Thermometer history

The use of mercury for extracting precious metals by amalgamation has a long history and was extensively used by Spain in the sixteenth century when her fleet carried mercury from Almaden to Mexico and returned with silver. However, environmental concerns have resulted in falling demand and excess production capacity. It is still used in the extraction of gold and in the Castner-Kellner process for manufacturing chlorine and NaOH (p. 72), and a further major use is in the manufacture of batteries. It is also used in street lamps and AC rectifiers, while its small-scale use in thermometers, barometers and gauges of different kinds, are familiar in many laboratories. 

Storage chambers should be validated with respect to their ability to maintain the desired conditions, and, if so equipped, the ability to sound an alarm if a mechanical or electrical failure causes the temperature to deviate from preestabilished limits. They should also be equipped with recording devices, which will provide a continuous and permanent history of their operation. Logbooks should be maintained and frequent readings or mercury-in-glass, National Institute of Science and Technology traceable thermometers recorded. 

Early bolometers used, as thermometers, thermopiles, based on the thermoelectric effect (see Section 9.4) or Golay cells in which the heat absorbed in a thin metal film is transferred to a small volume of gas the resulting pressure increase moves a mirror in an optical amplifier. A historical review of the development of radiation detectors until 1994 can be found in ref. [59,60], The modern history of infrared bolometers starts with the introduction of the carbon resistor, as both bolometer sensor and absorber, by Boyle and Rogers [12], The device had a number of advantages over the Golay cell such as low cost, simplicity and relatively low heat capacity at low temperatures. 

A History of the Thermometer and Its Use in Meteorology, by W.E. Knowles Middleton, The John Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1966. Good historical background on the development of temperature reading. 

Jan Golinski, Fit Instruments Thermometers in Eighteenth-Century Chemistry, in Instruments and Experimentation in the History of Chemistry, ed. F. Holmes and T Levere (MH Press, 2000), 201-206. 

There is some information on the subcutaneous injection of metallic mercury. Schwarz et al. (1996) describe a case history of a female nurse who accidentally plunged a mercury thermometer into her left... 

A discussion of the present standards of temperature measurement is preceded by a discussion of the history of thermometry. The goal of Sanctorius, the first person to perceive the potential usefulness of the thermometer in medicine, has not changed in principle since the early seventeenth century. He hoped to obtain quantitative measurements rather than subjective appraisals. For us, this should be a caution not to ignore careful temperature measurements as we study complex reactions. 

Middleton, W. E. K. (1966), The History of the Thermometer, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Md. 

IV. Diagnosis is based on a history of use and the presence of signs of sympathetic stimulation. Diagnosis of hyperthermia requires a high level of suspicion and use of a thermometer that accurately measures core temperature (rectal, tympanic membrane, or esophageal probe),... 

The encyclopedias, such as Americana, Britannica, Coilier sf Chamber sf and the German Brockhaus are generally strong on the subject of matches, especially the historical aspect, but sketchy on other branches of pyrotechnics. Nevertheless, they often make informative reading on side issues such as the history of the thermometer scales devised by Celsius, Reaumur, and Fahrenheit, the principles of optics, the phlogiston theory, etc. 

---