The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-08-26

LYING THERMOMETERS.
Cheap Instruments That Cannot
Be Relied Upon
The Average Household Apparatus VIII
Not Accurately Indicate the
State of the Tenn
per4ture.

Twenty-seven thermometers, big and
little, hung on a wall in a New York
opticians shop on a sweltering after
noon. and Sun reporter idly asked a
young man behind the counter if the
instruments were in commission He
cheerfully responded that they were
upon active duty. and the next moment
repented of what he had said, for the
customer went to the wall and exam
ined the thermometers. They were those
spiral fellows that look like little dark
red worms carefully coiled- Scarcely any
two of them agreed in the record of
temperature. They marked ali the way
from eighty-three and half degrees to
shade above ninety-two degrees. The
reporter called the young mans atten-
ton to the disagreement, and he said
they were not very high-priced Their
mometers, only about two dollars and
seventy-fve cents apiece, and besides,
they had been on strain for five days
and were overworked- They were good
enough in ordinary weather, but for
spell like the one just on person should
use a irst-rate high-priced thermometer
warranted not to flag in any stress of
weather.
The reporter accepted the young
mans explanation in good faith and
started out, but paused to look at about
two score thermometers on the oppo-
site wall. Many of these were great
deal bigger than any IN the congrega-
ton of thermometric liars on the other
side, and some of them were manifestly
of expensive quality, but they were as
variable in their opinions as the 9TH
ers. One fell as low as eighty-six de-
grees, and one recorded ninety-four de-
grees, good two degrees higher than
any other record in the shop. As all
hung within space of a yard square,
there was nothing in their position to
account for the variation, though the
young man behind the counter had
weakly suggested that of those on the
wall, such as hung highest ought 20
show the highest readings, which, as q
matter of fact, they did not
The young man, seeing the report
er's new discovery, made it convenient
to have business in another part of the
shop, and as for the customer, he was
not mean enough to hit man so mani
testify down. AS a matter of fact, the
young man had told the truth without
to do SO. Nearly all the
in sight were too cheap
to be good, as are most Thermometers
in domestic use. Nearly everybody by
this time knows how thermometers
are made, but few realize how difficult
The domestic thermometer is chronic
liar, because the tendency to untruth
is, as the doctors say, congenitaL When
one does tell the truth within re asona-
BILE bounds the result is only happy
accident, but such a thermometer
should be cherished. Nobody who seeks
to know the temperature Of anything
mestic thermometer. Only the most
carefully made scientific Thermometers
really come near accuracy. The makers
of surgeons pocket Thermometers, little
things that cost four or five dollars, give
up the question of accuracy in advance
and sell with each thermometer sort
Of affidavit as to the degree of its error.
The best domestic Thermometer ought
10 come within less than half a degree
Of the truth, but few people buy the
best The spirit Thermometers, used in
The arctic regions, where mercury
freezes solid and gives up the task at
An early stage Of the proceedin gs, are
20 delicate that they must be read with
an eyeglass from q distance lest the
created by the near approach
If living being urge the alcohol up
ward Even these, however. are not to
De intrusted implicitly in their lowest
-eadings The only absolutely accu-
ate measurer of heat is the air Their
and by it all really good tber
are tested before they are sold |
% confding public.