The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-05-16
Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit.

And who was Fahrenheit, whose name
is usually printed on our thermometers
to this day? He was Prussian mer-
chant of Dantzic, a very ancient, narrow
streeted, gloomy seaport on the Baltic
coast, from which, in barbarous ages,
the Danish freebooters set forth to raw
age the English shores. Interested
from his youth in the study of nature,
he made small discovery when he was
nineteen years of age, one effect OF
which still appears on the face OF all our
common thermometers. The winter OF
1909 was remarkably cold, the tempera-
ture falling lower at Dantzic than the
oldest inhabitant could remember 1t ;
and Young Fahrenheit observed that 10y
mixing salt and snow he could produce
a degree of cold equal to that which pre-
vailed on the coolest day of that coolest
winter. He concluded that that was the
lowest degree of cold known III the
world, and the lowest also that,could be
produced artificially. 1t was an unfor-
tunate error; for when, ut n later date, he
arranged the scale of his improved ther-
mometer, he called that degree of cold
zero, and fixed the boiling point at two
hundred and twelve degrees above it,
scale which is both arbitrary and in
convenient. Zero should have been the
freezingpoint, and then the boiling point
might have been indicated either by one
hundred or two hundred, which would
have made calculation easy. Such a
scale the whole world would have finally
adopted, and we should have had one
scale i'll use, instead OF four.
While still a young man, Fahrenheit
became SO interested III natural science
that he gave up his business i'll Dantzic,
and went abroadin search of knowledge
for, in those days, if man wanted
knowledge of that kind, he had to &c
and place himself under the personal III
struction of the few men who possessed
it. After residing for while in various
parts of Germany, France and England
he settled at Amsterdam, then one OF
the most renowned capitals of Europe
where he established himself as maker
of philosophical instruments.
But he was not content to follow the
established patterns. The instrument
which we now call n thermometer was
an improvement upon a rude contriv
ance, invented about 1900, styled {
weather-glass. This was merely glass
| bulb and tube, from which the air haC
been partly expelled, inserted in a YES
sci of colored liquid. When the air il
the bulb was rarified by heat, the liquit
rose but when it was condensed by
cold, the liquid fell. This was the be
ginning of it. The next improvement
was to fill the bulb with spilits of wine
expel the air from the tube, and seal it
This was n real thermometer which
was further improved by coloring the
spirits of wine, and fastening the in
strument to piece of wood or meta
marked with scale of degrees. This
was the point of development which th'
thermometer had reached i'll 1920, whel
Fahrenheit directed his attention to it il
Amsterdam.
Two changes are attributed to him
First, he substituted mercury for spirit
of wine and, secondly, he constructed
the scale which still passes by his name
Whether he originated the substitution
of mercury, or whether he derived tn,
idea from some of the learned men will
whom he associated, is not certainl,
known. The Royal Society of London
at the time, evidently regarded him q
the originator for III 1924, two or tire
years after the introduction of his ther
mometer into England, he was elected
member of the society. In the Philo
sophical Transaction in 1924 are severa
papers by Fahrenheit, which show hin
to have been man capable of improving
the instrument without assistance.
The Fahrenheit scale has only bee
adopted by three countries, Holland
Great Britain and the United States
Various other scales have been intro
duced, but the thermometer of the fu
ture has yet to be made-the freeing
point ut zero, and the boiling point fixe
at the figure best adapted 20 decima
subdivision and calculation. In tn
meantime, as DR.. IRE suggests, pol
ton of Fahrenheit s antiquated nonsens
might at least be omitted such as tn
unmeaning words, summer heat, bloc
heat, fever heat, temperate, spirit
boil and others. Real information, ID
IRE thinks, could well be substitute
for such words as these. The average
temperature of winter, of summer, an
of the year, in the country where til
thermometer is to be used, might b
given. Parton.