Maximum Thermometer
date: label: date made
content: 1860-1897
name: label: maker
content: L. P. Casella
notes: label: Description
content: Phillips-type mercury-in-glass thermometer attached to a white porcelain plate on a wooden board that is designed to be hung horizontally. The plate is marked "MAXIMUM" and "L. CASELLA, Maker to the Admiralty & Ordnance, LONDON" and "12975" and is graduated every 5 degrees F. from -25 to +130. The thermometer has a spherical bulb; the back of the stem is milk white; the front of the stem is marked "12975" and is graduated (but not numbered) every degree (presumably Fahrenheit) from -26 to +130. Casella trade literature notes that this thermometer was designed "for registration of temperature in shade," that the thermometer was "engine divided on the stem," and that the "improved" porcelain plate "effectively resisted "frost and all effects of weather."
label: Description
content: As in the form described in 1832 by John Phillips, a British geologist, this thermometer has a small air bubble near the top of the mercury column. As the temperature rises, the detached bit of the mercury is pushed up; and this bit remains in place when the temperature falls.
label: Description
content: This example was owned by John William Draper or one of his sons, all of whom were accomplished men of science.
label: Description
content: Ref: D. J. Warner, "Casella and Phillips' Maximum Thermometers for Meteorology and Medicine," <i>Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society</i> 115 (2012): 36-38.
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
label: See more items in
content: Thermometers and Hygrometers
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: John William Christopher Draper and James Christopher Draper
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.334276
label: accession number
content: 304826
label: catalog number
content: 334276
objectType: label: Object Name
content: maximum thermometer
label: Object Name
content: thermometer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 14 in; 35.56 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 in x 14 1/8 in x 1 1/2 in; 7.62 cm x 35.8775 cm x 3.81 cm