The centigrade temperature scale was created by Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744) in 1742. He was determined to create a new temperature scale as an international standard to be used by scientists. To do so, he wanted the degrees of zero and 100 to be set under conditions easily reproduced in the laboratory: and those were the freezing and boiling points of water. Because the two extremes were divided into 100 degrees, he named it the centigrade scale. To honor his accomplishment, the Ninth General Conference on Weights and Measures officially changed the name to Celsius in 1948. Fortunately, since both words begin with the same letter, °C did not have to be changed as well.