Solar Radiation Thermometer
date: label: date made
content: ca 1873-1885
name: label: maker
content: J. J. Hicks
notes: label: Description
content: In the late 18th century, scientists set out to determine the intensity of solar radiation overall, as well as the intensity of radiation in different parts of the spectrum. In time they learned that the temperature of a black object was related to the intensity of the incident radiation and the movement of the ambient air. Negretti & Zambra’s solar radiation thermometer, the first commercial instrument suitable for this purpose, was unveiled in 1864. It had a blackened bulb, and was encased in a second glass tube from which the air had been evaporated. James J. Hicks obtained a British patent for a method of testing the vacuum of a solar thermometer in 1873, and described his solar radiation thermometer at a meeting of the British Meteorological Society in early 1874.
label: Description
content: This example consists of a mercury-in-glass thermometer with a constriction in the stem just above the spherical bulb. The white enamel back of the stem is marked "202" and "J. Hicks. 8 Hatton Garn. London" and "Hicks's Patent No. 3647" and "14951" with the K/O monogram of the Kew Observatory. The clear front is graduated every degree F. from -5 to +192. This thermometer is encased in a glass jacket from which the air has been evacuated. The jacked is provided with two platinum electrodes that can be connected to a spark coil so that the vacuum can be checked, a feature described in Hicks' 1873 patent. It was made after the issuance of Hicks' patent in 1873 and before the expansion of his business to 8, 9, & 10 Hatton Garden in the 1880s.
label: Description
content: Ref.: W. E. K. Middleton, <i>A History of the Thermometer</i> (Baltimore, 1966), pp. 162-164.
label: Description
content: James J. Hicks, <i>Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of Standard, Self-Recording, and Other Meteorological Instruments</i> (London, n.d.), pp. 60-61.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Thermometers and Hygrometers
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Weather Bureau
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.314560
label: accession number
content: 204612
label: catalog number
content: 314560
objectType: label: Object Name
content: thermometer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: thermometer: 13 1/2 in; 34.29 cm
label: Measurements
content: jacket: 16 in; 40.64 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 16 1/2 in x 2 in; 41.91 cm x 5.08 cm