Taylor Instrument Companies Etched-Stem Thermometer 1940s?

Presented by Betty Doyle. Ms. Doyle obtained the thermometer from her father, Paul Greene, who was a herdsman caring for Guernsey cattle. The thermometer was used on Brookberry Farm, Forsythe County, North Carolina from the 1940s until 1970, when all the cows were sold. The farm was owned by Bowman Gray, Jr.

George Taylor and David Kendall founded the Taylor Instrument Company in Rochester, New York in 1851 under the original name Kendall & Tyalor. The general stock and trade of the company was in thermometers and other instruments for monitoring temperature. Kendall and Taylor had both worked as thermometer makers before forming their partnership. Kendall left the company in 1853, and Taylor succeeded him as sole owner before withdrawing himself in 1859. George's brother Frank came to Rochester in 1862, and renamed the company Taylor and Richardson under himself and Hamlet Richardson. Richardson left in 1866 and later sold his interest to George Taylor in 1870. The company then became the Taylor Brothers Company in 1872. George remained president of the company until his death in 1889. Frank succeeded him and stayed on as president until 1900. Frank Taylor began branching out with the purchase of several other companies, beginning with the purchase of the Watertown Thermometer Company in 1891. The individual companies purchased by the Taylor Brothers Company were consolidated under the umbrella name Taylor Instrument Companies in the early 1900s. Taylor Instrument Companies merged with Combustion Engineering in 1983, becoming one of the largest process instrumentation companies in the U.S. Combustion Engineering became part of the ABB Group in 1989, joining the largest electrical engineering company in the world. (Taylor Instrument Company Papers, D. 120, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester)

This collection contains 1 thermometer filled with red liquid. The thermometer is 16 x 1 cm, and has a temperature range of -30 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Also included in this collection is a cylindrical case for the thermometer, measuring 18 x 2 cm. The exterior of the case includes the company name, Taylor Instrument Companies, and the item number: no. 6110.

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[Identification of item], Taylor Instrument Companies Etched-Stem Thermometer, MSS 00432, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC

• Taylor Instrument Company Papers, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
• Walter Peter Baermann Papers, 1903-1972, MC 00244

Transferred from William Rand Kenan, Jr. Library of Veterinary Medicine, 2019 (Accession 2020.0006)

Processed by: Clara Wilson, 2020 January; machine-readable finding aid created by: Clara Wilson, 2020 January.