When were thermostats invented?
Timeline of United States inventions (before 1890)
A thermostat is a device for regulating the temperature of a system so that the system's temperature is maintained near a desired setpoint temperature. The thermostat does this by switching heating or cooling devices on or off, or regulating the flow of a heat transfer fluid as needed, to maintain the correct temperature. The thermostat was invented in 1883 by Warren S. Johnson.
List of Dutch inventions and innovations
Various authors have credited the invention of the thermometer to Cornelis Drebbel, Robert Fludd, Galileo Galilei or Santorio Santorio. The thermometer was not a single invention, however, but a development. However, each inventor and each thermometer was unique – there was no standard scale. In 1665 Christiaan Huygens suggested using the melting and boiling points of water as standards, and in 1694 Carlo Renaldini proposed using them as fixed points on a universal scale. In 1701 Isaac Newton proposed a scale of 12 degrees between the melting point of ice and body temperature. Finally in 1724 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit produced a temperature scale which now (slightly adjusted) bears his name. He could do this because he manufactured thermometers, using mercury (which has a high coefficient of expansion) for the first time and the quality of his production could provide a finer scale and greater reproducibility, leading to its general adoption. The Fahrenheit scale was the first widely used temperature scale. By the end of the 20th century, most countries used the Celsius scale rather than the Fahrenheit scale, though Canada retained it as a supplementary scale used alongside Celsius. Fahrenheit remains the official scale for Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Belize, the Bahamas, Palau and the United States and associated territories.
Roasting jack
A steam-powered roasting jack was first described by the Ottoman polymath and engineer Taqi al-Din in his "Al-Turuq al-samiyya fi al-alat al-ruhaniyya" ("The Sublime Methods of Spiritual Machines"), in 1551. A steam-powered turnspit was also briefly mentioned by John Wilkins in his book "Mathematical Magick" (1648). A steam-driven jack was patented by the American clockmaker John Bailey II in 1792, and steam jacks were later commercially available in the United States.
Thermoscope
It is possible that Francesco Sagredo or Santorio may have added some kind of scales to thermoscopes, and Robert Fludd may have accomplished something similar in 1638. In 1701 Ole Christensen Rømer effectively invented the thermometer by adding a temperature scale (see Rømer scale) to the thermoscope.
History of electromagnetic theory
In 1822 Johann Schweigger devised the first galvanometer. This instrument was subsequently much improved by Wilhelm Weber (1833). In 1825 William Sturgeon of Woolwich, England, invented the horseshoe and straight bar electromagnet, receiving therefor the silver medal of the Society of Arts. In 1837 Carl Friedrich Gauss and Weber (both noted workers of this period) jointly invented a reflecting galvanometer for telegraph purposes. This was the forerunner of the Thomson reflecting and other exceedingly sensitive galvanometers once used in submarine signaling and still widely employed in electrical measurements. Arago in 1824 made the important discovery that when a copper disc is rotated in its own plane, and if a magnetic needle be freely suspended on a pivot over the disc, the needle will rotate with the disc. If on the other hand the needle is fixed it will tend to retard the motion of the disc. This effect was termed Arago's rotations.
Futile attempts were made by Charles Babbage, Peter Barlow, John Herschel and others to explain this phenomenon. The true explanation was reserved for Faraday, namely, that electric currents are induced in the copper disc by the cutting of the magnetic lines of force of the needle, which currents in turn react on the needle. Georg Simon Ohm did his work on resistance in the years 1825 and 1826, and published his results in 1827 as the book "Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet".
He drew considerable inspiration from Fourier's work on heat conduction in the theoretical explanation of his work. For experiments, he initially used voltaic piles, but later used a thermocouple as this provided a more stable voltage source in terms of internal resistance and constant potential difference. He used a galvanometer to measure current, and knew that the voltage between the thermocouple terminals was proportional to the junction temperature. He then added test wires of varying length, diameter, and material to complete the circuit. He found that his data could be modeled through a simple equation with variable composed of the reading from a galvanometer, the length of the test conductor, thermocouple junction temperature, and a constant of the entire setup. From this, Ohm determined his law of proportionality and published his results. In 1827, he announced the now famous law that bears his name, that is:
Electromotive force = Current × Resistance
Ohm brought into order a host of puzzling facts connecting electromotive force and electric current in conductors, which all previous electricians had only succeeded in loosely binding together qualitatively under some rather vague statements. Ohm found that the results could be summed up in such a simple law and by Ohm's discovery a large part of the domain of electricity became annexed to theory.
Liquid crystal thermometer
The Liquid crystal thermometer was invented by Bob Parker in California, one of many of the inventor's thermochromic applications patented in the 1970s.
History of geophysics
The thermoscope, or Galileo thermometer, was constructed by Galileo Galilei in 1607. In 1643, Evangelista Torricelli invented the mercury barometer. Blaise Pascal (in 1648) rediscovered that atmospheric pressure decreases with height, and deduced that there is a vacuum above the atmosphere.
Galileo thermometer
Although named after the 16th–17th-century physicist Galileo, the thermometer described in this article was not invented by him. Galileo did invent a thermometer, called Galileo's air thermometer (more accurately termed a thermoscope), in or before 1603. The so-called 'Galileo thermometer' was invented by a group of academics and technicians known as the Accademia del Cimento of Florence, who included Galileo's pupil, Torricelli and Torricelli's pupil Viviani. Details of the thermometer were published in the "Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell'Academia del Cimento sotto la protezione del Serenissimo Principe Leopoldo di Toscana e descritte dal segretario di essa Accademia" (1666), the Academy's main publication. The English translation of this work (1684) describes the device ('The Fifth Thermometer') as 'slow and lazy', a description that is reflected in an alternative Italian name for the invention, the "termometro lento" (slow thermometer). The outer vessel was filled with 'rectified spirits of wine' (a concentrated solution of ethanol in water); the weights of the glass bubbles were adjusted by grinding a small amount of glass from the sealed end; and a small air space was left at the top of the main vessel to allow 'for the Liquor to rarefie' [i.e. expand].
Thermometer
The first clear diagram of a thermoscope was published in 1617 by Giuseppe Biancani (1566 – 1624): the first showing a scale and thus constituting a thermometer was by Robert Fludd in 1638. This was a vertical tube, closed by a bulb of air at the top, with the lower end opening into a vessel of water. The water level in the tube is controlled by the expansion and contraction of the air, so it is what we would now call an air thermometer.
History of thermodynamics
The European scientists Cornelius Drebbel, Robert Fludd, Galileo Galilei and Santorio Santorio in the 16th and 17th centuries were able to gauge the relative "coldness" or "hotness" of air, using a rudimentary air thermometer (or thermoscope). This may have been influenced by an earlier device which could expand and contract the air constructed by Philo of Byzantium and Hero of Alexandria.
