Voices.com Audition

Galileo, a philosopher known for expanding our knowledge of nature, was skilled at inventing instruments for research. In 1599, he hired a skilled workman to live with him and test the devices he created. One of his earliest inventions was the thermometer, which he made in 1602. He used water to measure temperature based on its expansion. Like many other philosophers who have greatly extended our knowledge of nature, Galileo had a remarkable aptitude for the invention of instruments designed for philosophical research. To facilitate his practical work, we find that in 1599 he had engaged a skilled workman who was to live in his house and be constantly at hand to try the devices which were forever springing from Galileo's fertile brain. Among the earliest of his inventions appears to have been the thermometer, which he constructed in 1602. No doubt this apparatus in its primitive form differed in some respects from the contrivance we call by the same name. Galileo at first employed water as the agent. Its expansion was the basis of the measure of temperature.