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Secondary sourceNewspaper articleMarch 1898

The First Thermometers

M. P. Duhem · March 1898

A 1898 Popular Science Monthly article tracing the history of thermometers, naming Fahrenheit among the inventors.

Places Fahrenheit within a broader history of thermometer development alongside other inventors.

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About this source

What it is

This is an article titled "The First Thermometers" by M. P. Duhem, published in Popular Science Monthly in March 1898. It traces the early history of temperature-measuring instruments.

Why it matters

The article discusses earlier inventors such as Drebbel and mentions that around 1714 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, a skilled instrument-maker from Dantsic, supplied chemists with alcohol thermometers before later improving them. It places Fahrenheit within a wider story of experimentation by many scientists and craftsmen working on measuring heat and cold.

Look closer

  • Why does the author trace the thermometer's history through several different inventors rather than crediting one person?
  • What does this article suggest about how scientific instruments develop over time?
  • How does this account's view of Fahrenheit compare with encyclopedia entries written about him alone?

This newspaper article is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Daniel Fahrenheit on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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