Thanks to Bill and Louis for those mini-biographies. M Réaumur sounds
like a man after my own heart -- one who is interested in many things.
That, after all, is what I deem a proper scientist should be.
Jim
Louis JOURDAN wrote:
>
> At 10:38 -0400 01/04/18, James R. Frysinger wrote:
> >I have never used the Reaumur scale and know nothing about it.
> >
> >Jim
>
> René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (1683 - 1757) was a scientist
> typical of the "Siècles des Lumières", i.e. he was excellent in all
> matters : mathematics ("Mémoires Géométriques, 1708), metallurgist
> ("l'Art de convertir le fer forgé en acier", how to convert iron into
> steel, 1722), biologist, glass-making, entomologist ("Mémoires pour
> servir à l'histoire des insectes", 1737 - 1748).
>
> In one of his experiments (artificial incubation of chicken eggs),
> Réaumur needed to control very accurately the temperature, but was
> not happy with the accuracy of the then available thermometers.
> Therefore, in 1730-1731, he developed a new type of thermometer, with
> alcohol as dilatating liquid. He used molten ice to define the cold
> point, giving it the value 0, and boiling water for the hot point,
> with the value 80. I could not find out why 80.
>
> The "Réaumur scale" was quite popular in Europe in the XVIII - XIX th
> centuries, up to the beginning of XXth century in Central Europa.
> Lavoisier and Arago sometimes used the Réaumur scale. There is at the
> excellent "Musée des Arts et Métiers" in Paris a collection of
> thermometers with the Réaumur scale or a dual Réaumur/Celsius scale.
>
> Louis
--
James R. Frysinger University/College of Charleston
10 Captiva Row Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Charleston, SC 29407 66 George Street
843.225.0805 Charleston, SC 29424
http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cert. Adv. Metrication Specialist 843.953.7644
