Temperature Measurement, 2nd edn
Łukasz Michalski, K. Eckersdorf, Jacek Kucharski, Joseph McGhee · Measurement Science and Technology · 2002
This book covers a very wide range of temperature measurement apparatus and techniques including those relevant to industry, and it deals with some of the corrections that are needed in non-ideal situations. As well as dealing with all the standard instruments, e.g. thermocouples, it also deals with newer instruments, e.g. fibre optic thermometers, thermal imagers or many types of semiconductor thermometers. The techniques include the signal conditioning and (computerized) processing of the instruments' outputs. The chapters on temperature measurement in industrial applications and under dynamic conditions take the book beyond many other texts on temperature and it does have a lot of references to other work. This is a revised edition of a book first published in 1991. On comparing with the first edition this revision has corrected several of the obvious larger mistakes, introduced several new chapters, e.g. on medical thermometry, and reordered the pyrometry chapters. However, the majority of the book remains the same text as the first edition. About half the pictures have been updated to more recent equipment, while remaining outdated pictures have been dropped. However, I cannot recommend this book without qualification. When I looked at the chapter particularly relevant to me - ch 22: Calibration... - I found that it relied too heavily on older references and the 1990 documentation for ITS-90 fixed points. Uncertainties in realizing the ITS-90 fixed points are now better than suggested in the book and water triple points can be kept for weeks rather than `at least 24 hours'. The diagram of the long-stem standard platinum resistance thermometers (SPRT) shows gold leads. Modern SPRTs have used platinum leads for many years because gold leads conduct too much heat. The water bath diagram is quite squashed (vertically) and so gives the wrong impression regarding the need for deep baths to give good immersion. These are perhaps examples of a generalized criticism of the book: apart from the new chapters the opportunity of updating the text and references has not been fully grasped, and so some parts feel a bit dated. For example, just how much are Wheatstone bridges actually used these days? The book ignores the impact of ac bridges into commercial calibration labs - they are not just the preserve of National Standards Laboratories. Further, while the introduction to thermocouples refers directly to the Seebeck effect, the language of the book still gives the impression that the junction is important for the generation of the thermocouple voltage rather than the temperature difference along the wires themselves. The introduction to pyrometry is rather unusual and could move more directly to Planck's radiation law. On occasions I found the English style odd - it seemed to use overemphatic language - and there were more typographical slips and errors than might be expected with modern wordprocessing aids. One quite misleading error on p 90 quotes a reference as saying that rhodium-iron resistance thermometers can go to 220 oC, while the reference itself only mentions temperatures below 273 K. The book is useful in that it covers a wide range of thermometry, particularly in the applied area, but where the book has tried to review some of the more recent instrument advances it perhaps goes into specific commercial examples too quickly (which will probably be superseded soon) and doesn't first bring out the generic strands of these instruments. Having given these qualifications one must realize that temperature measurement is a very large topic and I don't know of any other recent publications that cover the range of this book. So if one is aware of the weaknesses of the book it could still be a useful addition to the library. David Head