The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-02-01
Our Dear Old Thermometer.
(Hartford, Conn, Courant. }

Walking home early last Saturday |
mornlng-at 1850 a. M, to be histor. !
Zealand remarking to the friendly
policeman Gin the obvious way which |
people pursue when they suddenly
break into conversation), ''This is
pretty cold, ism t it?'' he sententiously
but impressively responded: Eight
! above.'
| We understood what he meant.
thanks to long and patient study of
| the kind of thermometer in use in
| this country; but we had to make a
! little mathematical calculation in order
to ascertain the real significance of MS
response.
Eight above,' when the discourse
relates to a cold night means eight
degrees above zero. But when the
admirable Mr. Fahrenheit made his
thermometer he thought it judicious to
place his zero mark thirty-two de-
grees below the frost line. Accord
Iingly, ''eight above" had to be sub
tracted from thirty-two before one
could know just how cold it was, and
j this mental calculation revealed the
fact that our left ear was in the grip
; of twenty-four degrees of frost. Then
we understood why a normal ear
; should report cold weather
The foolishness of placing zero at
any other point than the freezing
! point is obvious, if one is to depend
upon the thermometer to tell a plain
story. The freezing point is the natur-
al turn from heat to cold. Even the
green things in the garden know when
1t begins to freeze. Both the Reaumur
thermometer and the Centigrade or
Celsius thermometer place zero at the
: freezing point. The only difference be-
tween them is that the former divides
= the space between zero and the boiling
S point into eighty degrees and the latter
;, into one hundred degrees. But both
g recognize the fundamental difference
p between heat and cold By beginning
their calculations at the freezing point,
going up or down, as the case may be-
with one, two, three degrees of heat OF
Of cold. The Fahrenheit thermometer
On the contrary, gives us thirty-twe
u degrees of frost before it indicates to
e the casual eye that the weather has
i changed from warm to cold. and al
q every point between its thirty two de
=, grees and zero requires a mathemati
cal calculation to find out how cold il
n really is.
IS We read sometimes IN the news
# paper reports about our blessed climat,
- that at this or that spot (fortunatel7
remote from Connecticut) the cold ha
81 been fifty degrees below zero. Tha
Is fairly chilly report, on the fac,
Of of it, but it is not so chilly in appear
10 ance as it is III fact. In order to ge
at the actual cold in such cases "
have to add the thirty-two degrees o
frost that the Fahrenheit thermomete
~ places on the upper side of zero, $
,o that the correct reading is eightv-tw
- degrees of frost. That is going some
as in the matter of cold, but it is wha
Dis the Fahrenheit Thermometer reall
lg shows when the dividing line is place
i where frost begins The confusion
- wholly due to the fact that Mr. Fal
he renheit left his thirtv-two degrees G
'lr frost hanging in q sort of Nowhere
IL land between heat and cold, so tina
Mt long before his zero mark is reache
It is cold enough to freeze the ears o
a brass monkey. We change the const
sal tuition of the United States from tin
he to time, perfect as it is as chart
an government, and there are people VIII
go are eager to change it at every sessio
OF Congress, but we stick to our de:
old thermometer, misleading and foo
on ish as it is as if the country wou
N fall apart if it should disappea
'"' - Eight above will therefore CONT
ny lie to be used, when we wish to So
leh twentyfour degrees below the freezir
an point, aad the American mind will no
he fast to the chance of obtaining int
dc lectual exercise in traversing the di
tance between the sound of these tv
ere words and their practical meanin
ere Conservative is no word for the endt
out ing confidence that we have in old N
Der Fahrenheit 5 thermometer. 1t is
Mo great and apparently permanent he
tage for all the coming generation
RED its unfailing charm lying in the diff,
ity ence between the real facts of t
led weather and its report of them.