Alcohol thermometer

The liquid used can be pure ethanol, toluene, kerosene or isoamyl acetate, depending on manufacturer and working temperature range.

One half of the glass containing the capillary is usually enamelled white or yellow to give a background for reading the scale.

[2] The physical limitation of the ability of a thermometer to measure low temperature is the freezing point of the liquid used.

These include Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who in 1654 made sealed tubes partly filled with alcohol, with a bulb and stem, depending on the expansion of a liquid, and independent of air pressure.

[4] Other sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica, credit Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit with inventing the alcohol thermometer in 1709.