Cone barometer. Encyclopedia of technologies and methods. All. Homemade cone barometer is ready

08.03.2020

Well, who has not heard that the weather is predicted by fairly simple physical instruments - barometers ?! Simple something simple, but rare in our homes. And it's hard to buy these days. In addition, everyone got used to relying on weather reports on radio and television. But there we are talking about huge regions: the Central Black Earth region, Moldova, Ukraine, Central Asia ... But how do you find out about the weather in a particular place, where you are now - in the country, in the countryside, hiking, pioneer camp?

Rural residents or experienced tourists can predict the weather several hours ahead using a variety of signs. How? The prognosis lies in the behavior of swallows, crows, frogs. Even leeches, earthworms... Flowers, trees, their foliage also act as predictors...
You can do it even easier. From ancient times in Russia, craftsmen took forest barometers. Yolka, for example. You need a branch with a diameter of 2-3 centimeters and a height of 4-5 centimeters with two knots diverging in different directions. Having cleared it of the bark, you can consider yourself the owner of a good natural barometer. Why? Here is the explanation. From moisture, the tree swells and grows at least a little in size. The knots of our craft are slightly curved. This means that the wood fibers on top and bottom have different lengths. Absorbing moisture, the lower layers lengthen more than the upper, short ones (see Fig. 1). Why not the arrows of the device?
As you can see, nothing complicated. The whole problem, surprisingly, is your ... love for the forest. You can not take a barometer from a green Christmas tree. Find dry or wilted. Cut off the top of it - it is quite suitable for making barometers, which are shown in figures 2-4.
Spruce cones will also be useful for us. Best of all, the largest - they have large scales. Remove all the scales from the cone, except for two, as shown in Figure 5. It remains to glue short straws on the ends of the scales - another device is ready.
Place all barometers on a sheet of plywood. And set the sheet itself vertically somewhere in the shade, under a canopy. Such forest adaptations will serve you for several years.

Interesting:
Each person needs his own hobby to occupy his free time, well, or calm his nerves, brighten up loneliness, in general, to each his own. Knitting lessons will help you learn how to knit and crochet. Having learned to knit, for you it will no longer be just a hobby, but something more.

Often the gardener looks at the sky - will it rain or not? Water today or not? After all, to believe the forecasts given by the weather service is a thankless task.

Therefore, I want to tell you about the device of a very simple (but quite reliable!) barometer, which our grandfathers used with success.

How to make a barometer with your own hands from a spruce cone

Everyone knows that wood, leather and similar organic materials are sensitive to any changes in weather conditions. In humid air, for example, leather becomes softer and wood details increase in volume. As a result, in the rain, the scales of the same pine cone are more tightly pressed against each other, and in dry weather, on the contrary, they open up, which makes the cone become ruffy. This behavior of cone scales was noticed by our ancestors, realizing that it is quite possible to predict the weather from a cone, that is, to use a cone as a barometer.

Making such a barometer is quite simple. For its manufacture, you will need two planks (for the base and rack). The boards are connected with glue, reinforced with small carnations (see fig.). Next, a scale is prepared from thick paper, drawing divisions on it and drawing two simple icons: the sun and a cloud with rain. A large pine cone is attached to the base.

Then a dry blade of grass with a paper arrow at the end is glued to one of its scales.

All. Homemade cone barometer is ready

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	Flashlight from ... a syringe

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A beautiful summer day. A light, barely perceptible breeze lazily pulls the sedge. Nimble dragonflies quickly dart over the mirror surface of the lake. An industrious woodpecker, with respectable perseverance, earns his living in the high crowns of pines. And it seems that time has stopped, and there is no such force that could break the beauty and radiance of this day. Only from the west the nakedness of the sky is bashfully covered by shaggy clouds. Will it rain?

Good day, dear lovers of scientific and technical creativity! Do not rush to close the page. You didn’t make a mistake with the link at all and that’s why you accidentally ended up on a literary site. I was just lucky enough to spend a couple of days in nature, and the breathtaking beauty of the pine shore of the lake could not but leave pleasant impressions and even, as you can see, woke up some literary notes in it 🙂 time did not allow curiosity to fade away.

In general, it was decided not to surrender to chance, but to predict weather changes in an instrumental way. Of course, one could try to make, as already described on the pages own laboratory. Moreover, to my deep regret, it is not at all difficult to find a glass vessel in the forest in our time - many people behave extremely disrespectfully towards nature, leaving garbage behind after their rest. But since I was at some distance from civilization, I also wanted to use exclusively natural tools.

