, used for fountains, nursing, or bleeding in medicine. [3] The device was built from a small vase filled with water, [4] attached to a thin vertically rising pipe, with a large empty glass ball at the top. Changes in temperature of the upper ball would exert positive or negative pressure on the water below, causing it to rise or lower in the thin column. [3] The device established fixed points but does not measure specific quantity, although it can tell when something is warmer than another thing. [5]
Essentially, thermoscopes served as a justification of sorts regarding what is observed or experienced by the senses – that the device's basic agreement with the indications of the senses generates initial confidence in its reliability. [5]
Large thermoscopes placed outdoors appeared to cause perpetual motion of contained water, and these were therefore sometimes called perpetuum mobile. [3] Galileo's own work with the thermoscope led him to develop an essentially atomistic conception of heat, published in his book Il Saggiatore in 1623. [3]
It is thought, but not certain, that Galileo Galilei discovered the specific principle on which the device is based and built the first thermoscope in 1593.[ citation needed ] In the 17th century Galileo mentioned to his friend Cesare Marsili that he invented a thermoscope as far back as 1606. [6] The inventor could be his physician friend Santorio Santorio or another person of the learned circle in Venice of which they were members. [7] What is certain is that the thermoscope had started circulating in market squares during Galileo's time. [6] The development of the actual device is attributed to four inventors; namely: Galileo, Santorio Santorio, Robert Fludd, and Cornelius Drebbel. [6] However, the general pneumatic principle of the thermoscope was used in the Hellenic period, and it was written about even earlier, by Empedocles of Agrigentum in his 460 B.C. book On Nature. [3]
Santorio Santorio wrote a Commentary on the Medical Art of Galen in 1612 that described the device in print. [8] Shortly afterward, in 1617 Giuseppe Biancani published the first clear diagram. The device at this time could not be used for quantitative or standardized measurement and used the temperature of air to expand or contract gas, thereby moving a column of water. [8] It was Drebbel who announced in the early 17th century one of the earliest or possibly the first prototype, which was filled with air and blocked by water containing a little aqua fortis to prevent it from freezing and being discolored. [9]
The device was improved by early German scientist Otto von Guericke in the 17th century. [8] Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany personally made a further improvement by introducing the use of a colored alcohol, so that the material responding to heat was now liquid instead of gas. [8]
It is possible that Francesco Sagredo or Santorio may have added some kind of scales to thermoscopes, and Robert Fludd may have accomplished something similar in 1638. [10] [11] In 1701 Ole Christensen Rømer effectively invented the thermometer by adding a temperature scale (see Rømer scale) to the thermoscope. [8]
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit FRS was a physicist, inventor, and scientific instrument maker, born in Poland to a family of German extraction. Fahrenheit invented thermometers accurate and consistent enough to allow the comparison of temperature measurements between different observers using different instruments. Fahrenheit is also credited with inventing mercury-in-glass thermometers more accurate and superior to spirit-filled thermometers at the time. The popularity of his thermometers led to the widespread adoption of his Fahrenheit scale attached to his instruments.
The Fahrenheit scale is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the European physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined his scale exist, but the original paper suggests the lower defining point, 0 °F, was established as the freezing temperature of a solution of brine made from a mixture of water, ice, and ammonium chloride. The other limit established was his best estimate of the average human body temperature, originally set at 90 °F, then 96 °F.
A thermometer is a device that measures temperature or temperature gradient. A thermometer has two important elements: (1) a temperature sensor in which some change occurs with a change in temperature; and (2) some means of converting this change into a numerical value. Thermometers are widely used in technology and industry to monitor processes, in meteorology, in medicine, and in scientific research.
A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis to help find surface troughs, pressure systems and frontal boundaries.
This is a timeline of temperature and pressure measurement technology or the history of temperature measurement and pressure measurement technology.
The following is a timeline of low-temperature technology and cryogenic technology. It also lists important milestones in thermometry, thermodynamics, statistical physics and calorimetry, that were crucial in development of low temperature systems.
