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barometer.jpg
 Copyright Jan 1st 2008 by lynn Mills all rights reserved
Lynn Mills, Bountiful High, Utah, class of 58
How to Make a Sensitive barometer
What you will need:
  • A small Glass or plastic  jar.
  • A glass Quart fruit jar or bigger with an air tight lid.
  • Smallest size aquarium tubing. About 6 feet.
  • cooking oil
  • A ruler or suitable scale.
  • Clear Silicone rubber adhiesive.

A Barometer measures air pressure. Why is it important to measure air pressure? On June 30th 1908 at 7:40 AM there was a huge explosion in North Eastern Russia. This tremendous explosion was so powerful that it flattened over 80 million trees and clouded the atmosphere world wide for two years. Thanks to a knew invention called a barograph, the for runner of todays barometer, the barograph was able to record the pressure wave from the explosion even though it was thousands of miles away in Great Britain. The cause of the Tunguska events are still being researched and debated today, nearly a hundred years later. Another huge explosion that was heard 3,000 miles away was the devistating Krakatoa eruption. The effect on the Earths atmosphere was recorded on barographs world wide for over 15 days after the eruption. Fortunately these kinds of cataclysmic disasters are rare but there are events taking place in our atmosphere constantly and the energy release of these events are larger than even Krakatoa and Tunguska put together. Luckily the energy release is slower and spread over large areas. Of course the events we are talking about are not volcanoes, meteors or comets but are storms. The energy imbedded in a single large storm system is many times that of krakatoa or Tunguska.  At any one time there are hundreds of storms world wide. One of the first technical instruments used to forecast weather was the barometer. Generally a strong storm front will begin lowering atmospheric pressure 24 hours ahead of the storm front. Even though that statement is true it is also an over simplification but we won't delve any deeper than generalizations here. If you would like to be able to watch storms approach you can build a very sensitive yet simple barometer.
    When you have gathered the supplies listed above assemble them as shown  in the illustration. It is important that the empty bottle be at least a quart size and that it is glass. A quart canning jar is ideal. The aquarium tubing is inserted through a tight fitting hole in the lid of the fruit jar and then seal it with silicone rubber. It is important that the fruit jar is completely air tight. The only place air should be able to escape is through the tubing. You may want to Make a box as shown below to hide the jars. The cooking oil jar should also have a lid with a hole in the center in which the tubing fits snug to hold it i n place. It is imperative that you add an additional tiny hole in the lid so air can get in and out.
box.jpg When you have everything assembled you will need to get the cooking oil to go up the tube to about half way up the ruler or what ever you decide to use as a scale. Before inserting the end of the tubing into the cooking oil suck some of the air from the quart fruit jar by sucking on the end of the tube. and then crimping or kinking the tube to hold the vacuum in until you insert the end of the tube into the cooking oil. The vacuum should draw the oil up to about the middle of the scale. It may take several tries. You could use water in place of the cooking oil but it will evaporate. the oil won't  The barometer is quite accurate in fall winter and spring but not as much so in the summer time. About 24 hours before a storm moves in the liquid in the tube will begin to fall. If the barometer begins to rise that is an indication of fair weather for the next twenty four hours. Email me with questions or comments. I would love to hear from you.

Lynn       wwindmills@comcast.net    Class of 58 Bountiful High, Utah
    
        Here is how it works
As a low pressure area moves in the air pressure out side the sealed quart fruit jar is less than the air pressure inside the jar. Thus the higher pressure inside the jar pushes down the liquid in the tube until the presure in the quart jar becomes equal to the atmosphric pressure outside the fruit jar. As high pressure builds out side the quart fruit jar the pressure inside the jar becomes less than the outside pressure so the  outside atmosphere pushes harder on the outside surface of the oil and forces the liquid inside the tube up until the pressure in and outside the jar becomes equal.  

Note: I have used a 5 gallon glass water cooler bottle and it was so sensitive that the movement of the oil up and down the tube could be easily seen. A big drawback to using such a large bottle for the diaphram is that variations in temperature also makes the oil go up and down.                  


Some of my other pages
Science

 Fishing


 Quackery
Cartoons
By
Lynn Mills		 Odds and Sods
And a little tongue in cheek
Matter state change and lightning!
When you breathe out water vapor you might
be helping to create lightning!		 FishTackler®
Registered TM for sale! Click here for Info.		 Cartoon 1
Strip Poker		 Incredibly beautiful Drying Soap Bubbles
About Me Do Fish See Color? Cartoon 2
Left Overs		 Energy Demand Verses Global Warming!
Black light UV LED
to convert a 3 or 4 cell flashlight		 Fish the Strike Zone. Cartoon 3
Are You Asleep?		 Bee Wars 200,000 Bees verses 3 men &
a dog! A true story.
Make Wild Fires
Go Away!		 Triple spinner Bumble Bee  Cartoon 4
Panty Hose.		 A long shot coincidence or Number please?
Where Does Lightning Come From? How to make Freeze Dried Night crawlers
or if messy isn't your thing...		 Cartoon 5
Tantrums		 How to Unlock Gridlock  This one earned
me the, "delightful nut" awardCJ
Acid etching Limestone Fossils Order Freeze Dried Night Crawlers. Cartoon 6
Bermuda Triangle		 Panning for gold in western WA
3D Through the Eyes of T Rex Triple Blade Pop Style Fishing Spinners Cartoon 7
How Was It?		 A Virgin Lost Gold Account
The Amazing World of Silica Gel
All you need is a laser pointer and silica gel.		 FishTackler® Home Page Cartoon 8
Rocking Egg		 Grooming the Environment, a Green Thing 
What is Ultraviolet Light? Triple Spinner Chartreuse Chaser Cartoon 9
Remove Your Clothes		 Outdoor Survival Tips that may save your life!
How to Make an Ultraviolet Light How to Fish With GloWings™ Cartoon 10
God's Great Computer.		 The amazing EZ garden
Purify Your Drinking Water The Scarlet Minnow    Cartoon 11
Shear Delight		 My memories of Bountiful, Utah
1947 - 2007
Science Fair, Phone on a Wire Cartoon 12
Wet the Bed		 Grow tomatoes indoors
Subduction Zone Volcano Postulate. Cartoon 13
Basket Ball		 Tips for your Halloween Haunted house
or spook alley
The Mystery Clock, how does it works?     Cartoon 14
Lovin the Rain		 Spook Alley page 2 
Like SciFi? Read
Blue Dot .		     The Camp Fire Ghost!            
"Photo"
Is it real or has it been altered? Can you tell? 		    Metal detecting stories and tips.        
"Photo"
How to erase unwanted objects		                       
How to make a barometer        
How to make a smoke ring cannon                  
The 3 States of Matter and the laws governing
Charge and heat seperation
Bottle the Wind!
How to store masssive amounts of energy!