Kitchen stove
The modern kitchen range was invented by Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford in the 1790s. As an active scientist and prolific inventor, he put the study of heat onto a scientific basis and developed improvements for chimneys, fireplaces and industrial furnaces, which led to his invention of the kitchen range.
His Rumford fireplace created a sensation in London when he introduced the idea of restricting the chimney opening to increase the updraught. This was a much more efficient way to heat a room than earlier fireplaces. He and his workers modified fireplaces by inserting bricks into the hearth to make the side walls angled, and added a choke to the chimney to increase the speed of air going up the flue. The effect was to produce a streamlined air flow, so all the smoke would go up into the chimney rather than lingering and entering the room. It also had the effect of increasing the efficiency of the fire, and gave extra control of the rate of combustion of the fuel, whether wood or coal. Many fashionable London houses were modified to his instructions, and became free of smoke.
Clinostat
The clinostat was invented in 1879 by Julius von Sachs, who built a clockwork-powered machine. However a similar concept had been pioneered as early as 1703 by Denis Dodart. The first electric-powered clinostat (1897) was made by Newcombe.
Cell culture (Class 435/297.400)
Weather Eye
In 1939, Nash added a thermostat to its system, making it the first thermostatic automobile climate control system. The Weather Eye "was the first truly good heating and ventilating system." Additionally, defoggers (defrosters) were incorporated with the introduction of the 3900 series cars that year. The Nash HVAC system was designed by Nils Eric Wahlberg and it continues to be the basis for use in modern automobiles. Nash included the first automatic temperature control for the airside of the heating system with the thermostat sensing the temperatures of the incoming outside air, the heater's discharge, and interior of the car; so that a change in any of these three air temperatures resulted an automatic adjustment to maintain passenger comfort. Nash's Conditioned Air System heater was now marketed as the "Weather Eye" and consumer sales literature explained that the thermostat's "mechanical eye" watched the weather, hence the name.
Thermostat
Thermostats are sometimes used to regulate gas ovens. It consists of a gas-filled bulb connected to the control unit by a slender copper tube. The bulb is normally located at the top of the oven. The tube ends in a chamber sealed by a diaphragm. As the thermostat heats up, the gas expands applying pressure to the diaphragm which reduces the flow of gas to the burner.
Thermostat
Water and steam based central heating systems have traditionally had overall control by wall-mounted bi-metallic strip thermostats. These sense the air temperature using the differential expansion of two metals to actuate an on/off switch. Typically the central system would be switched on when the temperature drops below the setpoint on the thermostat, and switched off when it rises above, with a few degrees of hysteresis to prevent excessive switching. Bi-metallic sensing is now being superseded by electronic sensors. A principal use of the bi-metallic thermostat today is in individual electric convection heaters, where control is on/off, based on the local air temperature and the setpoint desired by the user. These are also used on air-conditioners, where local control is required.
Calorimetry
Thermodynamics developed gradually over the first half of the nineteenth century, building on the above theory of calorimetry which had been worked out before it, and on other discoveries. According to Gislason and Craig (2005): "Most thermodynamic data come from calorimetry..." According to Kondepudi (2008): "Calorimetry is widely used in present day laboratories."
Cesare Marsili
The letters also provide insight into otherwise unknown experiments. In April 1626, after learning from Marsili that "a certain engineer" in Bologna had built a device that imitated the motion of the tides, Galileo responded that he had made a similar machine himself twenty years previously, but that it had not been for studying the tides. Galileo's accounts indicate that he had a clear idea of the principles of the thermometer by around 1606-08, so the claim to have invented it properly belong to him. In another letter of 7 July 1626, Marsili reported that a Bolognese artisan had succeeded in manufacturing a mirror that could produce the effects of a telescope, but that it had not yet been possible for him to verify its working. As the correspondence continued, it was clear that Marsili and Galileo were developing the concept of the reflecting telescope, an idea that was to be developed by Cavalieri.
Smart thermostat
Since the release of smart thermostats, a number of third party studies have been conducted to determine if smart thermostats actually save energy and how they compare to manual and programmable thermostats with regards to savings. One study conducted an experiment in which 300 standard programmable thermostats were placed in homes and 300 Nest smart thermostats were placed in other homes. It is important to note that the homeowners involved in this study received proper training on how to properly use all of the thermostat functions. This effectively eliminated the issues regarding human error with programmable thermostats. All homes were located within one region of Indiana and had previously underwent home energy assessment. After 1 year of observation, the study concluded that Nest users reduced their heating gas consumption by 12.5% while users of a standard programmable thermostat reduced consumption by 5%. Additionally, it was concluded that Nest and standard programmable thermostat users reduced their cooling electric consumption by 13.9% and 13.1%, respectively. The major factors that allowed Nest to reduce consumption more than other thermostats was its ability to further reduce human error and set more efficient temperatures. The Nest thermostat used sensors and Wi-Fi connectivity to adjust the temperature on its own and provide more savings. This study helps to suggest that smart thermostats are in fact successful in reducing energy consumption. 
A similar study conducted in 2012 with the ecobee thermostat also concluded that smart thermostats are capable of saving energy. The goal of this pilot program was to determine the gas and electric savings of smart thermostats. This study provided 86 households with 123 ecobee thermostats and monitored the homes for 12 months. The study included 69 houses from Massachusetts and 17 from Rhode Island. The participants either had manual or programmable thermostats before the study was conducted. Gas and electric billing data were provided for 12 months before the study was conducted to use as a baseline. After the 12 months of observation, the study concluded that ecobee thermostats led to an average electricity savings of 16% and an average gas savings of 10%. The gas savings for manual thermostat replacements (10% per thermostat) was found to be larger than for programmable thermostat replacements (8% per thermostat). The difference in electricity savings between homes whose prior equipment was a manual thermostat or programmable thermostat was found to be minimal. 
Although these studies report differing amounts of savings compared to the internal studies conducted by Nest and ecobee, both of these studies show that smart thermostats have the potential to save energy. This suggests that the technologies added to fix the issues with programmable thermostats have been successful.
Cornelis Drebbel
Drebbel invented a chicken incubator and a mercury thermostat which automatically kept it stable at a constant temperature; one of the first recorded feedback-controlled devices. He also developed and demonstrated a working air conditioning system. The invention of a working thermometer is also credited to Drebbel.
Thermometer
Various authors have credited the invention of the thermometer to Hero of Alexandria. The thermometer was not a single invention, however, but a development.
Hero of Alexandria (10–70 AD) knew of the principle that certain substances, notably air, expand and contract and described a demonstration in which a closed tube partially filled with air had its end in a container of water. The expansion and contraction of the air caused the position of the water/air interface to move along the tube.
