The Galileo Thermometer Was Not Invented By Galileo

New submitter GregLaden writes "The object known as the Galileo Thermometer is a vertical glass tube filled with a liquid in which are suspended a number of weighted glass balls. As the temperature of the liquid changes, so does the density. Since each glass ball is set to float at equilibrium in a sightly different density of the liquid, as the temperature increases, each glass ball sinks to the bottom. It turns out that this thermometer was actually invented by a team of instrument inventors that formed a scientific society who had the impressive motto 'Probando e Reprobando,' which in English means 'testing and retesting.' The Accademia del Cimento operated under the leadership of the Grand Duke Ferdinand II from 1657-1667 in Florence, Italy. According to Peter Loyson, who has written a corrective article for the Journal of Chemical Education, Galileo did invent a temperature measuring device called a thermoscope."

Evangelista Torricelli

[oakgrove]

My understanding was that Torricelli who was a pupil of Galileo actually built the "Galileo Thermometer". It would seem to be appropriately named as even today when a grad student makes a discovery or somebody dreams up some patentable something, the credit usually goes to the professor or company the person is working under.

Or maybe I'm wrong.

Ancient Greeks invented thermometers

[Kergan]

As with a great many things, you can find prior art in ancient Greece:

http://www.eoht.info/page/Thermometer [eoht.info]

Re:Let's just say Galileo

[cyberchondriac]

Don't forget Edison, whose 1,000+ patents were largely made by various employees and contributors, but he garnered the historical credit.

Re:Evangelista Torricelli

[oakgrove]

To further expand on this, Viviani who was a pupil of Torricelli and also one of the first members of The Accademia del Cimento is credited with having improved the Galileo Thermometer but he didn't actually invent it. I thought all of this was widely known though.