As we know, . Weather conditions are closely related to atmospheric pressure. Conversely, changes in atmospheric pressure can be judged by changes in weather conditions. If in the case of a liquid barometer we measured directly changes in atmospheric pressure, then in this article we will talk about a barometer that can record changes in weather conditions that are not yet perceptible to humans. And for this purpose, a pine cone is perfect for us, of which there were a myriad of them in our parking lot.

Our ancestors have long noticed that cones are very sensitive to changing weather conditions. In good dry and clear weather, the scales of the cone open, and in rainy weather they shrink. Based on these observations, we will make a barometer from a cone.

For this we need:

pine or spruce cone;
wood resin;
grass stalk.

The cone should be chosen larger - the barometer readings from such a cone will be more accurate.

The stalk of grass (it will serve us as an arrow) needs to be taken thinner and more authentic. The longer the stem, the more accurate the measurements, again. However, you need to choose the golden mean between the length of the blade of grass and its mass - it should be light. We cut off the excess.

We get this arrow:

In my case, the resin found was solidified, so it needed to be melted a little. If you managed to find a flowable resin, then you can skip this step.

Melted resin is applied to one of the scales of the cone ...

... and before it has time to harden again, glue the stem.

That's it, the pinecone barometer is ready!

For the convenience of taking readings, such a barometer needs to be fixed on something and a scale should be made for it. I approached the issue of choosing a tripod fundamentally and chose as it ... a pine tree, tying a cone to it with a long stalk of grass.

I did not make a scale - I simply placed the arrow vertically. With this arrangement, any deviations of the arrow will be noticeable. But you can make a scale, say, from a piece of bark and fix it with the same resin.

As a result of several hours of observation of such a barometer, a deviation of the arrow to the left was noticed, i.e. the cone began to close, indicating rain. To make it clear to you how far the pinecone barometer needle deviated, I tried to combine two photos in a graphic editor: immediately after installing the natural barometer and a few hours later. The combination, of course, turned out to be not ideal, because. photographed without a tripod, but, nevertheless, the difference is noticeable.

Well, in conclusion, I want to note that the forecast of such a self-made barometer was completely justified - it started to rain at night. So a cone barometer is a fully functional device and can be used to predict the weather in field conditions!

Homemade barometers

What only people are not much, especially in predicting the weather. Here, dear friends, let's talk about all sorts of things in this section, which, I hope, will help you predict the weather. And if you consider that the official reports of the "Hydrometeorological Center" resemble old fortune-telling on coffee grounds, then these home-made things will turn out to be very, very useful for someone.

Burnt out light bulb barometer

Take a burnt out light bulb, and where the base with the threaded part begins, carefully drill a small hole with a diameter of 2-3 mm. This should be done very carefully, otherwise the balloon may crack or break.

Here is the easiest way to drill glass. At the point where you marked the hole, apply a drop of machine or sunflower oil. Take the abrasive powder from medium-grained sandpaper and add it to the oil drop to make a viscous paste, a little thinner than toothpaste. Then clamp the copper wire in the drill chuck. Its diameter should match the size of the hole you want to drill. Gently clamp the lamp base in a vise. And wrap the glass flask with a towel or rag.

You need to drill very carefully, applying minimal effort.

When the hole is drilled, fill it with tap water, filling the glass flask halfway. Then add two or three drops of ink or a piece of indelible pencil lead to it and mix. The barometer is ready.

It remains to wait until the inner wall of the flask dries out, and hang the barometer between the window frames. It is best on the north side, where direct sunlight will not fall on it. If the windows face south, install at the top of the window. After a few hours, you can take readings. Our barometer can predict the weather for the day quite fully. Overcast or partly cloudy awaits us, whether a bucket sets in or it starts to rain - a small lingering, short-term, maybe thunderstorm ...

True, you need to know some features in order to decipher the testimony.

Suppose the inner walls of the light bulb are covered with small drops of condensed water - tomorrow it will be overcast, but without precipitation.

Partly cloudy - the walls of the bulb were covered with drops of medium size, and vertical dry stripes formed between them.

If the walls are partially covered with large drops of dew, expect short-term precipitation. And from top to bottom, and drops, growing larger, flow down - there will be a thunderstorm.

