- Subject
- Thermometers
- Item type
- Object
- Provenance
- Purchase.
- Primary inscriptions
- Engraved title at top "Thermometre". Engraved in mirror reverse under the bulb ".f .M .A", ie "A.M.f." (A.M. fecit).
- Object type
- Thermometer
- Inventory No
- 29533
- Accession Number
- 1966-41
Description
Mercury in glass with scales marked Christin (Jean-Pierre Christin's 1743 centigrade scale) and Reaumur, in case.
The Reaumur scale is graduated -10 to 90. Despite being titled in French form Thermometre the named temperatures on the Reaumur scale are all in English: Freeing [sic] 0, Temperate 10, Sumr Heat 19, Bath Heat 26, Blood Heat 29, Eggs Hatch 32, Fever Heat 35, Syria 50 (= nearly 63°C!), Spirits Boils 64, Water Boils 80. The lines marking the named temperatures are more weakly engraved than the divisions of the scales themselves and the lines and names may represent a later English addition to an originally French instrument (since it seems most likely that a Christin scale would have appeared on a French instrument).
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