#leech barometer

[arcanarubinaito]

Headcanon Post (1)

“Leech Barometer”

Okay so we all know about the Leech Barometer right? No? Okay well if you don’t, it’s a contraption that utilizes leeches to create a storm warning system. You heard me right: leeches.

The Leech Barometer—originally named the “Tempest Prognosticator”—used natural leech behavior as a warning system for incoming storms. When atmospheric pressure falls and the oxygen content in the water drops, the leeches instinctively try to move to the surface. It’s a neat little trick to predict bad weather, so George Merryweather (talk about names reflecting one’s job lmao) created a device that took advantage of that fun little fact. The Leech Barometer essentially consists of twelve bottles in a circle under a bell. Small hammers would strike the bell once the leech climbed high enough. I’ll link the Wikipedia article below, it goes into more detail about the mechanics.

The leeches used were presumably medicinal leeches since that’s what Merryweather refers to when talking about their sensitivity to weather conditions, and the device was more or less inspired by poetry. (“The leech, disturbed, is newly risen, / Quite to the summit of his prison.” Edward Jenner, Signs of Rain) It was fairly accurate but couldn’t actually tell you when the potential storm would hit. The more rings from the bell, however, the more likely it was for a storm to show up.

I have such a strong mental image of Julian kicking down Nadia’s door one evening, as a storm is brewing on the horizon, and aggressively pointing at a jar he’s holding. It takes Nadia a minute or so to realize what Julian is saying, but once she does he has her full attention. The leeches climb when a storm is approaching? What a fascinating concept.

The two of them immediately start discussing how they could create a storm warning system with the leeches. One could always look at the jar, but when you’re as prone to getting lost in one’s work or thoughts like Julian and Nadia are? They’d completely forget.

Julian is the one to suggest bells. The actual logistics on how to get the leeches to ring said bells, however, was Nadia’s idea. They spend an entire night working on a prototype, but by the time it’s finished the storm had passed and the leeches had settled. It isn’t until the next storm rolls along—they don’t have to wait long, it is a costal city after all—that they get the chance to test it out.

By the Gods, it worked! Only… well now there are pieces of whalebone floating in the water, and it is difficult to set back up again. Far more of a hassle than it needs to be. Once they fish out the whalebone and realign everything, Julian makes sure to tie the whalebone up with a string so that they can easily place it again after the next storm.

For areas like Nopal, it would make a great signal for when rain water would come. And Vesuvians in areas prone to flooding could use it as a signal to prepare. It was a brilliant invention!

Just, ah… perhaps not very streamlined. It takes up quite a bit of space and producing the prototype alone wasn’t cheap. They have the device moved into the new research laboratory Nadia had commissioned a while back, and now the question they both share was why the leeches behave this way.

(Asra and Portia frequently stop by to make sure they’re both eating, drinking, and taking breaks whenever they have the time to go on a research binge.)

Links & Inspiration

Wikipedia - Tempest Prognosticator

Australian Museum - Leeches

Atlas Obscura - The Rise and Fall of the Leeches Who Could Predict the Weather

Here’s the inspiration for this post. I couldn’t find the original, so here’s the crappy cropped version from Reddit. If you can find the original, please send me the link!

[space-stalagmite]

Tag yourself are you an absolutly stupid or positively prophetic westher leach

[yellbug]

this is what happens for real if you search leech barometer on duck duck go

[plaguedocboi]

Does Wormitha ever predict storms like a leech barometer? I know it isn't a very reliable method for checking the weather but I learned about it recently and I'm REALLY curious ^^

Sometimes. I have seen her get more active and start climbing around when a big storm hits, but it seems to depend on her mood because I’ve also seen her sleep through storms and not even notice. I think the more leeches you have, the more likely it is that at least one will get excited and start climbing during a storm, because back when I had a bigger Squad I definitely noticed it more often.

[orthosispsychosis]

the leeches in the barometer that measures my mental weather have all spontaneously combusted, which, according to my notes, means 'no prablem👌'

[suenitos]

If you were a leech you would not be condemned to leech hell aka the leech barometer you would frolic all your days in the mud happily

??????? thank you

[sappymix1]

I am not endorsing you being put in the leech barometer I just think it would happen to you. I do not want you to be put in the leech barometer. You deserve to frolic. Your stupid baka leech life

thank you anogie. my stupid baka leech life 😞

[owllover2319]

devastated (my family doesn’t think the tempest prognosticator (aka the leech barometer) is as cool as I think it is)

[bandnameserver]

Leech Barometer

[offkeyed-reason]

...so far for my "these fanclans can be original fiction" i have:

leeches. leeches are way cooler than i thought they were as a kid like what the fuck. this means leech barometers are a thing. prolly relatively new, but everykitty knows how helpful leechies are.

glass blowing. i need to research it, but it's required for the previously mentioned leech barometer...

cooking. the kitties have fire so this means they'll be cooking, have neat pottery, and sterile environments for healing!!! there's prolly more things fire can do, but this is important to me.

these kitties can preserve food!!!! smoking's popular, but there's salting, curing, fermenting, and drying too!

instruments!!!! this ties into the leech barometer a lil bit bc that involves a bell being rung when the leeches are like "ayo the weather's absolute ass let us fucking go". and bc the territory the kitties live on is huge, they needed a thing to tell everyone to come back bc a big storm's comin'.

beekeeping!!!! bees are neat lil dudes so beekeeping is in.

