Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 68, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1910 — WHEN IT MARKS ZERO. [ARTICLE]

WHEN IT MARKS ZERO.

The Chief Peculiarity of the Fahrenheit Thermometer. The chief peculiarity of the Fahrenheit thermometer is that when it marks zero there are at that moment just 32 degrees of frost in the air, which is a fair start for a cold day. But when 50 degrees of frost are added, by the drop of the mercury this much below Fahrenheit’s arbitrary zero mark, as is frequently the case in various parts of our country, what folks are really getting ,1s 82 degrees of frost. As a matter of fact, the point where things begin to freeze or to thaw is the natural dividing line, and not Fahrenheit’s zero mark, which does not enter into consideration until things have been frozen up to the extent of 32 degrees. In other words, when one is told how cold it is, he should really be informed as to the amount of all the frost and not merely a part thereof, just as when things began to warm up, one would like to know just how warm it is from the freezing point, and not, as with the Fahrenheit thermometer, be obliged to subtract 32 degrees of non-existent frost, in July say, in order to learn the actual truth. It follows, therefore, that the truly sensible thermometers are those known as the Centigrade and the Reaumur. Both take the points at which water freezes and water boils as points fixed by nature. The space between these two points is divided on the Centrigrade thermometer into 100 degrees, and on the Reaumur into 80 degrees. The division into 100 degrees is probably better than that into 80 degrees, but only for the reason that so many things in this world are divided by tens and hundreds that most of us are more or less accustomed to the decimal system. Both the Centrigrade and Reaumur thermometers are honest and accurate in making zero just at that point on the tube where there is actually "nothing doing,” as between heat and cold — where, if any change Is made, it must be made either in the direction of heat or of frost.