Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-03-27
THERMOMETER HABITS.
INTEREST THAT YANKEES SHOW
ABOUT THE MERCURY.

Interesting Facts About the Manufacture
of the Weather Gaugers-What They
Are Made Of-Why the Marks on the
Glass Are So Arranged.
If you really want to witness a beautiful
and artistic duel of words on the subject Of
cold weather, you must get man from
Northern Vermont and man from North
ern New Hampshire to ''swap" weather
experiences. Some objector will at once
say, of course, that neither of these men
know as much about cold weather as their
more northern neighbor, the Canadian
But the implied inference that the Cana
dian could talk more eloquently about low
temperatures than the citizens we have
designated is not founded on fact.
For your Canadian is either SO consti-
tuted that cold weather is not cold weathe,
to him, OR else he is SO chilled through by
it that he won't talk about it. But who
ever yet knew Yankee who was not in
tinately acquainted with all the posi-
bilties of low temperature in his part OF
the state and was not willing to back the
record of his thermometer against that OF
any other man?
And talking about thermometers sug-
gests the question, "What do you know
about the thermometers antecedents?''
Very little, probably. The thermometer,
like the weather, IS taken as fact to be
grumbled at, perhaps even to be denounced,
but to be accepted, nevertheless. Boston
has always claimed to turn out the best
thermometers, though that claim is vigor
ously disputed by New York and Balti-
more
About seventy years ago an old Scotch
man named Pollock began the manufact
IRE OF fine thermometers in Boston. Thomas
Pool, an Englishman, was rival to him in
the business Pool had two brothers who
came to this city and began to manufacture
thermometers. The Pools were all skillful
workmen, and they are entitled to the cred
it of making the first high grade thermome-
tiers in this country.
THERMOMETERS IN NEW ENGLAND.
Before thermometers were made in this
country they were imported from France,
Germany and England, and even now great
numbers are imported, generally cheap
grades which can be sold below the price
of the domestic article. The higher grades
of European thermometers are no cheaper
or better than the same grades in this
country, and so they are not imported.
That the New Englanders are weather
sharps is proved by the fact that more ther
mometers are sold in New England than
in any other part of the country. In many
parts of the west and south thermometer
IS rarely seen, the people having little or
no interest in the state of the temperature
But the Yankee, especially in Vermont,
New Hampshire and Maine, always wants
to look at the thermometer as soon as he
,ets up, and maybe half dozen times dur
ng the day.
The thermometer habit, indeed. is one of
the marked characteristics of the Yankee,
and it has upon him much the same slim.
ulating effect that cocktail has on the
average citizen After his glance at the
thermometer he goes in to breakfast in a
state of suppressed though joyous excite
ment, feeling that there is at least one topic
of conversation that is absolutely fresh; for
though the weather itself is as old as the
world, the record of the thermometer is
always new.
The aperture in the tube of thermom-
eter is smaller than the finest hair. And
though it appears to be round it is not; for
if it were, the mercury could not be easily
seen. 1t is, therefore, made fiat, and then
the glass magnifies it so that it seems to be
quite large. To bring it out still more dis
tinctly, a maker of Boston recently con,
ceived the idea of backing the tube with a
thin film of white sizing This device is now
generally adopted by the foreign makers.
Mercury is generally used in thermom-
eters because it is more regular in its con.
traction and expansion. 1t is indeed i'm
possible to make spirit thermometer that
will be IS trustworthy as one in which
mercury is used. In mercurial thermom
eter the degree marks are all the same dis
lance apart, because the expansion under
all conditions is uniform
KINDS OF THERMOMETERS.
But in spirit thermometer the degrees
ire wider apart at the top, because the eX
pausion increases at Il greater ratio after a
certain temperature is reached. Though
not so trustworthy, spirit thermometers
are necessary as mercury freeZ, IS at 40 degs.
fellow zero. Spirits of wine is generally
used, and is colored red SO that it will be
more visible to the eye
In correct thermometer the scale is
graduated to the requirements of the tube
to which it is fitted, so that every correct
thermometer must have special scale of
ITS own. That is to say, it wouldn't do to
out the tube of one thermometer in the
frame of another. OF course, in the very
cheap grades of thermometers such &C
curate adjustments are not made, and
therefore their records are only approx
mately correct. The best thermometer
tube made will cost about S; but Their
nometer may be made to cost almost any
price, according to the way in which it is
mounted.
As every one knows, the Fahrenheit
scale is that most commonly used in this
country Fahrenheit arbitrarily assumed
IL limit of cold which he termed zero. This
makes the freezing point 81 dogs. above
zero, and the boiling point PIP dogs. above
zero. AS a matter of fact, however, in
northern ATTITUDES the temperature in win
ter frequently falls below the zero point, SO
that there is no scientific reason why the
zero point in the Fahrenheit scale should
be where it is.
A much more scientific scale is that
known as the Centigrade, which marks the
point at which water freezes at zero, and
divides the space between that and the
point at which water boils into 100 degs.
Ia the Reaulnur scale zero marks the freez-
ing point, and eighty above zero the boil
ing point Many self registering thermom
eters are now used These instruments
mark the highest or lowest temperature
reached, as the case may be, so that the
weather sharp may return at night feeling
assured that the weather can play no
pranks without his learning of them.-New
York Tribune
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