Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit
Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit was born in 1686 in Danzig, Poland, and was
raised in Holland and England. After failing as a merchant, he
developed an interest in meteorology. Among his contributions were a
pumping device for draining the Dutch polders; a hygrometer, for
measuring atmospheric humidity; and a thermometer that used mercury
instead of alcohol.
Of course, a thermometer really does no good unless there are numbers
on it, so he developed a temperature scale, too. On his scale, 32
degrees is the freezing point of water, and 212 degrees is the boiling
point. This scale is called Fahrenheit. Later a Swede from Stockholm
would suggest a more logical scale, with a temperature range of 0-100.
His name was Anders Celsius.
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