We all know that water boils at 100 °C. So was the 18th-century scientist who pushed the boiling point to 112 °C wrong? There was only one way to find out
While researching a book on the history of the thermometer, Hasok Chang found himself reading accounts of old experiments on boiling water. Soon he had steam coming out of his ears. "I'm going, these guys must be crazy or badly mistaken or taking the mickey," says the historian of science at the University of Cambridge.
What raised his hackles was the repeated assertion that water could boil at temperatures other than 100 °C. There was 101 °C, 103 °C – even, in one account of work by the 18th-century Swiss scientist Jean-André de Luc, 112 °C. The researchers involved were reputable, and the procedures they followed seemed legitimate. So what was ...
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