The word thermometer is derived from two Greeks words, “thermo” meaning “heat” and “meter” which means “to measure”. A thermometer operates with the help of a temperature sensor. In a traditional thermometer the sensor is a mercury bulb. This sensor gauges the temperature and displays it using a scale thermometer.
There is a theory that suggests the thermometer originated in Alexandria when Philo and Hero began a series of initial experiments. In the 1500s the thermoscope was developed. A thermoscope could only show that the temperature was higher or lower than the previous reading but could not show the specific amount the temperature had changed. The modern thermometer came into existence about two hundred years later.
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit created the modern scale to measure temperature which is named after him and used on a thermometer. A few years later, Anders Celsius created another scale to measure temperature. In the initial Celsius scale, zero degrees was the boiling point of water and 100 degrees was its melting point. The modern Celsius scale adopted Anders’ theory but turned it around so in fact zero degrees is the melting point of water and 100 degrees Celsius the boiling point. Lord Kelvin of Scotland proposed a further alternative known as the absolute temperature scale, in which zero degrees is the lowest possible temperature.
Perhaps the most commonly used thermometer is the clinical thermometer used to measure body temperature. A clinical thermometer comes in different forms. It can be mercury based or have digital figures displaying the temperature. Clinical thermometers are widely used to measure body temperature and ideally it is good to have one at home in case of an unforeseen illness.
However, there are many other types of thermometers, including infra red thermometers, liquid crystal thermometers, reversing thermometers and Six’s thermometer. There are also thermometers to measure the temperature of meat and rectal thermometers which are primarily used on animals and small babies.
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