Large drops are only at the surface of the water, and the neck of the bulb is dry - the rain will pass by, 30-60 km from your places.

It is raining outside the window, and the walls of the light bulb have become completely dry, without fog and droplets - excellent weather will set in tomorrow.

And if dew drops appeared only on the north side of the balloon, expect rain tomorrow afternoon.

Of course, you can use such a barometer only if the air temperature is above zero, that is, in spring, summer and early autumn.

Homemade spruce barometers

Siberian hunters have long noticed that the branches of coniferous trees fall before rain or snow and rise before clear weather. This ability is also preserved in dry spruce branches, which makes it possible to make simple, long-lasting barometers from them.

This simple device predicts weather changes in 8-12 hours. To make a barometer from a spruce branch, you need to take a 25-30 cm piece of a dry tree trunk along with a 30-35 cm branch, peel it from the bark and attach the sawn part of the trunk to a plank (it can be hung on the wall). The branch should be in such a state that when lowering its free end down (before bad weather) and raising it up (towards clear weather), it moves parallel to the screen wall without touching it.

For convenience, a plywood or metal scale with a division of 1 cm is attached to the plate near the ring of the “arrow” branch. , just like a conventional barometer. Such a simple device is indispensable for gardeners and gardeners.

fir barometer

You can use another similar way to determine the weather.

Cut a 10-12 cm long sprig of young fir with needles. Remove all needles from it, except for one. And it will become your barometer.

To do this, attach a twig with two small carnations to a plank of plywood, wood or plexiglass. The only requirement is that the fir needle be free to swing up and down.

Bring the needle to a hot stove, oven, or place it near a gas burner ... The moisture from the surface of the twig will evaporate very soon, and the needle will rise up. Make a mark on the board - 1, and then write "Sunny".

Hang the barometer in the shade so that direct rays do not fall on it. All is ready. Now, leaving the house, you can predict both a sunny day and rain, depending on the position of a single needle of a young fir ...

Fir cone barometer

To make a simple device that predicts the weather for several hours in advance, you will need two even wooden planks. For the base, cut a square with a side of 70 mm, and for the side, a rectangle of 70x150 mm. File the ends with a large file, and then clean the entire surface with sandpaper. Connect them with glue, strengthening with small nails, as shown in the figure. Cut out a scale from thick paper, draw divisions and two signs on it: the sun and the umbrella. At the very sidewall, attach a large dry pine cone to the base. Glue a dry straw with a paper arrow at the end to one of its lower scales. That's all.

How the device works - no need to explain. Install it on the balcony or outside the window - and, please, it will tell you with high accuracy whether to take an umbrella with you that day.

Travel barometer

Cut a branch off a young fir or pine tree. Separate from it a segment 10 cm long with a thin long needle growing on the side. Now take a flat plank or plywood 150x100 mm in size and nail a prepared piece of fir to it so that the needle can move freely (see Fig.). The barometer is ready. It just needs to be graded. Bring the device to a hot stove or stove - the heat will straighten the needle and rise up. Where she stops, take a risk. Then bring the appliance to a stream of steam escaping from the spout of the kettle. From exposure to moisture, the needle will drop down. Here mark the second risk. Connect the risks with an arc and divide into several equal parts. It remains to make the appropriate inscriptions, as in the figure. When hiking, the barometer is placed in a place protected from direct sunlight, and it will predict the weather for you.

bottle barometer

The barometer (see figure) consists of a bottle with transparent glass, a glass tube and a cork.

The bottle is one third filled with water, it is better to take distilled water, since ordinary water blooms in a year. Water can be slightly tinted. A hole is made in the cork into which a glass tube is inserted. The junction is covered with plasticine. Now it remains to plug the bottle with a cork. The barometer is ready. When atmospheric pressure begins to change, the water level in the tube will change. If air bubbles begin to come out of the tube, it means that the pressure is very high, and this is for clear, stable weather, at such a time there is a good bite. If water starts pouring out through the top of the tube, the pressure is low, you can expect a storm, and you should not go fishing.

bottle barometer

syringe barometer

A barometer is a device that shows changes in atmospheric pressure, and therefore changes in the weather. You can easily make such a device yourself according to the proposed drawing.

