Uploaded December 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The Galilean Thermometer uses the movement of glass balls of differing densities inside a fluid column to measure temperature. Despite its name, however, this instrument was not invented by Galileo Galilei but rather a group of his former students decades after his deaths. Nor was it widely used after its creation, only being resurrected as a museum gift shop product in the 1990s.
SOURCES:
rmets.org/metmatters/where-did-galileo-thermometer-get-its-name
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ed200793g
time.com/6053214/thermometer-history
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A24159.0001.001/1:7.5?rgn=div2;view=fulltext
The Galilean Thermometer uses the movement of glass balls of differing densities inside a fluid column to measure temperature. Despite its name, however, this instrument was not invented by Galileo Galilei but rather a group of his former students decades after his deaths. Nor was it widely used after its creation, only being resurrected as a museum gift shop product in the 1990s.
SOURCES:
rmets.org/metmatters/where-did-galileo-thermometer-get-its-name
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ed200793g
time.com/6053214/thermometer-history
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A24159.0001.001/1:7.5?rgn=div2;view=fulltext
