Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (born May 24, 1686, Gdańsk; died September 16, 1736, The Hague, Netherlands), was a German physicist and an engineer, who worked for most of his life in the Netherlands. The Fahrenheit scale of temperature is named after him.
Fahrenheit was born to a German family in Gdańsk in Poland (province: Royal Prussia), where the Fahrenheits moved in 1650. He was the son of merchant Daniel Fahrenheit and Concordia Fahrenheit (widowed name Runge), who was the daughter of the well-known Gdańsk business family Schumann. Daniel was the oldest of the five Fahrenheit children who survived childhood (two sons, three daughters). Daniel's grandfather Reinhold Fahrenheit vom Kneiphof moved to Danzig from Königsberg and settled as a merchant. Research suggests that the Fahrenheit family originated in Hildesheim, although they lived in Rostock before moving to Königsberg1.
Upon the early death of his parents, Gabriel had to take up business training. However, his interest in natural sciences caused him to take up studies and experimentation in that field. Fahrenheit's studies brought him to Amsterdam, where he gave lectures in chemistry. In 1724 he became a member of the Royal Society.
He developed precise thermometers. The Fahrenheit scale was widely used in Europe until a switch to the Celsius scale. It is still used by the general population for everyday temperature measurement in the United States and Jamaica.
When he first made his thermometers, he used alcohol instead of mercury. Later he used mercury, which gave better results.
References
- G.D.Fahrenheit / R.-A.F.de Réaumur / A. Celsius by Horst Kant, 1984.