Gabriel Daniel Fahenheit

Background

He was born in Gdańsk on May 14, 1686.

Education

Fahrenheit studied physics in the Netherlands, Germany, and England.

Career

Gabriel Daniel returned to Amsterdam, where he became a maker of meteorological instruments. Although this had been suggested by the Frenchman Ismael Boulliau in 1659, difficulties in construction had prevented its adoption at that time.

Fahrenheit also developed an improved barometer and hygrometer.

Among his discoveries were that the boiling point of a liquid varies with atmospheric pressure and that water could be cooled below its freezing point without solidifying.

In devising a scale for his thermometer, Fahrenheit chose the coldest temperature obtainable with a water-ice-salt mixture as his zero point.

He first divided the interval between these into 12 equal parts, and later as a measure of convenience 96 equal parts, or degrees.

The Fahrenheit scale was formerly used in most English-speaking countries; in most of those countries it is being replaced by the Celsius (centigrade) scale.

Achievements

• A pioneer of exact thermometry, he helped lay the foundations for the era of precision thermometry by inventing the mercury-in-glass thermometer (first practical, accurate thermometer) and Fahrenheit scale

Works

More photos

• book

  • Abhandlungen über Thermometrie,: von Fahrenheit, Réaumur, Celsius, (1724, 1730-1733, 1742) (German Edition)

    (Abhandlungen über Thermometrie, - von Fahrenheit, Réaumur...)

  • Fahrenheit's letters to Leibniz and Boerhaave (Nieuwe Nederlandse bijdragen tot de geschiedenis der geneeskunde en der natuurwetenschappen)

References

• Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (Indonesian Edition)