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Die Isoterhmkurven Der Nordlichen Halbkugel in Physikalischer Atlas. Heinrich Berghaus, 1845. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress.

The First Isothermic World Maps

Posted by: Mike Klein

Called the “father of temperature mapping,” the renowned German naturalist and climatologist, Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) devised the concept of the isotherm, which he described in 1816 as a “curve drawn through points on a globe which receive an equal quantity of heat.” Humboldt’s initial diagram map of average temperatures appeared in 1817 in an …