The Galileo Thermometer Was Not Invented By Galileo

New submitter GregLaden writes "The object known as the Galileo Thermometer is a vertical glass tube filled with a liquid in which are suspended a number of weighted glass balls. As the temperature of the liquid changes, so does the density. Since each glass ball is set to float at equilibrium in a sightly different density of the liquid, as the temperature increases, each glass ball sinks to the bottom. It turns out that this thermometer was actually invented by a team of instrument inventors that formed a scientific society who had the impressive motto 'Probando e Reprobando,' which in English means 'testing and retesting.' The Accademia del Cimento operated under the leadership of the Grand Duke Ferdinand II from 1657-1667 in Florence, Italy. According to Peter Loyson, who has written a corrective article for the Journal of Chemical Education, Galileo did invent a temperature measuring device called a thermoscope."

Comments

Evangelista Torricelli

[oakgrove]

My understanding was that Torricelli who was a pupil of Galileo actually built the "Galileo Thermometer". It would seem to be appropriately named as even today when a grad student makes a discovery or somebody dreams up some patentable something, the credit usually goes to the professor or company the person is working under.

Or maybe I'm wrong.

Re:Evangelista Torricelli

[oakgrove]

To further expand on this, Viviani who was a pupil of Torricelli and also one of the first members of The Accademia del Cimento is credited with having improved the Galileo Thermometer but he didn't actually invent it. I thought all of this was widely known though.

Re:Evangelista Torricelli

[Guignol]

Indeed, it was, yes, that too, invented by Apple
They really are unstoppable

Let's just say Galileo

[Dishwasha]

Don't these scientists understand that there's no way we can remember all of these historical inventors? If we can just say the majority of things in the world were invented by Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Benjamin Franklin, and Nikola Tesla it would make all our lives so much easier. k thx bye

Re:Let's just say Galileo

[cyberchondriac]

Don't forget Edison, whose 1,000+ patents were largely made by various employees and contributors, but he garnered the historical credit.

Re:Let's just say Galileo

[findoutmoretoday]

Don't these scientists understand that there's no way we can remember

That's also why I am with the creationists: six days, done

Ancient Greeks invented thermometers

[Kergan]

As with a great many things, you can find prior art in ancient Greece:

http://www.eoht.info/page/Thermometer

Re:Ancient Greeks invented thermometers

[snikulin]

It does not count: they had not patented it.

Anyone but Galileo

[mcmonkey]

I couldn't have told who invented the Galileo Thermometer, but I could have told you it wasn't Galileo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler's_law_of_eponymy

Kind of half-assed.

[wcrowe]

It did not explain how the device came to be known as a Galileo Thermometer.

Re:Kind of half-assed.

[Jeng]

Nor did it say the name of the person who actually did create it, instead just mentions some scientific society.

I bet if we knew who did invent it, that would tell us why it is know as it is.

Re:Kind of half-assed.

[Antipater]

Well, the Accademia del Cimento's records have mostly been lost. Most of what we know about them is pieced together from various letters. But most of their big players were either students of Galileo, or students of students of Galileo. As a poster above noted, it was basically like a bunch of grad students today, performing detailed tests of many of the phenomena that Galileo (the professor) had postulated.

Re:Kind of half-assed.

[wcrowe]

So, it's possible that the design was Galileo's, but he didn't actually build the thing. In which case, the moniker is not entirely wrong.

In other news...

[Antipater]

Other "corrective articles" by Peter Loyson include:

"You didn't write that!" - Who really writes the State of the Union?

Abe Lincoln Didn't Win the Civil War, a Bunch of Soldiers Did

Did You Know That Comedians Actually Use Scripts?

Reading comprehension, you fail it

[Anonymous Coward]

Ancient Greeks invented thermometers

So? The Chinese invented gunpowder, too, but both facts are completely irrelevant to this article.

Nobody claimed Galileo invented the thermometer. He was incorrectly credited for the invention of the Galileo Thermometer.

Let's just say Tesla

[alexander_686]

But, as we all know, Edison and his employees did not invent anything – they stole everything from Tesla – which has already been mentioned. For proof see:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ea08/?srp=1

And don’t forget the ancient Egyptians & Chinese. Sure, they got most of the tech from Atlantis, but still.

Re:Patent Violation

[PPH]

But then there's the multi-touch, pinch to zoom Galileo Thermometer (rectangular with rounded corners).