Everything about Gabriel Fahrenheit totally explained
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (
24 May 1686 –
16 September 1736) was a
German physicist and
engineer who worked most of his life in the
Dutch Republic. The
Fahrenheit (
°F) scale of
temperature is named after him.
Biography
Fahrenheit was born in 1686 in the Hanseatic city of Danzig (
Gdańsk) . The Fahrenheits were a merchant family who had moved from one
Hanseatic League city to the other. Fahrenheit's great-grandfather had lived in
Rostock, although research suggests that the Fahrenheit family originated in
Hildesheim.. Fahrenheit's family often moved between various European states. Fahrenheit's great-grandfather had lived in
Rostock, although research suggests that the Fahrenheit family originated in
Hildesheim. Daniel's grandfather
Reinhold Fahrenheit vom Kneiphof moved from
Kneiphof (in
Königsberg) to Danzig and settled there as a merchant in 1650. Father Daniel Fahrenheit married Concordia (widowed name,
Runge), daughter of the well-known Danzig business family of Schumann. Daniel Gabriel was the eldest of the five Fahrenheit children who survived childhood (two sons, three daughters). By widespread trading, Reinhold Friedrich Fahrenheid (1703-1781) became the richest man in eastern Prussia.
Upon the accidental early death of his parents, by consumption of poisonous mushrooms in 1702, sixteen-year-old Gabriel had to take up business training as a merchant in
Amsterdam. However, his interest in natural sciences caused him to take up studies and experimentation in that field. From 1707 onwards, he travelled to
Berlin,,
Leipzig,
Dresden,
Kopenhagen, and also to his home town. During that time, Fahrenheit met or was in contact with
Ole Rømer,
Christian Wolff,
Gottfried Leibniz. He settled 1717 in
The Hague with the trade of
glassblowing, making
barometers,
altimeters, and
thermometers. From 1718 onwards, he gave lectures in
chemistry in Amsterdam, and became a member of the
Royal Society in 1724. Fahrenheit died in The Hague.
Fahrenheit scale
Fahrenheit needed to associate a scale with his
thermometers in order to use them to record temperature. His initial work with a temperature scale was based on three benchmarks. His low temperature mark was the coldest
temperature attainable under laboratory conditions at that time: a mixture of water, ice, and
ammonium chloride. Fahrenheit defined that as 0 °F (approx. -17.8 °C). Next was the freezing point of water, which he set at 32 °F. Finally, he defined the human body temperature as 98.6 °F.
Later, with the aid of a
mercury thermometer that could measure higher temperatures, Fahrenheit extended his scale so the high end was the boiling point of water, which he put at 212 °F. With the adjustment, normal human body temperature moved to the now familiar
98 °F. Fahrenheit's final temperature scale has 180 degrees between the freezing and boiling points of water.
The Fahrenheit scale was widely used in Europe until the switch to the degree
Celsius scale. It is still used for everyday temperature measurements by the general population in the
United States and less so in the UK.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Gabriel Fahrenheit'.
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