A hygrometer is an instrument which measures the humidity of air or some other gas: that is, how much water vapor it contains. Humidity measurement instruments usually rely on measurements of some other quantities such as temperature, pressure, mass and mechanical or electrical changes in a substance as moisture is absorbed. By calibration and calculation, these measured quantities can lead to a measurement of humidity. Modern electronic devices use the temperature of condensation, or they sense changes in electrical capacitance or resistance to measure humidity differences. A crude hygrometer was invented by Leonardo da Vinci in 1480. Major leaps came forward during the 1600s; Francesco Folli invented a more practical version of the device, while Robert Hooke improved a number of meteorological devices including the hygrometer. A more modern version was created by Swiss polymath Johann Heinrich Lambert in 1755. Later, in the year 1783, Swiss physicist and Geologist Horace Bénédict de Saussure invented the first hygrometer using human hair to measure humidity.
Cornelis Jacobszoon Drebbel was a Dutch engineer and inventor. He was the builder of the first operational submarine in 1620 and an innovator who contributed to the development of measurement and control systems, optics and chemistry.
The Newton scale is a temperature scale devised by Isaac Newton in 1701. He called his device a "thermometer", but he did not use the term "temperature", speaking of "degrees of heat" instead. Newton's publication represents the first attempt to introduce an objective way of measuring temperature . Newton likely developed his scale for practical use rather than for a theoretical interest in thermodynamics; he had been appointed Warden of the Mint in 1695, and Master of the Mint in 1699, and his interest in the melting points of metals are likely inspired by his duties in connection with the Royal Mint.
A Galileo thermometer is a thermometer made of a sealed glass cylinder containing a clear liquid and several glass vessels of varying density. The individual floats rise or fall in proportion to their respective density and the density of the surrounding liquid as the temperature changes. It is named after Galileo Galilei because he discovered the principle on which this thermometer is based—that the density of a liquid changes in proportion to its temperature.
The history of thermodynamics is a fundamental strand in the history of physics, the history of chemistry, and the history of science in general. Owing in the relevance of thermodynamics in much of science and technology, its history is finely woven with the developments of classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, magnetism, and chemical kinetics, to more distant applied fields such as meteorology, information theory, and biology (physiology), and to technological developments such as the steam engine, internal combustion engine, cryogenics and electricity generation. The development of thermodynamics both drove and was driven by atomic theory. It also, albeit in a subtle manner, motivated new directions in probability and statistics; see, for example, the timeline of thermodynamics.
Temperature measurement describes the process of measuring a current temperature for immediate or later evaluation. Datasets consisting of repeated standardized measurements can be used to assess temperature trends.
Santorio Santorio whose real name was Santorio Santori better known in English as Sanctorius of Padua was an Italian physiologist, physician, and professor, who introduced the quantitative approach into the life sciences and is considered the father of modern quantitative experimentation in medicine. He is also known as the inventor of several medical devices. His work De Statica Medicina, written in 1614, saw many publications and influenced generations of physicians.
A medical thermometer or clinical thermometer is a device used for measuring the body temperature of a human or other animal. The tip of the thermometer is inserted into the mouth under the tongue, under the armpit, into the rectum via the anus, into the ear, or on the forehead.
Meteorological instruments, including meteorological sensors, are the equipment used to find the state of the atmosphere at a given time. Each science has its own unique sets of laboratory equipment. Meteorology, however, is a science which does not use much laboratory equipment but relies more on on-site observation and remote sensing equipment. In science, an observation, or observable, is an abstract idea that can be measured and for which data can be taken. Rain was one of the first quantities to be measured historically. Two other accurately measured weather-related variables are wind and humidity. Many attempts had been made prior to the 15th century to construct adequate equipment to measure atmospheric variables.
Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making up a substance.
Giovanni Francesco Sagredo was a Venetian mathematician and close friend of Galileo. He was also a friend and correspondent of English scientist William Gilbert. He is remembered today mainly because he appears as one of the figures in Galileo's controversial work the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632).
