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Galileo invented a water thermoscope which allowed temperature variations to be measured. The thermoscope contained different balls of mass and when temperature changed; some would float, some would sink.
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Santoria became the first inventor to put a numerical scale on the thermoscope. This could be recorded as the first stage of thermometers.
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The first mouth thermometer was made by Santorio. It was the first crude clinical thermometer. It was bulky and took a while to read.
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The Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand made the first enclosed liquid in a glass thermometer. He used alcohol as his liquid for his thermometer
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Fahrenheit invented the alcohol thermometer in 1709
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Daniel Fahrenheit made the first "modern" thermometer with mercury.
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Fahrenheit made this scale to record accurate readings of temperatures. This scale showed water froze at 32 degrees and boiled and 212. According to him, the human body temperature was 100 degrees
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The Celsius scale was invented by an astronomer by the name of Anders Celsius. The boiling point and freezing point are divided by 100 degrees on this scale
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Lord Kelvin made the Kelvin scale. This scale measured extreme temperatures and added the belief of absolute temperature. He also developed the Second Law of Thermodynamics and a dynamic theory of heat.
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In 1867, Sir Thomas Albutt invented the first medical thermometer used to take people's temperatures. . It was portable, took 5 minutes to get their temperature and was 6 inches in size
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Around the WWII era, Benzinger invented the ear thermometer. In 1984, David Phillips invented the infra-red ear thermometer.
