tioned. The meetings were held in
 Florentine thermometer. |
the palace of Prince Leopold, who also presided. The ecclesiastical authorities did not, however, approve of the enterprise, and the same power that persecuted Galileo caused the academy to be dissolved after ten years of useful activity.
The results or the members' joint researches were published in 1667 in a volume fascinating to the historian of science; the "Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell' Accademia del Cimento," which was translated into Latin and into English, the latter by Richard Waller, F.R.S., and published at London in 1684; this edition is the one used in these chapters.
Five instruments for measuring heat were described by the academy:
I. The first is described as a long tube having a spherical bulb and closed with "Hermes' seal" at the flame of a lamp. The tube is filled with "spirit of wine up to a certain mark on the neck, so that the simple cold of
