Physics. [mod. f. Gr. θερμός hot, warm, θέρμη heat.] A proposed unit of heat: the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of water at its maximum density one degree centigrade. (Not generally accepted.)
1888. Rep. Brit. Assoc., 56. It was resolved, on the motion of Mr. W. H. Preece, to adopt the name ‘Therm’ for the Gramme-Water-Degree-Centigrade Unit of Heat.
1888. Nature, 13 Dec., 159. Electrical Notes.… The term ‘therm,’ in place of calorie, for the unit of heat in the C. G. S. system, has not met with general approbation.
1889. Rep. Brit. Assoc., 514. The Therm as the unit of heat … did not commend itself to the French members [of the Electrical Congress in Paris, 1889]. They preferred for the present to retain the word Calorie.
1899. Edser, Heat for Adv. Students, Pref. 1. Following the nomenclature used in the Smithsonian Physical Tables the term therm has been [here] used [etc.].
