Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
24 May 1686 – 16 September 1736
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was a physicist and instrument maker, born in Danzig and active mainly in the Dutch Republic. He invented the mercury-in-glass thermometer and developed the Fahrenheit temperature scale, which is still used in the United States.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit.
- Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) Overlapped 50 years →
- Edmond Halley (1656–1742) Overlapped 50 years →
- Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) Overlapped 50 years →
- George Berkeley (1685–1753) Overlapped 50 years →
- Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) Overlapped 50 years →
- Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738) Overlapped 50 years →
Life events
Fahrenheit was born into a German merchant family in the Hanseatic city of Danzig, then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAfter his parents' deaths Fahrenheit was sent to Amsterdam to train as a merchant, where he instead developed an interest in scientific instruments.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFahrenheit's parents died on the same day, reportedly from eating poisonous mushrooms, leaving the fifteen-year-old in the care of guardians.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFahrenheit spent years travelling through Germany, Denmark, and elsewhere, meeting scientists such as Ole Romer and refining his skills as a glassblower and instrument maker.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFahrenheit produced the first reliable mercury thermometers, whose consistency allowed different instruments to agree with one another.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFahrenheit settled in the Dutch Republic, making barometers, altimeters, and thermometers, and lecturing on chemistry in Amsterdam.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFahrenheit published papers in the Philosophical Transactions describing his temperature scale and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFahrenheit died at the age of 50 and was buried in the Kloosterkerk in The Hague.
Source: en.wikipedia.org