Alcohol thermometer Duke of Tuscany, who in 1654 made sealed tubes partly filled with alcohol or urine, with a bulb and stem, depending on the expansion of a liquid, and independent of air pressure. Other sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica, credit German scientist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit with inventing the alcohol thermometer in 1709. Fahrenheit was a skilled glassblower and his alcohol thermometer was the world's first reliable thermometer. Alcohol thermometer The alcohol thermometer or spirit thermometer is an alternative to the mercury-in-glass thermometer and has similar functions. Unlike the mercury-in-glass thermometer, the contents of an alcohol thermometer are less toxic and will
Beckmann thermometer inverted and gently tapped so that the mercury in the reservoir lodges in the bend (B) at the end of the stem. Next, the bulb is heated until the mercury in the stem joins the mercury in the reservoir. The thermometer is then placed in a bath one or two degrees above the upper limit of temperatures to be measured. The upper end of the tube is gently tapped with the finger, and the mercury suspended in the upper part of the reservoir will be jarred down, thus separating it from the thread at the bend (B). The thermometer will