Maximum minimum thermometer

Six's thermometer is a registering thermometer which can record the maximum and minimum temperatures reached over a period of time, for example 24 hours. It is used to record the extremes of temperature at a location, for instance in meteorology and horticulture. It was invented by a British scientist James Six, born in Canterbury, in 1780; the same basic design remains in use.

It is also commonly known as a maximum–minimum, minimum–maximum, maxima–minima or minima–maxima thermometer, of which it is the earliest practical design.

The thermometer indicates the current temperature, and the highest and lowest temperatures since last reset.

This describes the traditional construction. Modern designs may substitute less toxic materials but operate in the same way.

It consists of a u-shaped glass tube with two separate temperature scales set along each arm of the U. One of these is for recording the maximum temperature encountered and the other for the minimum temperature. The arms of the U-shaped tube terminate in sealed glass bulbs. The bulb at the top of the minimum reading scale arm is full of alcohol, the other contains a vacuum (or low pressure alcohol vapour).

In the bend of the U is a section of mercury, a metal which is liquid at normal temperatures. This is pushed around the tube by the thermal expansion and contraction of the alcohol in the first bulb as it responds to the external temperature. The vacuum in other bulb allows free movement of the alcohol and mercury. It is the alcohol which measures the temperature; the mercury indicates the temperature reading on both scales. This is unlike a normal mercury thermometer, in which the expansion and contraction of mercury itself indicates temperature.

The thermometer shows a reading at the top of the mercury section on both the maximum and minimum scales; this shows the current temperature and should be the same on both scales. If the two readings are not the same, then the instrument scales are not correctly positioned or the instrument is damaged.

...
Wikipedia