Irish Famine (1740–41)
Although no barometric or temperature readings for Ireland survive from the Great Frost, a scattered few records survive from Englishmen who made personal readings. The mercury thermometer was invented 25 years earlier by the German pioneer Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit. Indoor values during January 1740 were as low as . The one outdoor reading that has survived was stated as "thirty-two degrees of frost." This did not include the effects of the wind chill factor, which would have been severe. This kind of weather was "quite outside the Irish experience," notes David Dickson, author of "Arctic Ireland: The Extraordinary Story of the Great Frost and Forgotten Famine of 1740–41".
Smart thermostat
Another study conducted on the issue determined that the biggest problem for programmable thermostats was the human using it. The technology inside a programmable thermostat is no doubt one of the most important factors in determining whether or not the thermostat will be successful in saving energy. But an equally important factor is the human who is using the thermostat. Unfortunately, many people who own programmable thermostats do not know how to use the thermostat or are not using all of the features that are offered. One study conducted a number of interviews, surveys, and observations to determine that the vast majority of programmable thermostat owners are not using the thermostats for their intended purpose. An online survey showed that 89% of respondents do not use the schedule feature on their programmable thermostat. Other results from the interviews and surveys show that a large number of people have misconceptions about heating/cooling and the use of programmable thermostats. One misconceptions is people believing that heating all of the time is more efficient than scheduling the heat to turn off. Another misconception noted in the study is that turning down the thermostat does not substantially reduce energy consumption. These misconceptions reaffirm the idea that the programmable thermostat itself could have all of the necessary tools, but if the user does not use them or uses them incorrectly, then these thermostats will fail at saving energy.
Medical thermometer
The ear thermometer was invented by Dr. Theodor H. Benzinger in 1964. At the time, he was seeking a way to get a reading as close to the brain's temperature as possible, since the hypothalamus at the brain's base regulates the core body temperature. He accomplished this by using the ear canal's ear drum's blood vessels, which are shared with the hypothalamus. Before the ear thermometer's invention, easy temperature readings could only be taken from the mouth, rectum or underarm. Previously, if doctors wanted to record an accurate brain temperature, electrodes needed to be attached to the patient's hypothalamus.
Kitchen stove
The first patents date from the early 1900s. Demonstration stoves were shown by the Frigidaire division of General Motors in the mid-1950s on a touring GM showcase in North America. The induction cooker was shown heating a pot of water with a newspaper placed between the stove and the pot, to demonstrate the convenience and safety. This unit, however, was never put into production. Modern implementation in the USA dates from the early 1970s, with work done at the Research & Development Center of Westinghouse Electric Corporation at Churchill Borough, near Pittsburgh.
Nest Learning Thermostat
The Nest Learning Thermostat (or Nest Thermostat) is a smart thermostat developed by Nest Labs and designed by Tony Fadell, Ben Filson, and Fred Bould. It is an electronic, programmable, and self-learning Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat that optimizes heating and cooling of homes and businesses to conserve energy.
Timeline of United States inventions (before 1890)
1883 Thermostat
Smart thermostat
Smart thermostats are similar to programmable thermostats in the sense that they have a scheduling feature that allows users to set different temperatures for different times of the day. In addition to this feature, smart thermostats implement other technologies to reduce the amount of human error involved with using programmable thermostats. Smart thermostats incorporate the use of sensors that determine whether or not the home is occupied and can suspend heating or cooling until the occupant returns. Additionally, smart thermostats utilize Wi-Fi connectivity to give the user access to the thermostat at all times. These additional technologies have proven to make smart thermostats successful in saving users energy and money.
Thermostat
Purely mechanical thermostats are used to regulate dampers in some rooftop turbine vents, reducing building heat loss in cool or cold periods.
Bathythermograph
The true origins of the BT began in 1935 when Carl-Gustaf Rossby started experimenting. He then forwarded the development of the BT to his graduate student Athelstan Spilhaus, who then fully developed the BT in 1938 as a collaboration between MIT, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and the U.S. Navy. The device was modified during World War II to gather information on the varying temperature of the ocean for the U.S. Navy. Originally the slides were prepared "by rubbing a bit of skunk oil on with a finger and then wiping off with the soft side of one's hand,” followed by smoking the slide over the flame of a Bunsen burner. Later on the skunk oil was replace with an evaporated metal film.
History of thermodynamics
Suggestions that this might not be the case came from the new science of electricity in which it was easily apparent that some materials were good electrical conductors while others were effective insulators. Jan Ingen-Housz in 1785-9 made some of the earliest measurements, as did Benjamin Thompson during the same period.
Nest Labs
Nest Labs is an American manufacturer of smart home products including thermostats, smoke detectors, and security systems including smart doorbells and smart locks. Its flagship product, which was the company's first offering, is the Nest Learning Thermostat that was introduced in 2011. The product is programmable, self-learning, sensor-driven, and Wi-Fi-enabled – features that are often found in other Nest products. It was followed by the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector in October 2013. After its acquisition of Dropcam in 2014, the company introduced its Nest Cam branding of security cameras beginning in June 2015.
Thermographic camera
Infrared was discovered in 1800 by Sir William Herschel as a form of radiation beyond red light. These "infrared rays" (infra is the Latin prefix for "below") were used mainly for thermal measurement. There are four basic laws of IR radiation: Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation, Stefan-Boltzmann law, Planck’s law, and Wien’s displacement law. The development of detectors was mainly focused on the use of thermometer and bolometers until World War I. A significant step in the development of detectors occurred in 1829, when Leopoldo Nobili, using the Seebeck effect, created the first known thermocouple, fabricating an improved thermometer, a crude thermopile. He described this instrument to Macedonio Melloni. Initially, they jointly developed a greatly improved instrument. Subsequently, Melloni worked alone, developing an instrument in 1833 (a multielement thermopile) that could detect a person 10 meters away. The next significant step in improving detectors was the bolometer, invented in 1880 by Samuel Pierpont Langley. Langley and his assistant Charles Greeley Abbot continued to make improvements in this instrument. By 1901, it had the capability to detect radiation from a cow from 400 meters away, and was sensitive to differences in temperature of one hundred thousandths of a degree Celsius.
Thermostat
Domestic water and steam based central heating systems have traditionally been controlled by bi-metallic strip thermostats, and this is dealt with later in this article. Purely mechanical control has been localised steam or hot-water radiator bi-metallic thermostats which regulated the individual flow. However, thermostatic radiator valves (TRV) are now being widely used.
