Accession No
1116
Brief Description
Florentine spirit-in-glass thermometer, by Antonio Alamanni, and previously owned by Charles Babbage, Italian, 1660 (c)
Origin
Italy; Florence
Maker
Alamanni, Antonio (aka 'Gonfia')
Class
meteorology; thermometry
Earliest Date
1660
Latest Date
1660
Inscription Date
Material
glass; liquids; enamel
Dimensions
thermometer - length 113mm bulb diam. 16mm height 198mm; length 115mm; breadth 80mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Transferred from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, from 10/1951. Presented by Henry Prevost Babbage to the University of Cambridge in 1872, when it was deposited in the Cavendish Laboratory. Presented to Charles Babbage by V Antinori, Director of the Imperial and Royal Museum of Physics and Natural Philosophy at Florence, and L. Nobili, Prof. of Physics, in 1834.
Inscription
Description Notes
Florentine spirit-in-glass thermometer, by Antonio Alamanni, and previously owned by Charles Babbage, Italian, 1660 (c).
Spirit in glass thermometer with spherical bulb and disc at the top of the stem. Calibrated to 50o on the stem with small enamel globules, every 10th being white, the others black tinged with carmine. Filled with clear spirit.
Presented to Charles Babbage in 1834 (see mss dated 24/03/1834, signed V Antinori, Director of the Imperial and Royal Museum of Physics and Natural Philosophy at Florence, and L. Nobili, Prof. of Physics). Charles’s son, Henry Prevost Babbage, presented the thermometer to the University of Cambridge in 1872 and it was deposited in the Cavendish Laboratory, see the Reporter, No. 110, 27/04/1875, p.354.
Condition: good.
References
Allison Ksiazkiewicz; 'Early thermometers and temperature scales'; Explore Whipple Collections online article; Whipple Museum of the History of Science; University of Cambridge: https://www.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/explore-whipple-collections/meteorology/early-thermometers-and-temperature-scales
Events
Description
The Cavendish Laboratory has always had a collection of historic scientific instruments at its heart, including this 17th-century thermometer. Once owned by Charles Babbage, it was presented to the University by his son in 1872 and came into the care of the first Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics, James Clerk Maxwell.
The collection connected the new Laboratory (which opened in 1874) to a longer scientific heritage. Maxwell's own models, apparatus and books were in turn donated to the Laboratory by his widow, Katherine, after his untimely death in 1879. The historic instruments are described alongside everyday apparatus in the Cavendish's early Apparatus Books.
26/02/2025
Created by: Hannah Price on 26/02/2025
Description
A thermometer is used to measure temperature. Charles Babbage was presented with this thermometer in 1834 by V. Antinori, Director of the Imperial and Royal Museum of Physics and Natural Philosophy at Florence.
Thermometers work because many materials expand as they get hotter and contract as they get colder. This expansion and contraction can be used to measure the corresponding changes in temperature.
The first thermometers were made in the 1630s and used a liquid encased in glass, just like this one. When the liquid heats up, it is forced up the narrow tube and the temperature is read off from a scale.
This object is called a ‘Florentine’ thermometer after the glass-blowers from Florence in Italy, who made incredibly intricate shapes of glass tube for thermometers. This thermometer dates from around 1660.
At the time this thermometer was made, each person working with thermometers had their own scale divisions and reference points; it was impossible to compare temperatures between different places. It was not until the 1700s that temperature scales were standardised by Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736), Anders Celsius (1701-1744), and René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (1683-1757).
From display label:
This thermometer was made by a master Florentine glass-blower only thirty or so years after the instrument was invented. In 17th-century Florence, each workshop had its own thermometer scale, so comparison of measurements was impossible even within the same city.
This instrument is particularly remarkable because of its provenance: it was presented by Vincenzo Antinori (Director of the Imperial and Royal Museum of Physics and Natural Philosophy at Florence) in 1834 to Charles Babbage, the English mathematician and inventor.
22/08/2005
Created by: Ruth Horry on 22/08/2005
FM:43448
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