I’ve got a penny that can do as well as that.ĭefenders of the storm glass may blame this on our simplistic scoring method. In the end, accuracy for individual glasses ranged from 45 to 54 percent, for an average of 49 percent. This gave us a couple simple tests: the storm glass was clear or it wasn’t rain fell or it didn’t. First, how do you read crystals? Previous researchers’ descriptions were vague, but this much seemed plain: clear liquid meant clear skies, while crystals or cloudiness meant precipitation, which we defined as rain.
#Glass weather indicator plus
well, that’s what we meant to find out.Įvery day for 12 weeks, Una and Fierra recorded local weather conditions plus their observations of the crystals in each glass. Thereafter new crystals would grow or diminish in response to. But after a few days the initial crystal growth settled to the bottom of the tubes, leaving the liquid above clear. At first the experiment looked like a bust-the storm glasses became opaque with massed crystals. Each consisted of a big test tube filled with the precisely measured chemical mixture, then capped. Toiling late one night at Straight Dope Labs, Una and Fierra made six storm glasses. Una eventually convinced one supplier to send the chemicals after producing her engineering license. A hitch: initially no scientific supply house would ship the goods to a private residence, doubtless seeing in the ominous-sounding chemicals the ingredients of a terrorist plot. They researched storm glass recipes and ordered the appropriate chemicals and laboratory equipment. We’ll make some storm glasses of our own.
No problem, said my assistants Una and Fierra. However, no way was I shelling out $179.95. Tomlinson, on the other hand, tested a glass for several months and found it was sensitive only to heat, calling it a “rude thermoscope.” Japanese research from 2008 backs this up, pointing to temperature change as the sole cause of crystal growth. Fitzroy, meteorologist and captain of HMS Beagle (of Charles Darwin fame), touted the glasses’ accuracy in his Weather Book of 1863. Interest in storm glasses crested in the 1860s, when such scientific notables as Michael Faraday, Robert Fitzroy, and Charles Tomlinson investigated their properties. (The sealed version is standard nowadays, mainly because a whiff of the contents can bowl you over.) In some glasses the contents were exposed to atmospheric pressure via a flexible rubber cap, but other models were hermetically sealed. Early theories held that the chemical blend inside was sensitive to light, heat, wind, atmospheric pressure, or even electrical charge. The inventor of the storm glass is unknown, but descriptions date to the late 18th century. Each supposedly predicts a certain type of weather. The idea is that the mixture is so finely balanced that minor fluctuations in atmospheric conditions will change the solubility of the chemicals and produce a wide variety of crystal shapes, from tiny floating flakes to large masses of feathery fans. Whereas a 25-buck lava lamp, aided by the right combination of tunes and substances, will let you see God.Ī storm glass, also called a weather glass or camphor glass, is a glass tube containing a mixture of ammonium chloride, potassium nitrate, camphor, water, and alcohol, making a normally clear liquid in which different types of white crystals periodically grow and dissolve. For $179.95, a storm glass from Hammacher Schlemmer gets you a weather forecast of dubious accuracy. What’s the deal with a storm glass? Hammacher Schlemmer sells one and says, “Although how it functions remains a mystery, the ability of the stormglass to predict atmospheric change is well documented.” Does it work? If so, how? Or is it just a crappy lava lamp? -Dan
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