The history of temperature stretches back for thousands of years. Temperature has always been an important and essential part of daily life and society, ever since bakers and blacksmiths relied on temperature to control chemical reactions.
Nowadays, temperature is better understood than ever, and a wide range of temperature-measuring equipment – thermoscopes, thermocouples and many types of thermometer – is necessary to measure and to help control it.
This blog series hopes to open your eyes about the history of temperature measurement, from the ancient through to the modern day. Enjoy!
The first known writers on temperature and its measurement were Philo of Byzantium and Heron of Alexandria. Both of these men wrote in Ancient Greek, and the word ‘thermometer’ comes from the Ancient Greek words ‘thermo,’ meaning ‘heat’, and ‘meter,’ meaning ‘to measure’; therefore the word ‘thermometer’ literally means ‘to measure heat.’
Philo (ca. 200BC) was a Greek engineer who conducted an early experiment on the expansion of air with heat. He created a device which has been called the first thermometer, now known as the Philo thermometer. A tube connected to a hollow sphere was extended over a jug of water. Philo noticed that if the sphere was in the sun, bubbles were released in the jug as air expanded out of the sphere, whereas when the device was placed in the shade, the air contracted with the cooler temperature and the water rose up the tube again.
Philo was a big influence on Heron of Alexandria (10 – 70 A.D.), an Ancient Greek mathematician and engineer, who wrote about temperature and drew up plans for a basic thermometer for use in medicine.
However, neither of these writers worked on or developed their designs for thermometers. The invention and creation of the first working thermometer has been credited variously to Abu Ali Ibn Sina (known as Avicennna in the Western world), Cornelius Drebbel, Robert Fludd, Galileo Galilei, and Santorio Santorio.
Abu Ali Ibn Sina (980 – 1037 A.D.) was a Persian polymath, physician and Islamic philosopher, who created a simple thermometer to test the temperature of air.
Cornelius Drebbel (1572 – 1633 A.D.) was a Dutch engineer and inventor of the submarine. Interestingly, Drebbel discovered carmine dye when one of his thermometers, which used coloured liquid, broke on a windowsill and he noticed that the dye grew more intense in colour when exposed to the sun.
Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642), the famous Tuscan physician, mathematician and astronomer, came up with a device for registering temperature change at the height of the Scientific Revolution. He also noticed the principle behind the device known today as ‘Galileo’s thermometer’ - that is, that glass spheres filled with aqueous alcohol of slightly different densities would rise and fall.
However, none of these early designs were true thermometers. They were in fact thermoscopes rather than thermometers, as the absence of a scale meant that they only registered changes in temperature rather than measuring it. A true thermometer must include a temperature sensor - where physical change occurs with changes in temperature - and a means of converting that physical change into a readable value.
The next blog post in this series will expand on the invention of the first true thermometer, and how universal temperature scales came into being.
Nowadays, temperature is better understood than ever, and a wide range of temperature-measuring equipment – thermoscopes, thermocouples and many types of thermometer – is necessary to measure and to help control it.
This blog series hopes to open your eyes about the history of temperature measurement, from the ancient through to the modern day. Enjoy!
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| The ancient Philo Thermometer (Photo sourced from http://collectionsonline.nmsi.ac.uk) |
The first known writers on temperature and its measurement were Philo of Byzantium and Heron of Alexandria. Both of these men wrote in Ancient Greek, and the word ‘thermometer’ comes from the Ancient Greek words ‘thermo,’ meaning ‘heat’, and ‘meter,’ meaning ‘to measure’; therefore the word ‘thermometer’ literally means ‘to measure heat.’
Philo (ca. 200BC) was a Greek engineer who conducted an early experiment on the expansion of air with heat. He created a device which has been called the first thermometer, now known as the Philo thermometer. A tube connected to a hollow sphere was extended over a jug of water. Philo noticed that if the sphere was in the sun, bubbles were released in the jug as air expanded out of the sphere, whereas when the device was placed in the shade, the air contracted with the cooler temperature and the water rose up the tube again.
Philo was a big influence on Heron of Alexandria (10 – 70 A.D.), an Ancient Greek mathematician and engineer, who wrote about temperature and drew up plans for a basic thermometer for use in medicine.
However, neither of these writers worked on or developed their designs for thermometers. The invention and creation of the first working thermometer has been credited variously to Abu Ali Ibn Sina (known as Avicennna in the Western world), Cornelius Drebbel, Robert Fludd, Galileo Galilei, and Santorio Santorio.
Abu Ali Ibn Sina (980 – 1037 A.D.) was a Persian polymath, physician and Islamic philosopher, who created a simple thermometer to test the temperature of air.
Cornelius Drebbel (1572 – 1633 A.D.) was a Dutch engineer and inventor of the submarine. Interestingly, Drebbel discovered carmine dye when one of his thermometers, which used coloured liquid, broke on a windowsill and he noticed that the dye grew more intense in colour when exposed to the sun.
Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642), the famous Tuscan physician, mathematician and astronomer, came up with a device for registering temperature change at the height of the Scientific Revolution. He also noticed the principle behind the device known today as ‘Galileo’s thermometer’ - that is, that glass spheres filled with aqueous alcohol of slightly different densities would rise and fall.
However, none of these early designs were true thermometers. They were in fact thermoscopes rather than thermometers, as the absence of a scale meant that they only registered changes in temperature rather than measuring it. A true thermometer must include a temperature sensor - where physical change occurs with changes in temperature - and a means of converting that physical change into a readable value.
The next blog post in this series will expand on the invention of the first true thermometer, and how universal temperature scales came into being.
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