Victorian Hot Bed Thermometer by Patrick Adie of London

For sale, a rare hot bed thermometer by Patrick Adie of 395 Strand, London

Comprised of a black painted brass tube with spiked end surmounted with a mahogany frame containing a two-piece inverted thermometer scale each side of the thermometer tube which runs through the length of the instrument. The scale is divided for 30 – 100 degrees Fahrenheit and is engraved to the maker, “Adie 395 Strand, London”

The thermometer is protected by a hinged mahogany door with hook and eye catch to the front of the scale and is topped with a turned mahogany handle for easy insertion and extraction from the soil. The instrument measures 77cm in length.

Exotic plant gardening in Britain increased dramatically from around 1780 and grew exponentially throughout the early to mid-Victorian period. The onset of enclosed kitchen gardens and glass houses required gardeners and horticulturists to more accurately monitor soil temperatures to ensure safety of vulnerable plants and to monitor composting temperatures. In differentiation to soil thermometers, these hot-bed thermometer were therefore provided with scales which would allow for higher temperature readings.

An example image is also provided of a similar example retailed by J Hicks in his catalogues of the 1860’s. Slightly different in construction but designed along the same principles. A rare surviving example which looks to have been used very sympathetically during its working life.

The maker, Patrick Adie set up his business in 1844 at 395 The Strand, after serving apprenticeships with both his Father’s famous Edinburgh firm (Adie & Son) and the gas engineers, Milne & Son and specialised in the production of meteorological instruments. Through contacts made during his apprenticeship and training at Sir Thomas MacDougall Brisbane’s observatory near Kelso, Patrick made the close links with John Welsh Superintendent of The Kew Observatory that would eventually lead to the creation of the famous Kew Pattern marine & station barometers which were used extensively by The Met Office for years to come, a fitting development to his father’s earlier invention of the sypiesometer.

Adie himself developed a number of instruments during his lifetime including the first coincidence rangefinder used in astronomy. He exhibited numerous patent instruments at the Great Exhibition, The Paris Exhibition of 1855 and at the London Exhibition of 1862 and gained medals for his meteorological instruments. Close links were also garnered with the civil engineering industry, and his instruments were used as part of the great trigonometrical survey of India and in the construction of railways at home and abroad. 

Adie eventually died in 1886 from bronchitis and heart disease and upon his death, the Institution of Civil Engineers (of which he had been a member since 1865) wrote:

“That Mr. Adie possessed great inventive power is shown by the fact that he took out no less than twelve patents, many of which are well known, and have proved very successful. One of these patents he was engaged in perfecting at the time of his death. It consists in the employment of corrugated steel belting, in lieu of leather, which he believed would effect a large saving both in power and cost. In this opinion he was supported by some eminent Members of the Institution, to whom he was well known, and who frequently sought the advice which his great experience enabled him to give.”

His business continued until 1942 presumably under family ownership although the latter history of this London firm remains largely unclear. Adverts from this later period for cement making machines suggest a closer association with industry rather than retail.

Circa 1860