Thermometer Capital Of The World
Richard Porter loves thermometers. The former junior high science teacher’s passion was ignited as he fixed the instruments broken by students. He began collecting them, starting with the piece that had hung for years outside his uncle’s New Hampshire gas station. Before his daughter died from a brain tumor in 1990, she made a plea: “She said, ‘Dad, do something with your collection,’ ” Porter recalled.
His answer was to open the Porter Thermometer Museum in the basement of his Onset house. Now the world’s largest — and only — thermometer museum welcomes visitors every day Porter is home. Porter, meanwhile, has assumed the identity of Thermometer Man, and his collection is listed in Guinness World Records as the world’s largest.
Courtesy: Kathleen Burge, Boston Globe Staff
Photos: www.plymouth.wickedlocal.com
