1. On a Practical Constant-Volume Air Thermometer
In the fourth Mémoire of his celebrated Relation des Expériences, published in 1847, Regnault gives cogent reasons for preferring the air thermometer before any other as the instrument by means of which temperatures may be defined, and high temperatures determined. The thermodynamic researches of Sir William Thomson have furnished an absolute thermodynamic definition of temperatures ; and the experimental researches of Dr Joule and Sir William Thomson have established the practical agreement of Regnault's air thermometers with the thermodynamic scale of temperatures. Lastly, the air thermometer is at present the only instrument, with the exception of a mercurial thermometer which has been compared with an air thermometer, by means of which temperatures higher than, say, 150° C. or 200° C. can be determined within 3° C. or 4° C.*