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 then be set for readings between the required temperatures. Beckmann thermometer A Beckmann thermometer is a device used to measure small differences of temperature, but not absolute temperature values. It was invented by Ernst Otto Beckmann (1853 – 1923), a German chemist, for his measurements of colligative properties in 1905. Today its use has largely been superseded by electronic thermometers. A Beckmann thermometer's length is usually 40 – 50 cm. The temperature scale typically covers about 5 °C and it is divided into hundredths of a degree. With a magnifier it is possible to estimate temperature changes to 0.001 °C.