Culper Bell
Private
- Joined
- May 2, 2019
- Location
- Greensboro, North Carolina
You've probably heard of blood letting practices with leeches and perhaps even modern medicinal usage for leeches. But did you know that leeches were a relatively effective way to predict storms?
British inventor George Merriweather utilised the leech's natural ability to feel the changes in atmospheric pressure to invent a contraption to assist farmers and clergymen that had to travel great distances. Standing more than three feet tall, the ornate contraption housed twelve leeches within bottles accompanied by a small amount of rain water arranged in a circular fashion. Naturally during rainfall leeches travel up to the surface from water sources in search of meals, though in the bottles they performed the same action: They rose out of the rain water to the bottleneck which in turn would dislodge a whalebone pin that allowed for a large bell to ring [Though the ringing of this bell required the efforts of multiple leeches].
It was a relatively accurate system though it lacked the ability to tell the direction of a storm and more precise timing than knowing a storm was coming some time that day. It did however get featured in the Crystal Palace in London's Hyde Park as part of a long series called the "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations" hosted by both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1851.
Merryweather had high hopes for his invention and assumed it would be found on ships and farms, though it never caught on. The leeches were seen to be high maintenance and the Tempest Prognosticator fell to obscurity as more accurate forms of meteorology developed.
Further reading:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/leeches-predict-weather-tempest-prognosticator
https://whitbymuseum.org.uk/whats-here/collections/special-collections/tempest-prognosticator/
British inventor George Merriweather utilised the leech's natural ability to feel the changes in atmospheric pressure to invent a contraption to assist farmers and clergymen that had to travel great distances. Standing more than three feet tall, the ornate contraption housed twelve leeches within bottles accompanied by a small amount of rain water arranged in a circular fashion. Naturally during rainfall leeches travel up to the surface from water sources in search of meals, though in the bottles they performed the same action: They rose out of the rain water to the bottleneck which in turn would dislodge a whalebone pin that allowed for a large bell to ring [Though the ringing of this bell required the efforts of multiple leeches].
It was a relatively accurate system though it lacked the ability to tell the direction of a storm and more precise timing than knowing a storm was coming some time that day. It did however get featured in the Crystal Palace in London's Hyde Park as part of a long series called the "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations" hosted by both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1851.
Merryweather had high hopes for his invention and assumed it would be found on ships and farms, though it never caught on. The leeches were seen to be high maintenance and the Tempest Prognosticator fell to obscurity as more accurate forms of meteorology developed.
Further reading:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/leeches-predict-weather-tempest-prognosticator
https://whitbymuseum.org.uk/whats-here/collections/special-collections/tempest-prognosticator/