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It is not only important, but, in a degree necessary, that the people of this country, should have an American Dictionary of the English language; for, although the body of the language is the same as in England, and it is desirable to perpetuate that sameness, yet some differences must exist. Language is the expression of ideas; and if the people of one country cannot preserve an identity of ideas, they cannot retain an identity of language. |
THERMOM'ETER, n. [Gr. warm, from heat, and measure.] An instrument for measuring heat; founded on the property which heat possesses of expanding all bodies, the rate or quantity of expansion being supposed proportional to the degree of heat applied, and hence indicating that degree. The thermometer indicates only the sensible heat of bodies, and gives us no information respecting the quantity of latent heat, or of combined heat, which those bodies may contain.
An
instrument for measuring temperature, founded on the principle that changes
of temperature in bodies are accompanied by proportional changes in their
volumes or dimensions.
* The thermometer usually consists of a glass tube of capillary bore, terminating in a bulb, and containing mercury or alcohol, which expanding or contracting according to the temperature to which it is exposed, indicates the degree of heat or cold by the amount of space occupied, as shown by the position of the top of the liquid column on a graduated scale. See Centigrade, Fahrenheit, and Réaumur. To reduce degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Centigrade, substract 32° and multiply by ***frac59]; to reduce degrees Centigrade to degrees Fahrenheit, multiply by ***frac95] and add 32°. Air thermometer, Balance thermometer, etc. See under Air, Balance, etc. -- Metallic thermometer, a form of thermometer indicating changes of temperature by the expansion or contraction of rods or strips of metal. -- Register thermometer, or Self-registering thermometer, a thermometer that registers the maximum and minimum of temperature occurring in the interval of time between two consecutive settings of the instrument. A common form contains a bit of steel wire to be pushed before the column and left at the point of maximum temperature, or a slide of enamel, which is drawn back by the liquid, and left within it at the point of minimum temperature. | ||||||||