The manufactured barometer needs to be adjusted: when it is reported on radio and television that the pressure is 760 mm Hg, use the piston of the lower syringe to set the water level in the tube to the height of the middle mark. High pressure, which usually "predicts" good weather, pushes water from an open syringe into a thin tube, and low pressure, on the contrary, causes a decrease in its level in the tube.

To prevent the water from evaporating, put a drop of vegetable oil into the syringe, and to make it better visible, tint it.

Barometer of two syringes and a dropper

To make a barometer, we need: two syringes of 10 cc (1 and 2), a tube from a dropper with a diameter of 3 mm (3), a wall thermometer (4), a board 16x25 cm (5), a sheet of graph paper (6), clips or tape (7), buttons (8), cloves (9). Materials are completely scarce and inexpensive. The connection diagram of the parts is shown in the figure.

Hang the assembled barometer in the room vertically on the wall at eye level so that the rays of the sun do not fall on it, away from the window and the kitchen.

Fill the system with boiled water only! This should be done at a room temperature of +18 degrees, and an atmospheric pressure of about 750 mm Hg. (its value can be found in the weather forecast messages on the radio or in newspapers). this is the average value of the atmospheric pressure range (720-780 mmHg). At the beginning of filling, set the piston of the upper syringe 1 at mark 7, and pour water into the body of the lower syringe without piston 2 up to mark 10. After that, by raising the piston, set the water level in tube 3 at mark 750.

The principle of operation of the barometer- compression and expansion of a closed volume of air depending on atmospheric pressure. 96-98% of its volume is in the upper syringe, and 2-4% is in the tube, where it is blocked by a water seal (VZ). When the pressure rises, the air is compressed, the air intake level rises. When it goes down, vice versa, it goes down. The U-shaped deflection of the tube ensures the tightness of the air intake. Therefore, neither the distance from the upper syringe to the scale, nor the length of the vinyl chloride tube affect the accuracy of the barometer readings.

The "step" of the barometer scale in 1 mm is equal to 1 mm Hg. The dimension of the scale is affected by the amount of closed volume of air. Therefore, before use, raise the piston of the upper syringe to mark 7, which corresponds to 7 cc at a pressure of 750 mm Hg. Air compression by 1 mm, respectively, raises the air intake level by 1 mm. Place the body of the second syringe at the level of the scale.

For the convenience of taking readings, the water should be slightly tinted. The dependence of the change in pressure on the weather, of course, can be subtracted in the literature. But the best thing is to go by experience. At first, record the barometer readings in a special journal, but on the contrary, write down what kind of weather they correspond to. In this case, it is desirable to take readings at an air temperature in the room of 18 degrees (using heaters or cooling the room by ventilation).

Having accumulated empirical material for all manifestations of the weather, then only barometer readings will be enough for you to accurately navigate in its future changes. This means that timely measures should be taken to protect garden plants and horticultural crops growing in open ground from rain, hail, frost and drought.

Oil can barometer

A simple barometer can be made from a small tin oil can with parallel sides.

Pick up a cork that tightly closes the only hole of the future barometer. Before you put the cork in place, you need to make a hole in it of such a diameter that you can pass a transparent tube-straw for cocktails through it. However, it is better to use a glass tube with an inner hole diameter of 1.5 - 2.0 mm.

The container is 2/3 filled with tinted water, a tube with a cork is inserted into the hole, while in the tube

Fix such a barometer on a stand with a vertical ruler. You can calibrate it by taking readings from a real barometer.

Instead of a metal container, you can use any small glass bottle. After filling with tinted water and fitting the stopper with the tube, add some water to the tube. Since the body of the barometer is rigid, when the pressure increases, the water level will decrease, and when it decreases, it will rise.

glass jar barometer

To make a barometer, we need: wide-mouth jar, balloon, scissors, rubber band, drinking straw, cardboard, pen, ruler, duct tape or tape.

1. Cut the balloon open and pull it tight over the jar. Secure it with a rubber band.

2. Sharpen the end of the straw. Glue the other end to the stretched ball with adhesive tape.

3. Draw a scale on a cardboard card and place the cardboard at the end of the arrow. When atmospheric pressure rises, the air in the can is compressed. As it falls, the air expands. Accordingly, the arrow will move along the scale.

If the pressure rises, the weather will be fine. If it falls, it's bad.

