166 Proposal for altering the. Scale of the Thermometer-. 



tent as to convert it into what we call silex. May clay not 

 prove to be water and oxygen, and siiex this oxygen with- 

 out water ? 



.XXVI. Proposal for altering the Scale of the Thermometer. 

 By Richard Walker, Esq., Oxford. 



To Mr. Tilloci-i, — Sir, 

 J. beg leave to announce, through the medium of your useful 

 Miscellany, an intention I have of offering to the public 

 notice an alteration in the scale of the thermometer, which 

 many of my friends, as well as myself, have adopted, from 

 a persuasion of its being founded on the truest principle. 



The alteration I shall suggest, and which presented itself 

 during the long course of my thermometrical experiments* 

 I shall only briefly state now, reserving a fuller account of 

 the reasons which induced me to. adopt the scale I now pro- 

 pose to another opportunity. 



The two fixt-d points, viz., the freezing and boiling points 

 of water, as they have hitherto been, will probably never 

 fail to be continued, as" being perfectly sufficient for the 

 accurate adjustment of*thermometers. 



The commencement of the scale, and the number of di- 

 visions, only appear to claim attention. With respeci to the 

 first, since neither of the extremes of heat or cold (to speak 

 familiarly) are likely to be ascertained, the hope of fixing 

 at either of these may. be entirely relinquished, and it re- 

 mains to fix at the fittest intermediate point. 



Hence I presume to propose the following mode of 

 graduation, stating briefly the principle oh which I pro- 

 ceeded. Having ascertained that the temperature of 62° of 

 Fahrenheit is the temperature at which the human body in 

 health is conscious of no inconvenience from heat or cold, 

 and that a deviation from that point of only one or two de- 

 grees, above or below, actually produces that effect, under 

 ordinary circumstances, I fixed my zero or there. 



With respect to the divisions, I adopted those of Fah- 

 renheitj from an opinion of that being the fittest, consider- 



