Page:Theory of Heat, James Clerk Maxwell, Fourth Edition.djvu/21

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This thermometer consists of a glass tube terminating in a bulb, the bulb and part of the tube being filled with mercury, and the rest of the tube being empty. We shall suppose the tube to be graduated in any manner so that the height of the mercury in the tube may be observed and recorded. We shall not, however, assume either that the tube is of uniform section or that the degrees are of equal size, so that the scale of this primitive thermometer must be regarded as completely arbitrary. By means of our thermometer we can ascertain whether one temperature is higher or lower than another, or equal to it, but we cannot assert that the difference between two temperatures, and, is greater or less than the difference between two other temperatures,  and.

We shall suppose that in every observation the temperature of the mercury and the glass is equal and uniform over the whole thermometer. The reading of the scale will then depend on the temperature of the thermometer, and, since we have not yet established any more perfect thermometric scale, we shall call this reading provisionally 'the temperature by the arbitrary scale of the thermometer.'

The reading of a thermometer indicates primarily its own temperature, but if we bring the thermometer into intimate contact with another substance, as for instance if we plunge it into a liquid for a sufficient time, we find that the reading of the thermometer becomes higher or lower according as the liquid is hotter or colder than the thermometer, and that if we leave the thermometer in contact with the substance for a sufficient time the reading becomes stationary. Let us call this ultimate reading 'the temperature of the substance.' We shall find as we go on that we have a right to do so.

Let us now take a vessel of water which we shall suppose to be at the temperature of the air, so that if left to itself it