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lesson materials on thermometrics (1)

Domestication of the practice of taking people’s temperature constitutes a greatly noticeable fact in our society. However, the domestic disposition of this technology is a very recent occurrence.

In the following pages, we give an account of some of the different elements that could make up a teaching guide regarding the thermometer to be used by teachers and students.

First, as with any scientific artefact of current and everyday use, the risk to draw a linear history –technological determinism, self-sufficiency of technology- should be avoided. In this case we should go beyond a linear history from classical air thermoscopes to “thermistor” or infrared electromagnetic radiation thermometers, often used for families with children, in order to understand the complexity of processes in its historical context.