How to Easily Add Water to a Weather Glass Barometer

Also called a "glass water barometer" or an "Old Dutch weather-glass", according to Funtime Wholesale, weather glass barometers started out being made by glass blowers in Liège, Belgium in the seventeenth century. They were originally called "Liège barometers". You can see pictures here. Sailors used weather glass barometers to forecast the weather. These simple, yet scientific, devices accurately predict the weather by barometric pressure. Basically, when the water level in the spout is high, it means low air pressure (rain, snow, storm, et cetera) is imminent. When the water level is low, the barometric pressure is high, and that indicates good weather. Read this informative article and find out how to easily add water to a weather glass barometer.

Warning: Handle the glass carefully as it is fragile.

Initially Adding Water to A Weather Glass Barometer
A glass barometer resembles a teapot in that it has a roundish body and a long, thin spout. To start forecasting the weather, it needs to have water put in it. First, if you want the water to be colored so it's easier to see, put a couple drops of food coloring (you can use any color you wish, according to The Weather Workshop, but blue seems to be the standard) into the opening on the top of the spout.

Then, to easily add water to a weather glass barometer, hold it upright under a running faucet. Hold it so a cool water stream is running into the opening on the spout. Fill the barometer slowly so you can monitor the water level. When the water reaches about a half-inch above where the spout is connected to the bowl,
shut the faucet off. Don't worry if you overfill the glass barometer. Simply turn it over and drain the excess water from the opening in the spout.

Note: You can fill a weather glass barometer anytime and get it started. But, the best time to put the water in is when the barometric pressure is 30 or above, according to The Weather Workshop.

Adding Additional Water to A Weather Glass Barometer
Evaporation and dripping over (when a storm is approaching) make a glass barometer lose its water. That's why, periodically, you'll need to add a little water to bring the level back up.

To add more water, the directions on my glass barometer says to hold it under a running faucet again. Once I initially filled it and hung it up on its stand, I didn't want to handle the fragile glass any more than I had to. So, I use a 2-inch piece of a drinking straw and a clean medicine bottle with a syringe top. I cut a few, short, vertical slits in one end of the straw. The slits allow me to push the bottom of the straw together so it fits in the small opening in the spout of the weather glass barometer. The top of the straw provides a larger opening than the small one in the spout.

Then, remove the syringe from the bottle and fill the bottle with water. Fill the syringe up and empty it into the straw. I do this two or three times and my weather glass barometer is ready to forecast the weather again.

Resources
http://barometer.funtimewholesale.com/
http://www.theweatherworkshop.com/barometers.html