When you covered the jar with a balloon, you trapped air in it at a certain pressure. Thus, the ball will now change depending on atmospheric pressure, that is, on the pressure of the air around you. An increase in atmospheric pressure will push the ball into the jar, causing the tube to rise up. Or vice versa, when the air inside the jar will press on the ball more than the air outside the jar, the ball will inflate, and the tube will point down. The tube is just used to make it easier for you to see changes in the shape of the ball.

Note that the tube will move up or down shortly before the change in weather, because changes in the weather are usually associated with a change in barometric pressure.

photographic plate barometer

Another amazing barometer design for photography enthusiasts.

Find a black and white negative of a landscape that shows both water and vegetation, take a glass plate and expose the negative on it. Then develop and immediately after washing, dip for 15 minutes in a 10% solution of cobalt nitrate, bypassing the washing stage, dry the plate and carefully paint over the trees, shrubs and grass depicted on it from the side of the emulsion with a thin layer of porous, easily permeable yellow paint, for example, watercolors or gouache. After the paint dries, frame the plate - the weather barometer is ready, and in order not to damage the fragile layers of emulsion and paint, place it between the glass of the window frame.

The sky and water on the photographic plate will turn blue, and the vegetation will turn green as dry weather approaches, but as the weather worsens, the image on the plate will fade: the sky and water will turn gray, and the leaves and grass will turn yellow. The principle of operation of such a barometer is based on the fact that cobalt nitrate crystals, deposited on the photoemulsion layer, change their color depending on the humidity of the air: with a high moisture content, they become colorless, and in dry weather - blue, in those places that are covered with paint, two colors - yellow and blue - mix to form green.

Such a simple barometer predicts the weather quite accurately.

Immortelle Barometer

A bouquet of flowers can also be used to predict the weather. If well-dried immortelle flowers on stems are treated with a solution of 200 g of water, 4 g of glycerin and 30 g of cobalt chloride, a bouquet of dried flowers will turn yellow before a bad weather, and with the onset of clear sunny weather, the flowers become bright green.

Barometer - hygrometer

The seeds of some plants have awns that quickly and sensitively react to changes in air humidity: at high humidity they straighten (unwind), and in dry air they twist in a spiral. Therefore, a simple but sensitive hygrometer can be made from them. For this, the most suitable fruit is with the awn of such an annual low weed plant, which is ubiquitous on arable land, like the cicutus stork (see Fig.).

stork

The fruits of the stork

If a hole is pierced in the center of a cardboard circle with a diameter of 5-6 cm with a needle and the lower end of the fruit (seed) is fixed in it with a drop of glue, then in dry weather its sickle-shaped tip will deviate counterclockwise (to the left) in a circle, and with increasing humidity - back (to the right).

Barometer-hygrometer from the fruit of the cicuta stork

Barometer - aneroid

Like a real barometer, our homemade product is able to respond to changes in atmospheric pressure and can serve not only as a visual aid, but also as a measuring device.

The sensitive part of the device - the pressure sensor is a hermetically sealed jar. When the external pressure is greater than the air pressure inside the jar, the lid and bottom seem to be pulled inwards. If the external pressure is less than the internal pressure, the lid and bottom bend outward. It remains to connect the lid or bottom of the jar with the pointer - and the barometer is ready.

Bank - from under instant coffee. Instead of a cover, solder a circle of thin tin or brass to it - this is the sensor membrane. After soldering, check the tightness of the jar by lowering it into water. If there are no bubbles, everything is in order, you can glue the bottom of the jar to a wooden stand. Place a rack next to the jar and fasten the arrow bar on it so that it easily rotates around the axis, but the end of the arrow hangs down under gravity. Slightly departing from the axis, attach a rod in the form of a wire hook to the bar and connect the end of the hook with another similar rod soldered to the center of the membrane circle. The total length of the rods should be such that, at normal atmospheric pressure, the end of the arrow is approximately opposite the middle division of the scale.

When atmospheric pressure starts to decrease, the end of the arrow will begin to drop down. As the pressure increases, the end of the arrow will crawl up. Comparing the readings of a homemade barometer with a real one, it is easy to calibrate the scale in units of pressure.

Barometer from a can of condensed milk

The basic steps for making a barometer are shown in the figure.

Take a glass or transparent plastic tube, attach it to a vertical board with clamps. Then we proceed to the manufacture of a tin box with a diaphragm.

