(1836 - 1925)
English Physician
By the nineteenth century, doctors had begun to link extremes of temperature with specific illnesses. Despite this, the thermometers they were using remained inconvenient, large and cumbersome instruments.
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The Allbutt Clinical Thermometer was the first practical device which was invented for taking temperatures. It could be easily carried around and gave rapid, accurate readings.
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This version of the thermometer became an indispensable diagnostic aid, joining the stethoscope in the doctor’s bag.
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The Allbutt Clinical Thermometer was around 6 inches long, and contained mercury. It resembled very closely the thermometers of today.
Video: motion.pl • Shutterstock
Image: Alan Raine • Used with permission
Allbutt initially persuaded the Leeds based company Harvey & Reynolds to manufacture his thermometer, and advertised his new invention to the medical profession through the trade catalogues. It was taken up quickly by doctors throughout Britain. Although he sold and marketed his thermometer himself, Allbutt also made his design widely and freely available.
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Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt is today renowned as one of Yorkshire’s most celebrated physicians. Born in Dewsbury, he trained in London and Cambridge, and then moved to Leeds, where he worked at the Leeds General Infirmary for twenty years. It was during this time that he devised the clinical thermometer.
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After the demands of hospital practice, Allbutt spent a brief period as a consultant to the London asylums. He then took up the prestigious Regius Chair in Medicine at Cambridge, which he held until his death in 1925.
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Apart from his famous invention, Allbutt’s other major contribution to medicine was his eight-volume collection, 'A System of Medicine', which was published between 1896 and 1899. This became one of the most widely-used sets of medical textbooks in Britain.
Source: Wikipedia
Images: Believed to be in the Public Domain or used with permission
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