Honeywell
Although Mark Honeywell’s Heating Specialty Company was not established until 1906, today’s Honeywell traces its roots back to 1885 when the Swiss-born Albert Butz invented the "damper-flapper", a thermostat for coal furnaces, to automatically regulate heating systems. The following year he founded the Butz Thermo-Electric Regulator Company. In 1888, after a falling out with his investors, Butz left the company and transferred the patents to the legal firm Paul, Sanford, and Merwin, who renamed the company the Consolidated Temperature Controlling Company. As the years passed, CTCC struggled with growing debts, and they underwent several name changes in an attempt to keep the business afloat. After the company was renamed to the Electric Heat Regulator Company in 1893, W.R. Sweatt, a stockholder in the company, was sold "an extensive list of patents" and named secretary-treasurer. On February 23, 1898 he bought out the remaining shares of the company from the other stockholders.
Kitchen
Technological advances during industrialization brought major changes to the kitchen. Iron stoves, which enclosed the fire completely and were more efficient, appeared. Early models included the Franklin stove around 1740, which was a furnace stove intended for heating, not for cooking. Benjamin Thompson in England designed his "Rumford stove" around 1800. This stove was much more energy efficient than earlier stoves; it used one fire to heat several pots, which were hung into holes on top of the stove and were thus heated from all sides instead of just from the bottom. However, his stove was designed for large kitchens; it was too big for domestic use. The "Oberlin stove" was a refinement of the technique that resulted in a size reduction; it was patented in the U.S. in 1834 and became a commercial success with some 90,000 units sold over the next 30 years. These stoves were still fired with wood or coal. Although the first gas street lamps were installed in Paris, London, and Berlin at the beginning of the 1820s and the first U.S. patent on a gas stove was granted in 1825, it was not until the late 19th century that using gas for lighting and cooking became commonplace in urban areas.
List of Dutch inventions and innovations
Before there was the thermometer, there was the earlier and closely related thermoscope, best described as a thermometer without a temperature scale. A thermoscope only showed the differences in temperatures, for example, it could show something was getting hotter. However, the thermoscope did not measure all the data that a thermometer could, for example an exact temperature in degrees. What can be considered the first modern thermometer, the mercury thermometer with a standardized scale, was invented by German-Dutch scientist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (who had settled in Amsterdam in 1701) in 1714. Fahrenheit invented the first truly accurate thermometer using mercury instead of alcohol and water mixtures. He began constructing his own thermometers in 1714, and it was in these that he used mercury for the first time.
History of the metric system
By the end of the nineteenth century, the fundamental macroscopic laws of thermodynamics had been formulated and although techniques existed to measure temperature using empirical techniques, the scientific understanding of the nature of temperature was minimal.
Smart thermostat
To determine energy savings using actual data instead of energy models, in February 2015, Nest conducted a national study of Nest customers in 41 states who had enrolled in Nest's MyEnergy service. In May 2013, Nest acquired MyEnergy, a company that tracks and analyzes utility usage of people enrolled in the program. Upon acquiring MyEnergy, Nest was able to use the historical data to determine the energy savings of those who installed the Nest Learning Thermostat. This study looked at energy usage before and after the installation of a Nest Learning Thermostat and used a weather normalization procedure to prevent unusually cold or warm weather from skewing the data. The study had a sample size of 735 homes for gas usage analysis and 624 homes for electrical analysis. All of these homes were enrolled in the MyEnergy program and had sufficient energy data before and after the installation of a Nest Learning Thermostat. After observing the energy usage for one year, Nest determined that there was an average gas savings of 10% and a cooling savings of 17.5%. The savings varied from house to house depending on how occupants set their thermostat before the installation of a Nest thermostat, along with differences in occupancy patterns, house characteristics, and weather.
Bolometer
The first bolometer used by Langley consisted of two platinum strips covered with lampblack. One strip was shielded from radiation and one exposed to it. The strips formed two branches of a Wheatstone bridge which was fitted with a sensitive galvanometer and connected to a battery. Electromagnetic radiation falling on the exposed strip would heat it and change its resistance. By 1880, Langley's bolometer was refined enough to detect thermal radiation from a cow a quarter of a mile away. This radiant-heat detector is sensitive to differences in temperature of one hundred-thousandth of a degree Celsius (0.00001 C). This instrument enabled him to thermally detect across a broad spectrum, noting all the chief Fraunhofer lines. He also discovered new atomic and molecular absorption lines in the invisible infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Nikola Tesla personally asked Dr. Langley if he could use his bolometer for his power transmission experiments in 1892. Thanks to that first use, he succeeded in making the first demonstration between West Point and his laboratory on Houston Street.
Programmable thermostat
A programmable thermostat is a thermostat which is designed to adjust the temperature according to a series of programmed settings that take effect at different times of the day. Programmable thermostats may also be called setback thermostats or clock thermostats.
History of thermodynamics
The name "thermodynamics", however, did not arrive until 1854, when the British mathematician and physicist William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) coined the term "thermo-dynamics" in his paper "On the Dynamical Theory of Heat".
In association with Clausius, in 1871, the Scottish mathematician and physicist James Clerk Maxwell formulated a new branch of thermodynamics called "Statistical Thermodynamics", which functions to analyze large numbers of particles at equilibrium, i.e., systems where no changes are occurring, such that only their average properties as temperature T, pressure P, and volume V become important.
Feedback
The Dutch inventor Cornelius Drebbel (1572-1633) built thermostats (c1620) to control the temperature of chicken incubators and chemical furnaces. In 1745, the windmill was improved by blacksmith Edmund Lee, who added a fantail to keep the face of the windmill pointing into the wind. In 1787, Thomas Mead regulated the rotation speed of a windmill by using a centrifugal pendulum to adjust the distance between the bedstone and the runner stone (i.e., to adjust the load).
Thermometer
Some of the principles of the thermometer were known to Greek philosophers of two thousand years ago. The modern thermometer gradually evolved from the thermoscope with the addition of a scale in the early 17th century and standardisation through the 17th and 18th centuries.
Thermostat
Most digital thermostats in common residential use in North America and Europe are programmable thermostats, which will typically provide a 30% energy savings if left with their default programs; adjustments to these defaults may increase or reduce energy savings. The programmable thermostat article provides basic information on the operation, selection and installation of such a thermostat.With non-zoned (typical residential, one thermostat for the whole house) systems, when the thermostat's R (or Rh) and W terminals are connected, the furnace will go through its start-up procedure and produce heat.
Cardkey
They were once a division of Greer Hydraulics, Inc., and in January 1999 they were bought out by Johnson Controls, a company whose founder invented the electric room thermostat in the late 1800s.
Thermistor
The power dissipated in a thermistor is typically maintained at a very low level to ensure insignificant temperature measurement error due to self heating. However, some thermistor applications depend upon significant "self heating" to raise the body temperature of the thermistor well above the ambient temperature so the sensor then detects even subtle changes in the thermal conductivity of the environment. Some of these applications include liquid level detection, liquid flow measurement and air flow measurement.
