[The thermometer was invented in the sixteenth century, but it is
disputed who the inventor was. The claims of Santorio are supported
by Borelli and Malpighi, while the title of Cornelius Drebbel is
considered undoubted by Boerhaave. Galileo's air thermometer, made
before 1597, was the foundation of accurate thermometry. Galileo
also invented the alcohol thermometer about 1611 or 1612. Spirit
thermometers were made for the Accademia del Cimento, and described
in the Memoirs of that academy. When the academy was dissolved by
order of the Pope, some of these thermometers were packed away in a
box, and were not discovered until early in the nineteenth century.
Robert Hooke describes the manufacture and graduation of
thermometers in his "Micrographia" (1665).]

24th. Lay pretty long, that is, till past six o'clock, and them up and W.
Howe and I very merry together, till having eat our breakfast, he went
away, and I to my office. By and by Sir J. Minnes and I to the
Victualling Office by appointment to meet several persons upon stating the
demands of some people of money from the King. Here we went into their
Bakehouse, and saw all the ovens at work, and good bread too, as ever I
would desire to eat. Thence Sir J. Minnes and I homewards calling at
Browne's, the mathematician in the Minnerys, with a design of buying
White's ruler to measure timber with, but could not agree on the price. So
home, and to dinner, and so to my office, where we sat anon, and among
other things had Cooper's business tried against Captain Holmes, but I
find Cooper a fuddling, troublesome fellow, though a good artist, and so
am contented to have him turned out of his place, nor did I see reason to
say one word against it, though I know what they did against him was with
great envy and pride. So anon broke up, and after writing letters, &c.,
home to supper and to bed.