Pyrometer

A metal bar expanded when heated and pushed a pointer, so a scientist could read very high temperatures.

Maker: James Newman
Place: United Kingdom: England, London
Dimensions: overall: 6 1/2 in x 2 in x 5 3/4 in; 16.51 cm x 5.08 cm x 14.605 cm; overall in case: 1 3/8 in x 6 9/16 in x 5 1/8 in; 3.4925 cm x 16.66875 cm x 13.0175 cm
Museum: National Museum of American History

John Frederic Daniell (1790-1845) was an English scientist who, in 1831, became the first professor of chemistry in King’s College, London. He was also known for having devised a pyrometer that measured heat by means of the expansion of a metal bar. This Daniell pyrometer came from the U.S. Military Academy. The “J. Newman, 122 Regent Street, London” inscription refers to James Newman, an instrument maker active in the 1830s.

Ref: J. Frederick Daniell, “On a New Register-Pyrometer, for Measuring the Expansion of Solids, and Determining the Higher Degrees of Temperature upon the Common Thermometric Scale,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 120 (1830): 257.

J. Frederick Daniell, “Further Experiments with a New Register-Pyrometer for Measuring the Expansion of Solids,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 121 (1831): 443-458.

James Newman, A Catalogue of Philosophical Instruments (London, 1836 and 1837).

The museum's own record (Smithsonian, National Museum of American History)