Anders Celsius was born in Uppsala, Sweden in 1701. Achieving the position of a professor was in his genes, since both his father and grandfather were professors at the University. He succeeded his father Anders Spole as professor of astronomy and built ‘The Uppsala Observatory’, Sweden’s first observatory, in 1741. Besides being known for his ‘Celsius scale’, he was also noted for his observations of the aurora borealis and his promotion of the Gregorian calendar.
The shape of the Earth was a major controversy in Celsius’s time. Isaac Newton proposed that the Earth is flattened at the poles, while another suggested that the Earth was elongated at the poles. To resolve this issue, in 1735 two expeditions sailed, one to Ecuador in South America and another to Northern Sweden. Anders Celsius was the only professionally qualified astronomer on the expedition to Northern Sweden. The measurements achieved supported Isaac Newton’s theory.
Anders Celsius, as we all know, is not only the astronomer and inventor, but a noted physicist. He discovered that the aurora borealis influence the compass needles. Then again, the work that made him famous is his temperature scale, which is based on the boiling and melting points of water. The scale was recognized as the standard and is utilized for most of scientific work and calculations today.
In 1744, Anders Celsius was diagnosed with tuberculosis; he died when he was only 42 with many of his research projects left pending. Among his pending works was the draft of a science fiction novel on the star Sirius.
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