200 CHEST OF THIRTY-FIVE THERMOMETERS 4/4 18th C.
(166) Fig. 180
A mahogany and oak chest (820 x 223 x 105), with three trays, contains:
i ) Mercury thermometers, long reservoirs, ivory scales
total reservoir scale divisions
length length range
580 75 32-436 X I
575 105 32-212 X I
520 80 32-212 X I
510 85 32-212 X I marked in ink
500 90 32—260 X I
435 80 no scale
43° 65 32—212 X I marked in ink
3°5 85 red fiducial marks thick walled
305 65 ditto ditto
2) Mercury thermometers, bulbous reservoirs, ivory scales
total scale divisions
length range
770 32-600 X I very large bulb, width 24
380 35~~75 X I / 1 0 thick scale board; scale le
380 35-75 X I / 1 0 thick scale board; scale lc
370 unmarked thick scale board
358 unmarked thick scale board
325 0-80 X I marked in ink
3°o -8-256 X 2
broken 30-180 X I
3 ) Pocket mercury thermometer, in cylinclrical, black fishskin ease i 137 x 9), length
14 7»half-cyiindrical, ivory scale: that slides on the tube and is marked 30 90 X I
4) Alcohcil thermometers, ivoi~y scales
total reservoir scale divisions
length range
377 long -140 to + 30 X I marked in ink; also “ Koud de:r deelige
Schaal”
243 bulbous —80 to - 10 X I marked in ink; also remarks, now
illegible
5) Mercu ry thermometer:3, bulbous reservoirs, without scales
number length
3 84, 86, 88
11 118, 128, 144, i47; 148, 148, with paper backing to show up the
156, 159, 161, i 73»181 very thin threads
i 140 ivory backing
6) Ivory scale boards
number engraved
3 divided, but no figures
1 32—212 XI
1 36—212 x 1 marked in ink
Among the mercury thermometers with bulbous reservoirs are four with very thick
scale boards. Two of these are unmarked, but the other two have scales ranging from
35°—75fedivided into tenths of a degree. These are almost certainly to be associated
with the Crawford apparatus for measuring the specific heat of air, made by Nairne
and Blunt in 1792 for Van Marum; see Cat. 219. Two ivory-scale thermometers,
divided into tenths of a degree, were supplied on 5 December, 1792, for five guineas,
and a further two on 16 April, 1793, for six guineas. These accounts were presented
with a letter from Nairne of 9 August, 1793.
The Van Swieten auction sale in Rotterdam was attended on 14 April, 1789, by
Van Marum, who bought lot 78, a long thermometer for ƒ 57, and lot 80, a pocket
thermometer for ƒ 14 (MV). These are probably the 30-inch (770) large-bulbed thermometer,
and the 4‘/2-inch (117) one in a fishskin case.
Other thermometers bought by Van Marum that cannot readily be identified are
(mentioned in MV): two with very thin bulbs from John Cuthbertson, 28 December,
i785;four after HunterfromJonathanCuthbertson, March 1788; another after Hunter
from the same for f 21, 15 April, 1789; a Dollond thermometer measuring to 212 0
ordered via an agent in Rotterdam on 11 June, 1789, and received in September 1790.
Van Marum was also an early Continental customer for a Wedgwood “pyrometer”
(a thermometer for intense heatslffl because he bought one for ƒ 40 from John
Cuthbertson on 19 November, 1788 (MV).
Inv. 42/6, 43/2
2oi BAROMETER & THERMOMETER 1790 (930) Fig. 176
ByJ. B. Haas, London
Signed on the barometer register plate: Haas London
Overall height 1,020, diameter of reservoir housing 45.
The pedimented, mahogany case contains a cistern barometer tube, with an adjustment
screw at the bottom protected by a brass cap. The silvered-brass register plate,
behind a glass window, is calibrated on the left in French inches and on the right
in English inches. There is a vernier between the two scales reading to i/20th of a