"Harry Bloomfield"; "Esq." wrote in message
...
After serious thinking michael adams wrote :
That is indeed the question. But the fact remains that the thermometer
does go up to 120C.

Why not a more than adequate scale range? As you yourself agreed, car
speedos go well beyond the possible maximum. My speedo ranges to 150MPH.

I wonder if for both the pipe thermometer and a car speedo, the gauge is
calibrated beyond what is ever achievable because the gauge becomes less
accurate as it reaches full-scale deflection and so they arrange that the
highest achievable is some way short of FSD. Only a theory - and I'm
probably wrong.

Even if water at 3 bar would boil at 120 degC, I doubt whether anyone would
set their boiler for that sort of temperature (60 is more typicial) because
any contact with a pipe at 120 would cause a nasty burn. I've always
wondered why it is that 50 degC shade temperature (eg in Death Valley) is
something that the human body cannot tolerate for more than a few minutes,
and yet saunas can (apparently) have a room temperature of almost 100 degC.
I know saunas are very dry heat but so is Death Valley.