Mercury-in-glass thermometer related to the rapid cooling (and contraction) of the glass. When Celsius decided to use his own temperature scale, he originally defined his scale "upside-down", i.e. he chose to set the boiling point of pure water at 0 °C (212 °F) and the freezing point at -100 °C (-32 °F). One year later, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Christin proposed to invert the scale with the freezing point at and the boiling point at . He named it Centigrade (100 grades). Finally, Celsius proposed a method of calibrating a thermometer: These points are adequate for approximate calibration but both vary with atmospheric pressure.
Beckmann thermometer (R on diagram) at the upper end of the tube, by means of which the quantity of mercury in the bulb can be increased or diminished so that the instrument can be set to measure temperature differences at either high or low temperature values. In contrast, the range of a typical mercury-in-glass thermometer is fixed, being set by the calibration marks etched on the glass or the marks on the printed scale. In setting the thermometer, a sufficient amount of mercury must be left in the bulb and stem to give readings between the required temperatures. First, the thermometer is