Ice Calorimeter

Scientists began studying the heat produced in chemical reactions long before they even understood what a chemical reaction was!
At a time when scientists still believed that matter was made up of elements like Aristotle's earth, air, fire and water, and the concept of energy had not yet been formulated, they were using the newly invented
mercury-in-glass thermometer to measure the temperature of substances and the results were surprising.

The December 2013 edition of AUS-e-NEWS discusses the development of the very first calorimeter, the ice calorimeter, in 1780.

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