Very delicate mercury-in-glass thermometer probably made in 1881. It has a blackened spherical bulb. The milk white back of the tube is marked “Tub. Non cyl div rectify. Syst. Baudin (1881-8)” and “Centigrade 9014” and it carries a scale from -20 to +72 degrees, graduated in fifths. A cylindrical metal case protects the instrument from harm.
J. N. Baudin opened a shop in 1852, and his son, L. C. Baudin, was still in business at the turn of the century. In his report on the International Exhibition held in Vienna in 1883, an American scientist noted “Thermometers of extreme delicacy are also constructed by Baudin in Paris but I am unable to give either his address or list of prices. He constructs thermometers only to order, and his prices vary from twenty to fifty francs.”
Ref: Wolcott Gibbs, “Physical Apparatus and Chemical Materials Suitable for Scientific Research,” American Chemist 7 (1876): 147.
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