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!
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| The Allbutt clinical thermometer (photo sourced from http://www.ssplprints.com/) |
Since then, development has followed development, with the invention of the ear thermometer in 1964 by medical researcher Dr. Theodor H. Benzinger, invention of the liquid crystal thermometer by inventor Bob Parker in the 1970s, and invention of the electronic digital thermometer by a group of inventors from Hunstville, Alabama in 1970.
Increasingly throughout the 20th century, thermometers became essential and highly accurate devices used to analyse and control chemical reactions in fields as diverse as astrophysics, restaurant catering, and industrial manufacture.
Since the introduction of the International Temperature Scale in 1990 (ITS-90), many different thermometer designs have been required to cover the whole range of temperatures. These range from ‘absolute zero’, where all energy (expressed as heat) has been removed from a substance or atmosphere, to very hot temperatures – thermometers have been developed that can even measure the temperature of the surface of the sun (5526 degrees Celsius)!
Nowadays, many different types of thermometer exist, including the alcohol thermometer, the mercury thermometer, the medical thermometer, the reversing thermometer, the maximum minimum thermometer, the thermistor, the thermocouple, the coulomb blockade thermometer, the Beckmann differential thermometer, the bi-metal mechanical thermometer, the silicon bandgap temperature sensor, and the liquid crystal thermometer.
However, the most common in general manufacturing purposes remains the electronic thermometer, which uses tiny microchips to pick up and to measure information on temperature. This is safer than mercury thermometers, as mercury is harmful to humans. Electronic thermometers are also much more precise, reliable and much quicker than traditional thermometers.
For manufacturing purposes, when delicate processes are taking place which need to be controlled, it is important to be able to rely on an accurate thermometer. Equally, in food manufacture and catering, harmful bacteria can thrive and multiply on food that is kept at too high a temperature, or on food that is cooked at too low a temperature.
Next in this series of posts, learn about the most widely used modern thermometer; the thermocouple.