Cut off the bottom of the condensed milk can so that its walls are 40 mm high. Carefully bend the top edge of the bike outward, lay the ring of copper wire and roll it up to the joint with the wall. Solder the joint. Seaming is needed so that the edge of the tin does not cut through the rubber diaphragm. Remove irregularities after soldering with a knife and sandpaper.

Solder a tin pipe into the side of the vessel. Its outside diameter should be the same as the glass tube of the manometer. The hole for the nozzle should be 12 mm above the bottom of the can. Solder three identical perforated tin feet under the bottom of the vessel and nail the vessel to the panel above the shorter gauge leg. Connect this elbow to the vessel nozzle with a rubber tube. It remains to make the diaphragm. The material for it is thin rubber. You can use a children's balloon (preferably one that has not yet been inflated). Stretch the diaphragm well on the opening of the vessel and tie it tightly with a gray thread. If you now press on the diaphragm with your finger, the air in the vessel will compress. This pressure will be transmitted to all the air in the pressure gauge leg connected to the vessel. Fluid will flow into the free leg until its level difference is equal to the pressure you are applying to the diaphragm.

hydrostatic barometer

A glass jar, a glass or vinyl chloride tube inserted into it - that's all that is required for manufacturing. The jar is filled with water one quarter and tightly closed with a cork, and a tube is inserted into it so that its lower end is lowered into the water.

To prevent air from entering the jar, the cork must be sealed with plasticine or putty. Before using such a barometer, blow into the tube. At the same time, air will enter through the water into the jar, and the water level in the tube will rise. In the event that the jar is well sealed, the pressure in it will remain constant, and any changes in atmospheric pressure will cause changes in the water level in the tube. It remains only to calibrate the scale, and the device can be used.

Hydrostatic barometer: 1 - a can of water, 2 - a box with sawdust, 3 - a tube, 4 - a mount, 5 - a rail with divisions.

balloon barometer

The simplest barometer can be made from a balloon and a straw. How it is arranged can be seen from the figure. The most important thing here is to seal the ball well, otherwise the apparent change in pressure value will be caused by air leakage.

Balloon barometer: 1 - straw lever (200-250 mm), 2 - thread, 3 - lever suspension thread (distance between threads 3-5 mm).

Barometer "Carthusian Falls"

This barometer design can be made on the basis of the "Cartesian diver", a toy that we have repeatedly written about. True, instead of a funny person in this design, a can of stationery glue was used. The canister is filled with water so that when it is immersed in a jar, it does not sink, but protrudes slightly above the surface of the water, while maintaining a vertical position. To do this, the thread on its neck is wrapped with copper wire of the required length. A small metal bracket is attached to the bottom of the can. For this bracket, with the help of two paper clips, the can is suspended from the rack.

This is how a barometer works. When atmospheric pressure changes, the water level in the can rises or falls. At the same time, the can itself floats or sinks and pulls the arrow along with it. As you can see, everything is quite simple. To make the water evaporate less, it is better to drop a few drops of engine oil on its surface.

Barometer "Carthusian Falls": 1 - a vessel with water, 2 - a can, 3 - a load, 4 - a counterweight, 5 - a stand, 6 - an arrow, 7 - a scale, 8 - a paper clip bracket, 9 - electrical tape, 10 - holders, 11 - a support for an arrow .

Home hydrometeorological center

The principle of "master oneself" really justifies itself in many areas of our lives. If you want to add independent weather forecasting to the many things that are necessarily carried out according to this principle, then you really need two thermometers, one of which needs to be wrapped in a damp cloth or cotton wool, put in a jar and constantly make sure that they are wet. Using the table below, by comparing the readings of two thermometers, you can quite confidently predict the possibility of frost.

There are many folk signs that allow you to determine what the weather will be like tomorrow. Here are just a few of them:

The weather will improve tomorrow

1) if cumulus clouds appear in the morning, which will disappear by evening;

2) if in the evening after a bad weather the sun comes out and there are no clouds in the western part of the sky;

3) if the smoke from a fire or chimney rises in a column;

4) if cumulus clouds move across the sky in the same direction as the wind near the ground;

5) if it is quiet and cool at night, and the moon sets in a clear sky.

The weather will get worse tomorrow

1) if the wind does not subside by evening, but intensifies;

2) if cumulus clouds appear in the morning, which by noon will take the form of high towers or mountains;

3) if clouds of all types are simultaneously visible in the sky: cumulus, "lamb", cirrus and wavy;

4) if smoke from a fire or from chimneys spreads along the ground.