The first NTC thermistor was discovered in 1833 by Michael Faraday, who reported on the semiconducting behavior of silver sulfide. Faraday noticed that the resistance of silver sulfide decreased dramatically as temperature increased. (This was also the first documented observation of a semiconducting material.)
Kitchen stove
The first practical design was patented by the Australian David Curle Smith in 1905. His device adopted (following the design of gas stoves) what later became the configuration for most electric stoves: an oven surmounted by a hotplate with a grill tray between them. Curle Smith's stove did not have a thermostat; heat was controlled by the number of the appliance’s nine elements that were switched on.
Resistance thermometer
The application of the tendency of electrical conductors to increase their electrical resistance with rising temperature was first described by Sir William Siemens at the Bakerian Lecture of 1871 before the Royal Society of Great Britain. The necessary methods of construction were established by Callendar, Griffiths, Holborn and Wein between 1885 and 1900.
Thermodynamic instruments
In some cases, the thermodynamic parameter is actually defined in terms of an idealized measuring instrument. For example, the zeroth law of thermodynamics states that if two bodies are in thermal equilibrium with a third body, they are also in thermal equilibrium with each other. This principle, as noted by James Maxwell in 1872, asserts that it is possible to measure temperature. An idealized thermometer is a sample of an ideal gas at constant pressure. From the ideal gas law, the volume of such a sample can be used as an indicator of temperature; in this manner it defines temperature. Although pressure is defined mechanically, a pressure-measuring device called a barometer may also be constructed from a sample of an ideal gas held at a constant temperature. A calorimeter is a device which is used to measure and define the internal energy of a system.
Thermostat
A thermostat exerts control by switching heating or cooling devices on or off, or by regulating the flow of a heat transfer fluid as needed, to maintain the correct temperature. A thermostat can often be the main control unit for a heating or cooling system, in applications ranging from ambient air control, to such as automotive coolant control. Thermostats are used in any device or system that heats or cools to a setpoint temperature, examples include building heating, central heating, air conditioners, as well as kitchen equipment including ovens and refrigerators and medical and scientific incubators.
Calorimeter
In 1761 Joseph Black introduced the idea of latent heat which lead to creation of the first ice-calorimeters. In 1780, Antoine Lavoisier used the heat from the guinea pig's respiration to melt snow surrounding his apparatus, showing that respiratory gas exchange is combustion, similar to a candle burning. Lavoisier dubbed this apparatus the calorimeter, based on both Greek and Latin roots. One of the first ice calorimeters was used in the winter of 1782 by Lavoisier and Pierre-Simon Laplace, which relied on the heat required to melt ice to water to measure the heat released from chemical reactions.
Smart thermostat
In an attempt to mitigate the issues with human error involved with programmable thermostats, the smart thermostat utilizes a sensor that can determine occupancy patterns to automatically change the temperature based on occupant patterns and behaviors. The Nest Learning Thermostat in particular uses passive infrared (PIR) motion sensors inside the unit to sense occupancy in the vicinity of the thermostat. This sensor informs the thermostat whether or not the home is occupied. In the case that the home is not occupied, the thermostat can suspend heating/cooling until the sensor is reactivated by an occupant. This sensor is also used to determine the occupancy patterns to create the auto schedule. A grille member is placed in front of the sensor to visually conceal and protect the PIR motion sensor inside the thermostat. The grille also helps to make the thermostat visually pleasing. While this sensor technology is important for conserving energy, it is not without flaws. One of the major issues is that the sensor must be activated by someone walking in front of or near the thermostat. It is possible that an occupant could be at home and not pass in front of the sensor. In this case, the thermostat would shut off the heating/cooling and decrease human comfort.
Thermostat
To prevent excessively rapid cycling of the equipment when the temperature is near the setpoint, a thermostat can include some hysteresis. Instead of changing from "on" to "off" and vice versa instantly at the set temperature, a thermostat with hysteresis will not switch until the temperature has changed a little past the set temperature point. For example, a refrigerator set to 2°C might not start the cooling compressor until its food compartment's temperature reaches 3°C, and will keep it running until the temperature has been lowered to 1 °C. This reduces the risk of equipment wear from too frequent switching, although it introduces a target system temperature oscillation of a certain magnitude.
Thermostat
The word thermostat is derived from the Greek words θερμός "thermos", "hot" and στατός "statos", "standing, stationary".
Six's thermometer
Six's thermometer is a registering thermometer which can record the maximum and minimum temperatures reached over a period of time, for example 24 hours. It is used to record the extremes of temperature at a location, for instance in meteorology and horticulture. It was invented by a British scientist James Six, born in Canterbury, in 1780; the same basic design remains in use.
Thermostat
Early technologies included mercury thermometers with electrodes inserted directly through the glass, so that when a certain (fixed) temperature was reached the contacts would be closed by the mercury. These were accurate to within a degree of temperature.
Medical thermometer
Italian physician Santorio Santorio is the first known individual to have put a measurable scale on the thermoscope and wrote of it in 1625, though he possibly invented one as early as 1612. His models were bulky, impractical and took a fair amount of time to take an accurate oral reading of the patient's temperature.
Thermodynamics
There are two types of thermodynamic instruments, the meter and the reservoir. A thermodynamic meter is any device which measures any parameter of a thermodynamic system. In some cases, the thermodynamic parameter is actually defined in terms of an idealized measuring instrument. For example, the zeroth law states that if two bodies are in thermal equilibrium with a third body, they are also in thermal equilibrium with each other. This principle, as noted by James Maxwell in 1872, asserts that it is possible to measure temperature. An idealized thermometer is a sample of an ideal gas at constant pressure. From the ideal gas law "pV=nRT", the volume of such a sample can be used as an indicator of temperature; in this manner it defines temperature. Although pressure is defined mechanically, a pressure-measuring device, called a barometer may also be constructed from a sample of an ideal gas held at a constant temperature. A calorimeter is a device which is used to measure and define the internal energy of a system.
Lloyd Groff Copeman
His first successful patented inventions, patented in 1909, were an electrothermostatic heat regulator for more effective control of stove and toaster heating elements and a thermostat for high-tension power cables.
Before this, while working for the Washington Electric Company in 1906, Copeman developed a design for an electric version of the gas stoves which had been available in Britain and the USA for several decades. Development of the idea took several years, but in 1912 the Copeman Electric Stove Company was formed in the city of Flint, Michigan to produce the Copeman Electric Stove (also marketed as the "fireless cooker"). Westinghouse Electric Corporation bought the company in 1917, moved production to Mansfield, Ohio, and continued to develop and improve the stove.
