Meteorological instrumentation rain gauge. In 1714, Gabriel Fahrenheit creates a reliable scale for measuring temperature with a mercury-type thermometer. In 1742, Anders Celsius, a Swedish astronomer, proposed the 'centigrade' temperature scale, the predecessor of the current Celsius scale. In 1783, the first hair hygrometer is demonstrated by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure. In 1806, Francis Beaufort introduced his system for classifying wind speeds. The April 1960 launch of the first successful weather satellite, TIROS-1, marked the beginning of the age where weather information became available globally. This was also used to measure the temperature of the surrounding air. A thermometer measures air temperature, or
Christian Mayer (astronomer) of mathematics and physics at Heidelberg. By this age, however, he had developed a strong interest in astronomy. He was appointed Court Astronomer at Mannheim, and was tasked with selecting the instruments for the new observatories at Schwetzingen and Mannheim. With these completed, he was able to pursue his astronomical studies, and published numerous works. In 1769 he was invited to St. Petersburg to observe the transit of Venus, which he did together with Anders Johan Lexell. In 1773, the Jesuit order was dissolved by Pope Clement XIV, and consequently he was removed as Court Astronomer. However he was still