The Stability of Carbon Resistance Thermometers

Abstract

The drift in resistance at a fixed temperature of a variety of carbon composition resistance thermometers has been measured in the temperature range 0.03–6 K. It is found that the drift in terms of an apparent ΔT/T is smaller for resistors having a smaller temperature sensitivity, and that these thermometers therefore have a better reproducibility in the usual meaning of the word. It is also shown that baking a resistor at temperatures of 300 to 400°C produces units essentially identical to unbaked resistors having the same room temperature resistance as the baked unit.