From 1913, another of Copeman's inventions, a toaster with automatic bread turner, was also produced by the Copeman Electric Stove Company. Electric toasters were a recent invention at that time - the first commercially successful version was patented in July 1909 - and the bread had to be turned manually once the first side had been toasted. During a shopping trip, Copeman's wife Hazel gave them the idea for a toaster which turned the bread without manual intervention, and in 1914 a patent for what Copeman called the Automatic Toaster was filed in Hazel's name. Five other toaster-related patents were granted to both Lloyd and Hazel during the same year. The invention of the pop-up toaster in 1926 superseded Copeman's innovations, however.
A company called Copeman Laboratories Company had been established in Flint, Michigan during the year 1918 to allow Copeman to dedicate his time to inventing, although he also spent a lot of time at his farm in Farmer's Creek, where he would lock himself in the basement - sometimes for up to a week, with his wife bringing him meals on a tray - and develop new ideas and products. Examples of his work at this time, which met with varying success, included injecting chickens with solutions to make their meat taste like beef; pioneering experiments in the development of latex; the Copeman Lubri-Cap, grease-filled paper cups for lubricating wheel bearings (the patent for this product was
Thermometer
The word thermometer (in its French form) first appeared in 1624 in "La Récréation Mathématique" by J. Leurechon, who describes one with a scale of 8 degrees. The word comes from the Greek words θερμός, "thermos", meaning "hot" and μέτρον, "metron", meaning "measure".
Smart thermostat
Another major feature of smart thermostats is their ability to connect to the internet. Smart thermostats are designed with a WiFi module that allows the thermostat to connect to the users home or office network and interface with a web portal or smartphone application, allowing users to control the unit remotely. The WiFi feature also has the ability to send reports on energy usage and HVAC system performance via the web portal, informing the user on their energy efficiency and how it compares to other smart thermostat users. It also alerts users when a problem arises with their HVAC system or when it is time for equipment maintenance. The thermostat also uses the WiFi connection to display current weather conditions and the weather forecast.
Galvanometer
Galvanometers developed from the observation that the needle of a magnetic compass is deflected near a wire that has electric current flowing through it, first described by Hans Christian Ørsted in 1820. They were the first instruments used to detect and measure small amounts of electric currents. André-Marie Ampère, who gave mathematical expression to Ørsted's discovery and named the instrument after the Italian electricity researcher Luigi Galvani, who in 1791 discovered the principle of the frog galvanoscope – that electric current would make the legs of a dead frog jerk.
Beckmann thermometer
A Beckmann thermometer is a device used to measure small differences of temperature, but not absolute temperature values. It was invented by Ernst Otto Beckmann (1853 – 1923), a German chemist, for his measurements of colligative properties in 1905. Today its use has largely been superseded by electronic thermometers.
Smart thermostat
Smart thermostats are thermostats that can be used with home automation and are responsible for controlling a home's heating and/or air conditioning. They perform similar functions as a Programmable thermostat as they allow the user to control the temperature of their home throughout the day using a schedule, but also contain additional features, such as sensors and WiFi connectivity, that improve upon the issues with programmable thermostats,
Reversing thermometer
Unlike most conventional mercury thermometers, a reversing thermometer is able to record a given temperature to be viewed at a later time. If the thermometer is flipped upside down, the current temperature will be shown until it is turned upright again. This was the primary device used by oceanographers to determine water temperatures below the surface of the ocean from around 1900 to 1970.
Programmable communicating thermostat
Thermostats can also communicate wirelessly through the Internet or via a home automation technology, such as Insteon. These advanced thermostats can be adjusted via computer or Internet capable phone to allow users to adjust the temperature in their home without being present.
Reed McNeil Izatt
In the 1960s, Izatt and Christensen developed high-precision titration calorimeters capable of simultaneously measuring equilibrium constants and heats for chemical reactions rapidly and with precision. These calorimeters were marketed worldwide through TRONAC, a chemical instrumentation company located in Provo, Utah. This calorimeter line was later acquired by TA Instruments.
Thermador
In 1947, Thermador invented the first wall oven and cooktop, and introduced stainless steel to home appliances. By 1948, Thermador introduced the first "Pro Range" for residential use. Patterned after commercial restaurant equipment, Thermador developed the first home version warming drawer in 1952, a handy kitchen appliance that keeps dishes and foods warm while the oven is being used. Thermador continued to improve on kitchen appliances with the first self-cleaning oven in 1963.
Telemeter
Many authors place the beginning of telemeters (in the general sense) in the steam age, although they were not called such at the time. Examples of these are James Watt's (1736-1819) additions to his steam engines of the mercury pressure gauge and the fly-ball governor.
Thermostat
Depending on what is being controlled, a forced-air air conditioning thermostat generally has an external switch for heat/off/cool, and another on/auto to turn the blower fan on constantly or only when heating and cooling are running. Four wires come to the centrally-located thermostat from the main heating/cooling unit (usually located in a closet, basement, or occasionally in the attic): One wire, usually red, supplies 24 volts AC power to the thermostat, while the other three supply control signals from the thermostat, usually white for heat, yellow for cooling, and green to turn on the blower fan. The power is supplied by a transformer, and when the thermostat makes contact between the 24 volt power and one or two of the other wires, a relay back at the heating/cooling unit activates the corresponding heat/fan/cool function of the unit(s).
Smart thermostat
Manual thermostats (also known as analog thermostats) are the oldest and simplest type of thermostats. These thermostats are set to one temperature and do not change until the user manually adjusts the temperature.
Programmable thermostats, first introduced in the 1970s, are a type of thermostat that allows the user to set a schedule for different temperatures at different times. Most programmable thermostats also have a hold feature which suspends the schedule and effectively turns the thermostat into a manual thermostat. The idea of the scheduling feature is that users will set a warmer or cooler temperature when the home is unoccupied to save energy and money. Due to this assumed energy savings, some building codes and government programs began requiring the use of programmable thermostats. Unfortunately, due to human error in using these devices, many programmable thermostats result in more energy use than the basic manual thermostat.
Xylem Inc.
They continued development in their key area of temperature measurement. They produced the first interchangeable thermistor temperature probes in 1955, and developed it into a complete line of precision interchangeable thermistors in 1961, and in 1965 developed the first linear thermistor temperature sensor, which "Industrial Research" magazine recognized as one of the 100 most significant new technological products of the year. TIn other analytical instruments, they produced the first practical dissolved oxygen meter for field and laboratory use in 1965, which the same magazine recognized as yet another of the most significant technological products of the year.
W. R. Sweatt
Around 1908, W.R. Sweatt and factory supervisor Joel Hersleter began experiments on a new product to further refine the automatic damper-flapper control.
The idea was simple:
i) Modify am alarm clock,
ii) Adapt an alarming mechanism in such a way that, instead of ringing a bell, it mechanically changed the setting on the thermostat.
iii) Through a clever arrangement of levers and catches, the clock would be mounted on directly on the thermostat. 
iv) The "alarm" could be set to go off, say at 8 o'clock, and when 8 o'clock arrived, the device would turn the thermostat up automatically. 
v) The clock thermostat idea was around for some time, so it was natural for Sweatt and Kersteter to develop the new product.
