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Paid for his new thermometer...
Thomas Jefferson, who served as the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, was one of the most avid weather observers of his time.
For more than 50 years, he kept careful, systematic records of temperature and other meteorological conditions, not only at his home in Monticello, but wherever he traveled. His devotion to his weather records was unwavering.
After he broke his right wrist while in Paris in 1786, for example, Jefferson made a record of his observations using his left hand. Jefferson was also a keen collector of weather instruments.
He reportedly owned one of only two barometers in America at the time (his records show the purchase of one on July 8, 1776), and he purchased nearly 20 thermometers during his life; this was at a time when they were considered a luxury instrument of the scientific elite—especially as they were not yet being manufactured in America.
While in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress, Jefferson recorded the purchase of a thermometer from a local merchant, John Sparhawk, for £3–15 (the equivalent, by one estimate, of more than $300 today) in his account book on July 4, 1776.
He had actually begun taking observations three days earlier, on Monday, July 1, in what is his earliest surviving set of weather records.
Regardless of whether these readings were made with a different thermometer or the new one which he had just paid for, he recorded a temperature of 82.5°F at 9:00 a.m. and 82°F at 7:00 p.m.
Although it was Jefferson's practice to take two observations a day (“one as early as possible in the morning, the other from 3. to 4. o'clock, because I have found 4. o'clock the hottest day light in the 24. hours”), he did not take an afternoon reading that day.
Thomas Jefferson, who served as the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, was one of the most avid weather observers of his time.
For more than 50 years, he kept careful, systematic records of temperature and other meteorological conditions, not only at his home in Monticello, but wherever he traveled. His devotion to his weather records was unwavering.
After he broke his right wrist while in Paris in 1786, for example, Jefferson made a record of his observations using his left hand. Jefferson was also a keen collector of weather instruments.
He reportedly owned one of only two barometers in America at the time (his records show the purchase of one on July 8, 1776), and he purchased nearly 20 thermometers during his life; this was at a time when they were considered a luxury instrument of the scientific elite—especially as they were not yet being manufactured in America.
While in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress, Jefferson recorded the purchase of a thermometer from a local merchant, John Sparhawk, for £3–15 (the equivalent, by one estimate, of more than $300 today) in his account book on July 4, 1776.
He had actually begun taking observations three days earlier, on Monday, July 1, in what is his earliest surviving set of weather records.
Regardless of whether these readings were made with a different thermometer or the new one which he had just paid for, he recorded a temperature of 82.5°F at 9:00 a.m. and 82°F at 7:00 p.m.
Although it was Jefferson's practice to take two observations a day (“one as early as possible in the morning, the other from 3. to 4. o'clock, because I have found 4. o'clock the hottest day light in the 24. hours”), he did not take an afternoon reading that day.