THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON; 



ABRIDGED. 



Experiments concerning the Degrees of Heat of boiling Liquors. By M. Fah- 

 renheit* F.R.S. N'' 381, p. 1. Abridged from the Latin. Fol. XXX I IL 



J\j.. Fahrenheit finding, in the history of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 

 that M. Amontons had, by means of a thermometer of his own invention, 

 discovered that water boils with a fixed degree of heat, was very desirous of 

 making such another thermometer, to view with his own eyes this curious 

 phenomenon of nature, and be convinced of the truth of the experiment. 

 And recollecting what sagacious inquirers into nature had written about the 

 manner of rectifying barometers, viz. that the height of the column of mer- 

 cury, was sensibly affected by the different temperament of the mercury; from 

 this M. Fahrenheit imagined, that perhaps a thermometer might be made of 

 mercury, whose structure would not be so difficult, and yet it might discover 

 the experiment he so much desired. 



Having made such a thermometer, though still imperfect in several respects, 

 the event answered his expectation, to his no small satisfaction. The issue of' 

 the experiments is exhibited in the following table: the first column shows the 

 several liquors used; the second their respective specific gravities; the third the 

 degree of heat each liquor acquired by boiling. 



« Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, an ingenious experimental philosopher, was born at Dantzic in 

 1686. It was about 1720 when he improved the thermometers, as above, by substituting mercury 

 in the tube, instead of spirits of wine, which had hitherto been used, and by forming a new 

 scale for the instrument, founded on very accurate experiments, in which the freezing point for 

 water is at the number 32, and the boiling point at 212, the space between the two being divided 

 into 180 equal parts or degrees. This scale has generally been adopted by the English, while the 

 French, &c. have used that of Reaumur. Mr. F. published a treatise on thermometers in l72-i; 

 and he died in 1736. 



VOL. VII. B 