weapons for taking down big things!!! mainly applies to when dolphins/whales end up beached, but some brave/stupid kitties have gone after deer. also weapons for battling equal-sized enemies, but they're not needed that often.

whale oil and glass means these kitties have lamps! bc of the unpredictability of dolphins/whales beaching themselves, lamps are used very rarely. shelters across the territory have lanterns stashed so if a cat ends up there after a bad storm and have no fucking clue how to get home, they can light a lantern to get help.

kitty clothes! just... the kitties can make clothes. dye and decorations -- like shells -- indicate a cat as an important member of their society.

very limited metalworking. not that it's impossible, but it's just a bit hard to get ore and even then, why mess around with metal when we have perfectly good bones and rocks?

lots of cats get tnr'd. like, a lot a lot. the kitties pushing 10+ years are 90% likely to be mollies and gibs. many kitties hope to be tnr'd for one reason or another. also, the cats that haven't been altered are pressured into making babies.

other predators have societies too. the kitties are just more advanced bc humans are biased as fuck and don't kill the adorable bird murderers. [rabbits and rodents have their own societies as well, but for obvious reasons, they haven't bothered to make contact with the kitties.]

magic is very much fucking real but it's rare that kitties can just make big shit happen. cats are inherently magic creatures, but some kitties are more magic than others. i'll need to figure out the limits of magic later but that's a very much behind-the-scenes thing that kitties will not be aware of.

[arcanarubinaito]

Hello! My name is Rubin (he/him). This is a side blog dedicated to my personal The Arcana content; my main blog is @rubinaitoart. I’m currently writing a fanfiction series for my main Apprentice OC, Auric Alnazar; a lot of my rambles are going to be related to that instead of canon lol.

Here’s a quick rundown of my interests in the fandom!

My favorite LI is Muriel, but I enjoy content for all six.

I really enjoy Villain!Lucio, however I also like his route.

Here is a list of the tags I use in my mini-fic/short story/creative writing posts.

Important Tags

(#arcanarubinaito) - All of my posts. (Non-Reblogged, aside from anything I’ve reblogged from my main account.) (#auric the apprentice) - All content with my MC, Auric Alnazar. (#auric x muriel) - All content involving Auric and Muriel. (#my art) - All of my art posts. (#rubin rambles) - All of my text posts. (#rubin’s writing) - All of my creative writing posts. (#incorrect quotes) - My incorrect quotes series.

Series - “Imperfect Relationships”

A series of posts dedicated to the relationship dynamics between the characters in “Fool’s Gold”.

Auric & Asra (Link)

Asra & Julian (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)

Writing

Ask Box Mini-Fic - Muriel x Extroverted MC (“Home”)

Headcanon #1 - Leech Barometer

Art

Reference - Auric the Apprentice

Muriel + Auric - Traveling Jokes

Reference - Auric Outfit Lineup #1

Julian + Auric - Breaking In

Muriel + Auric - First Date

Nadia + Auric - (WIP) At Her Request

Auric - (WIP) Scorching Echoes

Asra + Julian - Laughing At Mazelinka's

Muriel - Stopping At The Inn (Castlevania Edit)

Muriel - A Brief Respite (Castlevania Edit)

Auric - Sneak Peek

Vesuvia Weekly

Week 1 - MC/LI Dynamics

Week 2 - How It All Went Wrong

Week 3 - Borrowing Clothes

Week 4 - Cooking Class (Headcanon #2)

Week 17 - First Kiss

[pups-2-dust]

With Tumblr as my confessional I must say I'm so unwell that last night before bed I saw the post about the leech barometer also being called the tempest prognosticator and how it's something a wizard would have and then fell asleep thinking about Gale being hyped to show my ranger his tempest prognosticator and my ranger being like "Gale this is leeches"

[yellbug]

one thing that is funny about migraine is that every friend in your area will let each other know when they have a weather migraine and you all form a human leech barometer together

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

Considering Dickkk-tator Agent Orange wants to make us pay for weather reports, I think the leech barometer may soon become a necessity for some of us.

Did you know that leeches were once used to predict storms? Well, a tornado warning just dropped and my squad is climbing

[chekhovs-cat]

Leech barometer Minority Report

[peashooter85]

The Tempest Prognosticator, AKA The Leech Barometer

Invented around 1850 by an English physician named George Merryweather, the Tempest Prognosticator was a device created for the purpose of predicting oncoming storms.  What made the Tempest Prognosticator especially unusual was that it used live leeches, medical leeches in fact, which came from Dr. Merrweather's own supply.  The Tempest Prognosticator featured 12 small bottles filled with water, each of which contained a live leech.  The idea was that when a storm was coming, the leeches would be disturbed by the change in pressure or electromagnetic changes in the atmosphere.  They would then climb to the top of the bottles attempting to enter a small metal tube, setting off a trigger which rang a bell at the top of the device. If several bells went off in quick succession then it can be assured a storm was on its way.

Dr. Merryweather spent many years promoting his device, claiming that it was highly accurate. He even lobbied the British Government to adopt the device and set up stations along the British coast.  Unfortunately for Dr. Merryweather, the Tempest Prognosticator never caught on, especially due to the invention of modern barometers using mercury, alcohol, water, and other chemicals to detect atmospheric pressure changes. Such devices were more accurate, easier to use, and did not require the owner to raise and feed live leeches.