4 ms·

I'm leaning strongly on the side of thermometers were less accurate and gave a higher reading in the early 1800s.

• hwillis 7y ago
  The study was on measurements taken in the early 1900s, not 1800s. Also, it's not like technology suddenly started in the 30s or something. Liquid nitrogen was first produced in 1883. The periodic table was published in 1869. Cells were discovered in 1665. Science was a lot more than banging rocks together. You would expect the opposite of what you're suggesting, if anything. If water was used for calibrating temperature then there would be fewer good ways to control the impurity level, which would lower its freezing point. Not to mention Fahrenheit originally defined body temperature as 96 F, and it was later corrected higher. All of the above is totally moot because we have plenty of medical thermometers from the 1900s and earlier, and they are remarkably accurate and the error is not particularly biased in either way. This is a highly researched area because the accuracy of whether thermometers is important to historical and climate research. Medical thermometers from the 1800s are good to at least 1/5th of a degree and instrumentation thermometers were good to hundredths.