Tempest Prognosticator ( I call it the Leech Weather Gadget)

My daughter bought me a Storm Glass last Christmas and while I was browsing the internet I came across a very strange weather predictor from the same time period called the Tempest Prognosticator. Both are from about the 1860's.

First let me show you the Storm Glass (Fitzroy Storm Glass) my daughter gave me.

It's more decorative than practical but it looks great on my desktop.  Mine always stays in the same formation as the Warming image above.

See my earlier post:  REFLECTIONS: Search results for storm glass

I have a theory that it may not work very well because the liquid is in a sealed glass vessel.  It can react to the temperature of the room; maybe even some sort of magnetic or static force if that is possible. But it can't react to atmospheric pressure like a barometer. Now I've seen some old photos of storm glasses sealed on top with a cork instead of being completely sealed in glass. The cork is soft and should allow some changes in atmospheric pressure to affect the pressure inside the vessel.

Here's a photo of what must be a more recent homemade version with a cork stopper. 

Someday I want to maybe make a storm glass with a cork stopper to see what would happen.

Here's the recipe:

Now here's how the Tempest Prognosticator works:

At this time I'm not able to download the video but here's the link:

Predict the weather with leeches! Device explained - YouTube

I also wanted to insert more photos but it's not working; hope they fix it soon.