Hypsometer
notes: label: Description
content: Scientists had long understood that the boiling point of water varies with elevation. An adventurous Swiss named Jean-André De Luc tested this idea in the 1760s. An Englishman named Francis Hyde Wollaston designed a thermometer for this purpose in 1817. A Frenchman named Victor Regnault introduced a more sophisticated instrument in the 1840s, coined the term hypsometer, and worked out the calculations for its use. This unsigned example came from the Smithsonian Instrument Room, and may have been acquired by Joseph Henry, the physicist who served as founding Secretary of the Institution.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.311771
label: catalog number
content: 311771
label: accession number
content: 152769
objectType: label: Object Name
content: hypsometer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 5/8 in x 1 7/8 in; 26.9875 cm x 4.7625 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 1/2 in x 1 7/8 in; 26.67 cm x 4.7625 cm