XXXVII. The report of the Committee appointed by the Royal Society to consider of the best method of adjusting the fixed points of thermometers; and of the precautions necessary to be used in making experiments with those instruments
Year: 1777
Type: article
Abstract: It is universally agreed by all those who make and use Fahrenheit's thermometers, that the freezing point, or that point which the thermometer stands at when surrounded by ice or snow beginning to melt, is to be called 32°; and that the heat of boiling water is to be called 212 °: but for want of further regulations concerning the manner in which this last point is to be adjusted, it is placed not less than two or three degree higher on some thermometers, even of those made by our best artists, than on others. The two principal causes of this difference are, first, that it has never been settled at what height of the barometer this point is to be adjusted; and secondly, that so much of the quicksilver in the thermometer as is contained in the tube, is more heated in the method used by some persons, than in that used by others.
Authors: Henry Cavendish, William Heberden, Alexander Aubert, Jean Andre De Luc, Nevil Maskelyne, Samuel Horsley, Joseph Planta
Language: English
Subfield: Instrumentation
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4232472960