Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit

Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736) was a German physicist who worked in the Netherlands. He became known for the precise instruments he made. The degree Fahrenheit is named after him. He was the first to be able to determine the temperature with precision. His thermometers used Ethyl alcohol at first. When he read an article by Guillaume Amontons about using mercury in barometers, he got the idea of using that substance for his thermometers. 

Low Temperature.  

He calibrated his mercury thermometers to a cold temperature he could produce easily, the freezing point of salt water.English translation of the originally Latin text written by Fahrenheit  This was set at zero degrees on the Fahrenheit scale  

In 1724 he discovered that water can be supercooled below its freezing point without turning into ice. 

Higher Temperature

Human blood temperature was set at 100 degrees Fahrenheit  (but as later research showed it was slightly lower at about 98.4 F)

Fahrenheit also developed a hydrometer, a pycnometer and a hypsobarometer
 References 

Category:German physicists
Category:1686 births
Category:1736 deaths