If you were at home and did not observe what was happening outside the window last night, a barometer may come in handy for predicting the weather.

You can use the clues of nature, or you can try to make a barometer with your own hands. Next, we will give several methods for making simple barometers, found in the study of the magazines "Lefty" and the appendix "For skillful hands" to the magazine "Young Technician".

Light bulb barometer.

It is necessary to take an electric light bulb, and where the base with the threaded part begins, carefully drill a small hole with a diameter of 2-3 mm. This must be done very carefully, otherwise the cylinder may crack or break.

The easiest way to drill glass: at the point where you marked the hole, apply a drop of machine or sunflower oil; take abrasive powder from medium-grained sandpaper and add it to an oil drop to make a viscous paste, a little thinner than toothpaste; clamp a copper wire in the drill chuck (its diameter should correspond to the size of the hole you want to drill); gently clamp the lamp base in a vise, and wrap the glass bulb with a towel or rag.

Carefully drill the hole using minimal force. Pour tap water into it, filling the glass flask halfway, then add two or three drops of ink or a piece of chemical pencil lead into it and mix - the barometer is ready.

When the inner wall of the flask dries out, you can hang the barometer between the window frames, and best of all on the north side, where direct sunlight will not fall on it. If the windows face south, install at the top of the window and after a few hours you can take readings. The barometer can predict the weather for the day quite fully. Overcast or partly cloudy awaits us, whether the heat will set in, or it will rain a little, long, short-term, maybe thunderstorms ...

You need to know some features in order to decipher the readings of such a barometer:

1) the inner walls of the light bulb were covered with small drops of condensed water - tomorrow it will be overcast, but without precipitation.

2) the walls of the light bulb were covered with drops of medium size, and vertical dry stripes formed between them - partly cloudy.

3) if the walls are partially covered with large drops of dew, expect short-term precipitation.

4) from top to bottom and drops, growing larger, flow down - there will be a thunderstorm.

5) large drops only at the surface of the water, and the neck of the light bulb is dry - the rain will pass by, 30-60 km from your places.

6) it is raining outside the window, and the walls of the light bulb have become completely dry, without fog and droplets - tomorrow the weather will be great.

7) if dew drops appear only on the north side of the cylinder, expect rain tomorrow afternoon.

You can use such a barometer only if the air temperature is above zero, that is, in spring, summer and early autumn.

Pine cone barometer.

Wood, leather, other organic materials, even our hair are sensitive to any changes in weather conditions - in humid air, the hair becomes longer, the skin becomes softer, and the tree changes volume ... For example, in the rain, the scales of a pine cone are pressed closer to each other, and in dry weather, on the contrary, they open, which makes the cone become ruffy.

This property can be used to make a simple barometer that predicts the weather for several hours ahead. To make a barometer, you will need two flat wooden planks for the base and sidewall. Connect them with glue, reinforcing them with small nails, as shown in the figure, cut out a scale from thick paper, draw divisions and two signs on it: the sun and an umbrella, attach a large dry pine cone to the base at the very sidewall. Glue another dry blade of grass with a paper arrow at the end to one of its lower scales.

Install a barometer on the balcony or outside the window - and, please, with high accuracy, it will tell you whether to take an umbrella with you that day.

Photographic plate barometer.

Another amazing barometer design for photography enthusiasts.

Such a simple barometer predicts the weather quite accurately.

Barometer from a fir or pine branch.

To make such a barometer, it is necessary to cut a branch from a young fir or pine. After separating from it a segment 10 cm long with a thin long needle growing on the side. Then take a flat board or plywood 150x100 mm in size and nail a prepared piece of fir to it so that the needle can move freely (see Fig.) - the barometer is ready. Only it needs to be graduated: bring the device to a hot stove or stove - the heat will straighten the needle and rise up, where it stops, make a risk; bring the device to a stream of steam escaping from the kettle spout - the needle will go down due to moisture, mark the second risk here. Connect the risks with an arc and divide into several equal parts, it remains to make the appropriate inscriptions, as in the figure.

Fix the barometer on a stand with a vertical ruler, you can calibrate it by taking readings from a real barometer.

You can also use any small glass bottle instead of a metal container, after filling with tinted water and installing a cork with a tube, add some water to the tube. Since the body of the barometer is rigid, when the pressure increases, the water level will decrease, and when it decreases, it will rise.