Inventor: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit

Santorio Santorio, Galileo Galilei, and Gabriel Fahrenheit were all inventors of the thermometer (thermascopes, as the early thermometers were called). However, it was Fahrenheit, the German physicist, who invented the mercury thermometer in 1714, which is the one that we use today. He also invented the alcohol thermometer (1709), and came up with the Fahrenheit Scale in 1724, the very system that is used in America.

Thermometers, as we know, measure temperature by using materials that react and are sensitive to differences in the amount of heat. The number system labeled on the thermometer allows us to visually measure these reactions and thus attain a quantitative value of heat.

Many countries today also use the Celsius scale, which was introduced later (around 1948). There was no way to quantify heat at the turn on the 1700s—with the introduction of the mercury thermometer, the world could now easily measure heat. The thermometer is like the wheel. It’s become an imbedded part of our lives, and it all started back in 1724. There is no need to even point out the influence it had on America—no, the entire world.

Picture from:
http://inventors.about.com/library/graphics/thermometer.jpg

Sources:

About.com. Who Invented the Thermometer. 2 Jan. 2004 < http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blthermometer.htm>.

This site provided me with information on the invention of the thermometer, its uses, and how it works.