Gabriel Fahrenheit was born in May of 1686 and passed away in September of 1736. He was a German engineer and physicist, and most of his life was spent working within the Dutch Republic. While Fahrenheit was born in Poland, his family originated in Rostock and Hildesheim. Gabriel was the eldest of the five Fahrenheit children that survived into adulthood.
Fahrenheit’s parents passed away at an early age, and Gabriel had to learn to make money and survive. He went through business training and became a merchant in Amsterdam. He had a lot of interest in the natural sciences so he started studying and experimenting in his spare time. He also traveled around a great deal, and finally settled in The Hague. There, he worked as a glassblower, making altimeters, thermometers, and barometers.
In addition to giving lectures in Amsterdam on the subject of Chemistry, Fahrenheit continued to work on developing meteorological instruments. He is credited for creating very precise thermometers. The first ones used alcohol. Later, he used mercury due to superior results.
In order for Fahrenheit’s thermometers to be used, though, there had to be a scale associated with them. He came up with one based on
- the coldest temperature he could get in a laboratory setting
- the point at which water froze
- and the temperature of the human body
