Réaumur's Thermometer Scale

November 30, 1730

René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur presented his alcohol thermometer to the French Academy of Sciences, using a scale where water froze at zero and boiled at eighty. Competing with Fahrenheit's mercury instrument and, later, Celsius's simpler proposal, the Réaumur scale would dominate Continental kitchens and dairies for two centuries before surrendering to Celsius.