Thermometer
In 1714 Dutch scientist and inventor Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first reliable thermometer, using mercury instead of alcohol and water mixtures. In 1724 he proposed a temperature scale which now (slightly adjusted) bears his name. He could do this because he manufactured thermometers, using mercury (which has a high coefficient of expansion) for the first time and the quality of his production could provide a finer scale and greater reproducibility, leading to its general adoption. In 1742, Anders Celsius (1701–1744) proposed a scale with zero at the boiling point and 100 degrees at the freezing point of water, though the scale which now bears his name has them the other way around. French entomologist René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur invented an alcohol thermometer and temperature scale in 1730 that ultimately proved to be less reliable than Fahrenheit's mercury thermometer.
Delisle scale
In 1732, Delisle built a thermometer that used mercury as a working fluid. Delisle chose his scale using the temperature of boiling water as the fixed zero point and measured the contraction of the mercury (with lower temperatures) in hundred-thousandths. Delisle thermometers usually had 2400 or 2700 gradations, appropriate to the winter in St. Petersburg, as he had been invited by Peter the Great to St. Petersburg to found an observatory in 1725. In 1738, Josias Weitbrecht recalibrated the Delisle thermometer with two fixed points, keeping 0 degrees as the boiling point and adding 150 degrees as the freezing point of water. He then sent this calibrated thermometer to various scholars, including Anders Celsius. The Celsius scale, like the Delisle scale, originally ran from zero for boiling water down to 100 for freezing water. This was reversed to its modern order after his death, in part at the instigation of Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus and the manufacturer of Linnaeus thermometers, Daniel Ekström.
Thermometer
While an individual thermometer is able to measure degrees of hotness, the readings on two thermometers cannot be compared unless they conform to an agreed scale. Today there is an absolute thermodynamic temperature scale. Internationally agreed temperature scales are designed to approximate this closely, based on fixed points and interpolating thermometers. The most recent official temperature scale is the International Temperature Scale of 1990. It extends from to approximately .
Meteorological instrumentation
In 1441, king Sejong's son, Prince Munjong, invented the first standardized rain gauge. These were sent throughout the Joseon Dynasty of Korea as an official tool to assess land taxes based upon a farmer's potential harvest. In 1450, Leone Battista Alberti developed a swinging-plate anemometer, and is known as the first "anemometer". In 1607, Galileo Galilei constructs a thermoscope. In 1643, Evangelista Torricelli invents the mercury barometer. In 1662, Sir Christopher Wren invented the mechanical, self-emptying, tipping bucket rain gauge. In 1714, Gabriel Fahrenheit creates a reliable scale for measuring temperature with a mercury-type thermometer. In 1742, Anders Celsius, a Swedish astronomer, proposed the 'centigrade' temperature scale, the predecessor of the current Celsius scale. In 1783, the first hair hygrometer is demonstrated by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure. In 1806, Francis Beaufort introduced his system for classifying wind speeds. The April 1960 launch of the first successful weather satellite, TIROS-1, marked the beginning of the age where weather information became available globally.
Telemeter
By the late 19th century the term had been thoroughly hijacked by electrical engineers applying it to electrically operated devices measuring many other quantities besides distance. These included such sensors as the thermocouple (from the work of Thomas Johann Seebeck), the resistance thermometer (by William Siemens based on the work of Humphry Davy), and the electrical strain gauge (based on Lord Kelvin's discovery that conductors under mechanical strain change their resistance) and output devices such as Samuel Morse's telegraph sounder and the relay. In 1889 this led the Institution of Civil Engineers to suggest that the term for a rangefinder be replaced with tachometer. In the 1930s use of electrical telemeters grew rapidly. The electrical strain gauge was widely used in rocket and aviation research and the radiosonde was invented for meteorological measurements. The advent of World War II gave an impetus to industrial development and henceforth many of these telemeters became commercially viable.
Placebo button
Placebo thermostats work on two psychological principles, which are classical conditioning and the placebo effect. First, placebo thermostats work in accordance with classical conditioning. Classical conditioning was first discovered by Ivan Pavlov and is a type of learning which pairs a stimulus with a physiological response. Applied to placebo thermostats, this is when the employee adjusts the thermostat and hears the noise of hissing or a fan running and consequently physically feels more content. This is due to the countless trials involving the thermostat in their own home, which actually works. The employee has paired the sound of hissing or a fan running to being more physically content due to the actual temperature change and therefore when they experience the noise at work they feel the same way even though there is no change in temperature. As long as individuals get the result they are looking for (noise associated with temperature change) they will continue with the practice (changing the placebo thermostat). Additionally, placebo thermostats work due to the placebo effect. The placebo effect works on the basis that individuals will experience what they believe they will experience. This is attributed to Expectancy theory, which states that the placebo effect is mediated by overt expectancies. The most common example is in medical testing: inactive sugar pills are given to patients who are told they are actually medicine. Some patients will experience relief from symptoms regardless. According to expectancy theory, if people believe they are going to experience a temperature change after changing a placebo thermostat they may psychologically experience one without an actual change happening. Both psychological concepts of classical conditioning and the placebo effect may play a role in the effectiveness of placebo thermostats.
Wax thermostatic element
The wax thermostatic element was invented in 1934 by Sergius Vernet (1899–1968). Its principal application is in automotive thermostats used in the engine cooling system. The first applications in the plumbing and heating industries were in Sweden (1970) and in Switzerland (1971).
Science and invention in Birmingham
1933: Credenda Conduit Co. Ltd of Birmingham patent a Credastat automatic oven thermostat, which is fitted to Creda electric cookers. This is an early advancement in electric cookers and a feature that eventually becomes standard on all electric cookers. An example of this cooker is on display at the London Science Museum.
Smart thermostat
To show that their thermostats save energy and money, numerous smart thermostat producers have conducted models and studies to confirm their savings claims. One popular way that smart thermostat producers calculate energy usage is through energy modeling. In these models, the smart thermostat is compared to a thermostat set at a constant temperature, and savings are calculated. Using this method, ecobee calculated energy savings by correlating how long heating and cooling equipment run to local weather conditions. Energy savings were calculated relative to a constant temperature of 72°F. Upon conducting this model, ecobee determined a 23% savings on heating and cooling costs for those who switch to their smart thermostat. Using a similar modeling method, Nest claimed a 20% energy savings for home owners who install a Nest Learning Thermostat.
Jean Rey (physician)
His discovery of the weight of air also made possible the invention of the barometer by Torricelli in 1643. He also developed a device called a "Thermoscope", a precursor of the thermometer.
