British physicist who made notable contributions to thermometry, calorimetry, and knowledge of the thermodynamic properties of steam. Callendar in 1886 described a precise thermometer based on the electrical resistivity of platinum; since then, platinum resistance thermometers have been prescribed for the determination of temperatures between the defined points of internationally recognized temperature scales. Later he developed the electrical continuous-flow calorimeter, which measures the heat-carrying properties of liquids. In 1915 he published The Callendar Steam Tables and in 1920 Properties of Steam and Thermodynamic Theory of Turbines. The tables are still widely used by engineers and scientists.

Callendar became professor of physics at McGill University, Montreal, in 1893; at University College, London, in 1898; and at the Royal College of Science (later part of the Imperial College of Science and Technology), London, in 1902.