In the evening of the 9th the air began to be so
very sharp that we thought it would be curious to attend to the
motions of a thermometer: we therefore hung out two; one made by
Martin and one by Dollond, which soon began to show us what we
were to expect; for, by ten o'clock, they fell to 21, and at eleven to
4, when we went to bed. On the 10th, in the morning, the
quicksilver of Dollond's glass was down to half a degree below
zero; and that of Martin's, which was absurdly graduated only to
four degrees above zero, sunk quite into the brass guard of the ball;
so that when the weather became most interesting this was useless.
On the 10th, at eleven at night, though the air was perfectly still,
Dollond's glass went down to one degree below zero! This strange
severity of the weather made me very desirous to know what
degree of cold there might be in such an exalted and near situation
as Newton. We had therefore, on the morning of the 10th, written
to Mr. ----, and entreated him to hang out his thermometer, made
by Adams; and to pay some attention to it morning and evening;
expecting wonderful phaenomena, in so elevated a region, at two
hundred feet or more above my house.
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