Gabriel Fahrenheit

Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit) (Danzig (Gdansk), May 24, 1686 – September 16, 1736 in The Hague, Netherlands) was a German physicist and engineer who worked most of his life in the Netherlands. The °F Fahrenheit scale of temperature is named after him. This was used long before the Celsius scale.

Biography

Fahrenheit was born in the Hanseatic city of Danzig where the German-speaking Fahrenheit family had moved to in 1650, an era in which the town was associated to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was the son of merchant Daniel Fahrenheit and Concordia Fahrenheit (widowed name, Runge), daughter of the well-known Danzig business family of Schumann. Daniel was the eldest of the five Fahrenheit children who survived childhood (two sons, three daughters). Daniel's grandfather Reinhold Fahrenheit vom Kneiphof had moved to Danzig from Königsberg and settled as a merchant. Research suggests that the Fahrenheit family originated in Hildesheim, although they lived in Rostock before moving to Königsberg.Horst Kant, G.D. Fahrenheit / R.-A.F. de Réaumur / A. Celsius, 1984.

Upon the accidental early death of his parents, probably caused by consumption of poisonous mushrooms, Gabriel had to take up business training, as a merchant in Amsterdam. However, his interest in natural sciences caused him to take up studies and experimentation in that field, and after travelling around, he settled 1717 in The Hague with the trade of glassblowing, making barometer, altimeter and thermometer. From 1718 onwards, he gave lectures in chemistry in Amsterdam, and became a member of the Royal Society in 1724.

Fahrenheit scale

Fahrenheit developed precise thermometers. The Fahrenheit scale was widely used in Europe until the switch to the Celsius scale. It is still used for everyday temperature measurements by the general population in the United States and Jamaica.

He filled his first thermometers with alcohol before using mercury, which gave better results. The coldest temperature attainable under laboratory conditions at that time, using a mixture of water, salt and ice, was defined by him as 0°F. The body temperature of a healthy horse was defined as 100°F.

References

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Biography

Fahrenheit scale

References