Thermoscope
A thermoscope is a device that shows changes in temperature. A typical design is a tube in which a liquid rises and falls as the temperature changes. The modern thermometer gradually evolved from it with the addition of a scale in the early 17th century and standardisation through the 17th and 18th centuries.
Thomas Fowler (inventor)
Fowler patented the thermosiphon in 1828 (British patent number 5711). It was the first convective heating system. A system based on his design was installed at Bicton, part of the Rolle Estate and received great acclaim in the "Gardener's Magazine" of 1829. Unfortunately due to innate flaws in the patent system of the time (under which a new version of a design with minimal changes was not covered by the original patent), the thermosiphon was copied by numerous other manufacturers and Fowler did not have sufficient funds to conduct legal proceedings.
Homebrewing
The 18th century Industrial Revolution brought about such innovations as the thermometer and hydrometer. These tools increased efficiency to the point that mass production of beer was possible for the first time in history. In 1857, French microbiologist Louis Pasteur explained the role of yeast in beer fermentation, allowing brewers to develop strains of yeast with desirable properties (conversion efficiency, ability to handle higher alcohol content).
List of Dutch inventions and innovations
The pyrometer, invented by Pieter van Musschenbroek, is a temperature measuring device. A simple type uses a thermocouple placed either in a furnace or on the item to be measured. The voltage output of the thermocouple is read from a meter. Many different types of thermocouple are available, for measuring temperatures from −200 °C to above 1500 °C.
Thermostat
Warren S. Johnson (1847–1911) of Wisconsin patented a bi-metal room thermostat in 1883, and two years later filed a patent for the first multi-zone thermostatic control system.
Albert Butz (1849–1905) invented the electric thermostat and patented it in 1886.
Thermometer
The first physician that put thermometer measurements to clinical practice was Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738). In 1866, Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt (1836–1925) invented a clinical thermometer that produced a body temperature reading in five minutes as opposed to twenty. In 1999, Dr. Francesco Pompei of the Exergen Corporation introduced the world's first temporal artery thermometer, a non-invasive temperature sensor which scans the forehead in about two seconds and provides a medically accurate body temperature.
Deadband
Simple (single mode) thermostats exhibit hysteresis. For example, the furnace in the basement of a house is adjusted automatically by the thermostat to be switched on as soon as the temperature at the thermostat falls to 18 °C and the furnace is switched off by the thermostat as soon as the temperature at the thermostat reaches 22 °C. There is no temperature at which the house is not being heated or allowed to cool (furnace on or off).
Smart thermostat
As a result of these studies and others like them, energy star suspended its labelling of programmable thermostats in December 2009. It became the goal of smart thermostats to address these issues by taking the human out of the picture and creating a thermostat that uses smart computing to truly reduce energy usage and cost.
Candy thermometer
The first candy thermometers were created in 1272 by Bennet Muzilla of Frankfurt, Germany. He used it to measure the temperatures of sugar solutions while making hard candies.
Thermostat
One of the first industrial uses of the thermostat was in the regulation of the temperature in poultry incubators. Charles Hearson, a British engineer, designed the first modern incubator for eggs that was taken up for use on poultry farms in 1879. The incubators incorporated an accurate thermostat to regulate the temperature so as to precisely simulate the experience of an egg being hatched naturally.
Thermostat
A thermostat, when set to "cool", will only turn on when the ambient temperature of the surrounding room is above the set temperature. Thus, if the controlled space has a temperature normally above the desired setting when the heating/cooling system is off, it would be wise to keep the thermostat set to "cool", despite what the temperature is outside. On the other hand, if the temperature of the controlled area falls below the desired degree, then it is advisable to turn the thermostat to "heat".
Medical thermometer
Thermometers remained cumbersome to transport and use. By the mid 19th century, the medical thermometer was still a foot long (30.28 cm) and took as long as twenty minutes to take an accurate temperature reading. Between 1866-1867, Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt (1836–1925) designed a medical thermometer that was much more portable, measuring only six inches long and taking only five minutes to record a patient's temperature.
Medical thermometer
The medical thermometer was used by Dutch chemist and physician Hermann Boerhaave (1668–1738), as well as his notable students Gerard van Swieten (1700–72) and Anton de Haen (1704–76). It was also utilized around the same time by Scottish physician George Martine (1700–1741). De Haen made particular strides in medicine with the thermometer. By observing the correlation in a patient's change in temperature and the physical symptoms of the illness, he concluded that a record of one's temperature could inform the doctor of a patient's health. However, his proposals were not met with enthusiasm by his peers and the medical thermometer remained a scarcely used instrument in medicine.
Thermographic camera
The first advanced application of IR technology in the civil section may have been a device to detect the presence of icebergs and steamships using a mirror and thermopile, patented in 1913. This was soon outdone by the first true IR iceberg detector, which did not use thermopiles, patented in 1914 by R.D. Parker. This was followed up by G.A. Barker’s proposal to use the IR system to detect forest fires in 1934. The technique was not truly industrialized until it was used in the analysis of heating uniformity in hot steel strips in 1935.
Meteorological instrumentation
Devices used to measure these three sprang up in the mid-15th century and were respectively the rain gauge, the anemometer, and the hygrometer. The 17th century saw the development of the barometer and the Galileo thermometer while the 18th century saw the development of the thermometer with the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales. The 20th century developed new remote sensing tools, such as weather radars, weather satellites and wind profilers, which provide better sampling both regionally and globally. Remote sensing instruments collect data from weather events some distance from the instrument and typically stores the data where the instrument is located and often transmits the data at defined intervals to central data centers.
Thermoscope
Santorio Santorio wrote a "Commentary on the Medical Art of Galen" in 1612 that described the device in print. Shortly afterward, in 1617 Giuseppe Biancani published the first clear diagram. The device at this time could not be used for quantitative or standardized measurement and used the temperature of air to expand or contract gas, thereby moving a column of water. It was Drebbel who announced in the early 17th century one of the earliest or possibly the first prototype, which was filled with air and blocked by water containing a little "aqua fortis" to prevent it from freezing and being discolored.
Clifford Allbutt
In 1870 Allbutt published "Medical Thermometry", an article outlining the history of thermometry and describing his invention: a clinical thermometer approximately 6 inches in length that a physician could have habitually in a pocket. His version of the thermometer, devised in 1867, was quickly adopted elsewhere, instead of the model previously in use, which was one foot long and which patients were required to hold for about twenty minutes.
Isothermal microcalorimetry
Lavoisier and Laplace are credited with creating and using the first isothermal calorimeter in ca. 1780 (Bibliography: Lavoisier A & Laplace PS 1780). Their instrument employed ice to produce a relatively constant temperature in a confined space. They realized that when they placed a heat-producing specimen on the ice (e.g. a live animal), the mass of liquid water produced by the melting ice was directly proportional to the heat produced by the specimen.