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[weelisa]

I enjoyed a recent entry about barometers* and weather panels. My dad, who grew up by the sea, always had an old-timey barometer that I always thought was cool - especially when the arrow pointed to "stormy

Comments

[penwiper337]

AHHHHHHH thank you thank you thank you! My great-grandmother had several of these and I've wanted to get one for YEARS, but I had no idea what to call them. Thank you!

[weelisa]

Kewl - glad to be of assistance. Too bad you didn't inherit one of your great-grandmama's!

[weelisa]

**tenting fingers**
Excellent!

[dip_thong]

During the Great Exhibition, they had a leech powered Tempest Prognosticator. And if that isn't steampunk, I really don't know what is.

[tdiym]

Wow! I love the design but I feel kind of sorry for the leeches, trapped in little bottles and freaking out over the impending weather....

[weelisa]

Yowza!

The image of the leeches getting up to ring a bell is quite amusing but I, too, can't help but worry about their living conditions/health although the inventor professes to be concerned about a possible "affliction of solitary confinement."

I wonder if a little opium was involved in the invention process...

[lady_giz]

Another inventive though I expect rather disgusting forecasting device which comes from folk medicine, I believe-- involves animal fat (and water?) in a jar. I have even seen an article on a man who has many such devices, each of a different kind of animal fat-- testing out the accuracy, I believe. Accurate or not, I can't imagine the odor was very pleasant.

[weelisa]

Interesting - who knew there were so many techniques? I'd certainly take a fat jar over a leech contraption any day, but I don't think you can beat an elegant glass with purty-coloured water in it.

[_free_spirit]

I have one of these! It is actually quite accurate most days.

[weelisa]

Really? That's good to know - I was wondering about accuracy. I think I'll definitely pick one up the next time I see it.