Image: Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius, who had the right idea, but actually got it upside down.
The rest of the world doesn’t know how good they’ve got it.
I’m talking about Celsius.
The rest of the world gets to use Celsius thermometers. We Americans got stuck with Fahrenheit.
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was a German physicist who developed his first thermometer in 1709. In 1724, he introduced a standard temperature scale —the Fahrenheit scale — that could be used to record changes in temperature in an accurate fashion. But he based his scale on the temperature of the human body, and set that point as 100 degrees. (Scientists later found out the actual temperature was closer to 98.6 degrees F.)
This decision, to base the temperature on the human body, had some unfortunate consequences, because the freezing point of water ended up at 32 degrees. Does ’32 degrees’ make any sense to anyone? No, it doesn’t.
Sure, the temperature of the human body is important. But is it more important than the freezing point of water? Ask any backyard gardener in Colorado, and they will gladly share their opinion on that question, right after their tomato plants have been killed by a freezing frost on June 30.
But the unfortunate consequences get even worse.
Enter, stage right, Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius, who cleverly devised a temperature scale in 1742, based on the behavior of water. But he totally screwed it up. He put the freezing point of water at 100 degrees and the boiling point of water at 0 degrees, which was obviously upside down. The problem was fixed five years later, when Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus produced a new thermometer with water’s freezing point at 0 degrees and its boiling point at 100 degrees. (Celsius had recently passed away, or he might have filed a protest.)
Somehow, the correct scale with water freezing at 0 degrees got the name ‘Celsius’ instead of ‘Linnaeus’ — which, when you really think about it, is as bad as confusing ‘Trump’ with ‘Biden’.
At any rate, the Celsius scale, based as it is on the number “100”, made chemistry much simpler for people who were less than competent in mathematics. When you base a system on “water boils at 100 degrees”, even a fourth grader can figure it out.
Meanwhile, it’s impossible to tell what the Fahrenheit scale is based on, unless you took the time to research the history of thermometers on Wikipedia. Which I have done for you.
(Another scientist, Lord Kelvin of Scotland — whose real name was William Thompson — extended the Celsius scale down to ‘absolute zero’ which is -273 degrees Celsius. He set the coldest possible temperature in the known universe as ‘0 degrees’, for no conceivable reason other than to get his name in the history books. We will ignore this foolishness by Lord Kelvin, other than to mention that “degrees Kelvin” sounds more scientific than “degrees Thompson'”)
Other scientists, including Isaac Newton and René-Antonie Ferchault de Réaumur produced scaled thermometers during the 1700s, but Fahrenheit and Celsius managed to get their names assigned to commonly used measurements. Sort of the same way Will Kellogg got his name assigned to corn flakes.
During the 20th century, almost all scientists adopted the Celsius scale. (Especially, as noted, those with poor math skills.) Then, in an effort to keep up with the scientists, governments started adopting the Celsius scale.
America is about the only country in the world that still uses the Fahrenheit scale. Mostly because we’re fiercely independent and hate following anyone’s lead. But this stubbornness has had negative results, which became obvious as we entered the 21st century.
I’m talking here about climate change.
For the rest of the world, the increase of the average global temperature has been about 1 degree C since 1980.
For America, because we are stubbornly using the Fahrenheit scale, the increase in the average global temperature has been closer to 2 degrees F.
Double the rest of the world! Climate change looks twice as bad in the U.S. as in Canada or Mexico. That’s just not right.
In my humble opinion, there’s no reason to remain stubbornly attached to a temperature scale invented in 1724, when it makes us look bad. We look bad enough already, for so many other reasons.
I wrote to my Senator, urging him to require the use of the Celsius scale, and all I get back is a form letter asking for a contribution to his campaign organization.
In the meantime, I’ve tossed all my thermometers in the trash, and I’m boycotting online weather reports, until our country comes to its senses.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.