Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit was a German scientist that
was known for the creation of the alcohol thermometer and the mercury
thermometer. He was born on May 24, 1686 in Danzig, Poland(Gdansk).
Gabriel came from a family of three sisters and one brother. His father
was a very wealthy merchant, and his mother was the daughter of a Danzig
wholesaler. The names of his parents were unknown, they both died while
he was only fifteen years old after eating poisonous mushrooms.
After the sudden death of his parents, Fahrenheit left home with no
formal education and began to travel across Europe. He spent several
years in the Netherlands gaining knowledge from many different scientists
and instrument makers.
In 1709, Fahrenheit created the alcohol thermometer, and in 1714 he
created the mercury thermometer. Fahrenheit created a temperature scale
for his mercury thermometer, with this scale, he determined that the body
temperature of the human blood was ninety six degrees. Fahrenheit also
determined that the freezing point of water was thirty two degrees and it
boiled at two hundred and twelve degrees. He stated that these
temperatures could also very several degrees due to atmospheric
conditions. Although later study determined that the actual body
temperature was between ninety eight and ninety nine degrees. This scale
he used is the same “Fahrenheit” scale that we use today.
In 1724, Fahrenheit was elected to the Royal Society of London, he also
contributed five papers to the “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society,” as well as inventing a pumping device to help drain the flooded
Dutch lowlands.
Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit died at the age of fifty in Hague on September
16,1736. |
