Homemade Barometer

When i was 18 I worked for a 1 legged man named Woody at a Bait Store in Abilene Texas and he showed me how to make a Barometer with a 1 quart glass Mayonaise Jar and a tall Glass Coka-Cola bottle and he swore by it and I do to because it is VERY Accurate.
Fill the 1 Quart Mayo jar and fill it with water.
Stand the Coke bottle upside down in the CENTER inside of the Mayo jar.

The water will start goin up insde the Coke Bottle as the Barometric Pressure rises .....
This is when the fish are Biting is what he always said....
He was a FlatHead Trotline Fisherman Only....

What a fun thing to do - any kind of markings to put on the Mayonnaise jar like "stay home no fishing" or "go early stay late" ?
Thanks for posting it!

jeffro,

Thanks for sharing that. I will have to give that a try just because it sounds like a fun project.

I have to ask the following question because it was the first thing that came to my mind when I read your post and I do not mean it to sound offensive. I am just curious.

Did they call him "Woody" because he had an artificial "wooden" leg? Sorry for asking, but, that was the first thing that came to my mind.

Very welcome to both of you...and yep I forgot his whole story but he introduced himself as Woody and reached down and accually Knocked on his wooden leg....and said if ya ever see me fall just help me git up cuz I'm an old man these days and only got 1 leg,,,got shot in the war,and never talked about it again.
He was a tough old coot.
back to the Barometer you will see the Fluid Level rise and fall with the gravity Pull of the moon....when the water starts on its rise,Go fishin at that moment and just see if I'm crazy.....I know it works for crappie and sandbass and Flatheads in Texas for sure.
The fluid level in the Soda Bottle shouldnt ever get more than 3/4 full but it will get almost completly empty itself at times like magic.
It works with the pull of the moon like the ocean tides.

Oh LadyFisher,
You can mark it if you want to but there is no need cuz you will see the difference in the soda bottle and the mayo without a dought.

That would be a fun project for my kids. Thanks Jeffro for posting that.

You're very welcome Sir!!
Be sure to use an old Soda bottle and remember it has to stand up in the center of the Mayo Jar upside down.
I am not camera savvy or I woulda sent a Photo ...I appologize

The weather instructor in the Power Squadrons told us about the martini barometer.

Mix a martini with a thermometer---Note the air temp before you start---we can say 70 degrees F for illustration.

Add the ice and stir the martini and when the glass gets frosted note the second tmperature ---we can say 60 degrees F. (Dew point)

The difference is 10 degrees and the standard adiabatic rate is 3.5 degrees per 1000ft altitude.

In this case the clouds would form at 3500 ft---well within the range for rain clouds.

Cheers---stay home and keep testing!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jeffro

The fluid level in the Soda Bottle shouldnt ever get more than 3/4 full but it will get almost completly empty itself at times like magic.
It works with the pull of the moon like the ocean tides.

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Barometric pressure doesn't vary with the tide or the pull of the moon. If it did, you would think barometric pressure would get higher at higher altitude where the moon's gravity is higher but barometric pressure gets lower at altitude.

A barometer measures the amount of atmosphere above the measuring point. The amount of atmosphere or air density varies with the weather and not with the moon. Typically, a low pressure front is bad for fishing so that is why the fishing seems to be better when the water goes into the bottle. The higher atmospheric pressure pushes on the water which compresses the air in the coke bottle and the water rises into the bottle. The water is not sucked into the bottle, it is pushed in by the atmosphere.

Low pressure systems can actually expand the air in the coke bottle so that some of the air will escape; but you wouldn't know it, unless you were watching the bottle. So an empty bottle represents the lowest barometric pressure that has occurred, and not necessarily the barometric pressure when you first put the bottle in the water. This means that water going up the bottle in several months can actually be a lower pressure than when you first put the bottle in if you happened to put the bottle in during a high pressure.

You can do an experiment by putting coke bottles into the water at different times and you will see that the water levels will be at slightly different levels for a while; but once you get a super low pressure, the bottles will synchronize as the air escapes from the bottles that were put in during higher pressure. It's a cool experiment.

Thanks Silver Creek for the headsup on that....I just always remembered what Ole Woody told me as a kid and never went any farther with it....but now we know the truth,interesting.....Thanks