This copper candy thermometer is composed of a long, rounded cover or open sleeve creating a base for the flat thermometer face to rest on. There is a long slender glass tube that runs along the center of the plate. This glass tube is attached to the base with metal hooks at both ends for stability. Behind the tube, the face of the copper sleeve is marked to display temperatures from 76-400 degrees Fahrenheit (There is a cursive F by the 380 mark to indicate Fahrenheit). On the top of thermometer's back there is a long black hook that was designed to attach the thermometer to a candy kettle. This hook would allow the copper back to rest evenly on the heated container and gauge and accurate temperature reading. The bottom and top of the tube are left open but unfinished work implies that there may have originally been caps that enclosed the piece. About halfway along the thermometer's face the manufacture has stamped its name "Philadelphia Thermometer Co." There is minimal scratching on the face but the handle is severely burned.

Cupid Candies, originally founded on 79 th and Ashland by Paul Stefanos in 1936, has always kept its manufacturing local in Chicago so that the product is fresh. The current manufacturing plant, at 7637 S. Western Avenue, has been in use since 1956. The thermometer must have been used in this plant. Now Cupid Candies has distributers across the midwest but they are all served by this factory.

The Philadelphia Thermometer Company, established in 1905, changed its name to Philadelphia Instruments and Controls, Inc. in 1995. The company is still located in Philadelphia. Candy Thermometers mad my the company are made from the same basic pattern today but with different colors.

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