What is the Scoville Scale?
The Scoville scale, named for its inventor, Wilbur Scoville, lists and compare the heat of "hot" peppers. Peppers get their heat from a chemical contained in their ribs and seeds called capsaicin. The Scoville scale is a means of comparing the amount of capsaicin in peppers, and therefore the intensity of the heat or hotness of the pepper.

Wilbur Scoville invented this scale.

He began testing peppers in the early 20th century by extracting capsaicin oil from dried peppers and mixing it with a sugar water solution. He theen had a panel of tasters sample it. He would continue to add the capsaicin extract until they could detect a trace of heat. The score reflected how diluted the mix was at that point. It's not terribly precise, but it has done a good job of flagging which peppers have kick.

At the bottom of the scale are bell peppers, with no capsaicin and a score of 0. At the top of the scale is pure capsaicin, coming in at 16,000,000 units. Some common hot peppers and their ratings are listed below.

Scoville Rating Pepper

Pure capsaicin 16,000,000
Naga-Bih Jolokia pepper 1,001,304
Habanero 100,000 - 350,000
Cayenne pepper 30,000 - 50,000
Jalapeñob 2,500 - 5,000
Pimento 100 - 500
Bell 0