The Goethe barometer

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749  – 22 March 1832), was a German writer and thanks to that a very influential person. Goethe’s influence spread across Europe, and for the next century his works were a major source of inspiration in music, drama, poetry and philosophy. Goethe is considered by many to be the most important writer in Germany and one of the most important thinkers in Western culture as well. Early in his career, however, he wondered whether painting or writing might not be his true vocations; late in his life, he expressed the expectation that he would ultimately be remembered above all for his work on colour. Goethe popularized the Goethe Barometer using a principle established by Torricelli (1608-1647). According to Hegel, ‘Goethe has kept himself busy a good deal of his time with meteorology; barometer readings interested him particularly. The main thing is that he gives a comparative table of barometric readings during the whole month of December 1822, at Weimar, Jena, London, Boston, Vienna, He claims to deduce from it that the barometric level varies in the same proportion not only in each zone but that it has the same variation, too, at different altitudes above sea-level’ In 1793 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe crafted a special “weather glass”, which was discovered only after his death many years later in his Wiemar laboratory: a pear-shaped blown-glass vessel, with a raised spout like an elephant’s trunk, and which dripped water at the time of approaching rains. Called the Goethe Weatherglass Barometer, this fascinating device was widely used for many years to reliably observe changes in atmosphere pressure but it was eventually replaced by mercury barometers or aneroid barometers, and thus sunk into oblivion. The Goethe Barometer is firstly prepared by immersing the glass vessel under water, on its back, allowing it to fill about three-quarters with ordinary water, when returned upright, an air pocket forms in the top of the vessel, and the spout fills about half way with water. As air pressure lowers with the approach of a storm system, the air pocket inside the Goethe barometer expands, pushing water up the transparent glass, and water then drips out and down the instrument, where it collects on a small attachment mounted on the same provided wood plank wall-display on which the Goethe Barometer is also mounted. As air pressure increases with clear and cloud-free weather, the normal atmosphere pushes the water down and compresses the air pocket, and no water is observed to drip out. Compared with the other barometer instruments, the Goethe Barometer is simpler to use.