Maximum Thermometer
date: label: date made
content: 1865-1880
name: label: maker
content: L. P. Casella
notes: label: Description
content: Mercury-in-glass Phillips-type maximum thermometer with a spherical bulb. The tube has a white enamel back; the scale on the front extends from zero to +125 degrees (presumably Fahrenheit) graduated every degree, and is marked "9714." The supporting white porcelain plate is marked "MAXIMUM" and "L. CASELLA. MAKER TO THE ADMIRALTY, London" and "No. 9714." The plate, in turn, is mounted on a wood back.
label: Description
content: In this design, an air bubble separates a small bit of mercury from the main part of the column. When the temperature falls, the detached mercury remains in place indicating the maximum temperature attained until reset by the observer. John Phillips, an English geologist, introduced the form at the 1832 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1856 he showed an improved form made by Louis P. Casella of London. Casella would later boast that, next to Phillips, he deserved "the exclusive merit of the introduction and arrangement of these most perfect maximum thermometers" that had been widely adopted in Britain, on the Continent, and in the United States.
label: Description
content: Ref: L. P. Casella, <i>Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of Philosophical, Meteorological, Mathematical, Surveying, Optical and Photographic Instruments</i> (London, 1860), p. 17.
label: Description
content: Jack Morrell, <i>John Phillips and the Business of Victorian Science</i> (Aldershot, 2005).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
topic: label: Subject
content: Smithsonian Institution
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Military
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content: Thermometers and Hygrometers
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content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.326555
label: catalog number
content: 326555
label: accession number
content: 260956
objectType: label: Object Name
content: maximum thermometer
label: Object Name
content: thermometer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in; 30.48 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 1/4 in x 14 1/16 in x 1 9/16 in; 5.715 cm x 35.71875 cm x 3.96875 cm