Minimum Thermometer
date: label: date made
content: 1870-1879
notes: label: Description
content: Alcohol-in-glass Rutherford-type thermometer mounted on a flat brass plate marked "NO. 1483 SIGNAL SERVICE U.S.A." and "JAS. GREEN NEW YORK." A white porcelain strip on the plate is graduated every 5 degrees Fahrenheit from -35 to+115. The bulb is spherical. The stem is marked "U.S. 1483" and graduated (but not numbered) every degree Fahrenheit from -35 to +122. It was made between 1870 (when the U.S. Signal Service established a national weather service) and 1879 (when James Green took his nephew into partnership and began trading as J. & H. J. Green).
label: Description
content: John Rutherford, a Scottish country doctor, devised this form in 1790. Green stated in 1900 that it was "the only one in general use." It has a black index inside the tube. "On a decrease of temperature the alcohol recedes, taking with it the glass index; on an increase of temperature the alcohol alone ascends the tube, leaving the end of the index farthest from the bulb indicating the minimum temperature."
label: Description
content: Ref.: Henry J. Green, <i>Meteorological and Scientific Instruments</i> (Brooklyn, 1900), p. 23.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
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: U.S. Weather Bureau
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.317465
label: accession number
content: 230396
label: catalog number
content: 317465
objectType: label: Object Name
content: thermometer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: plate: 12 in; 30.48 cm
label: Measurements
content: tube: 10 1/2 in; 26.67 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in x 15/16 in x 7/16 in; 30.48 cm x 2.38125 cm x 1.11125 cm