please help with fitzroys storm glass

[danny]

i am trying to get the chemicals right for a fitzroy's storm glass, can i use denatured ethanol which still has the same molecule structure of pure ethanol and is 95% pure.
i have a bag of Krista K potassium nitrate, it states it is 100% pure KNO3, it is present in the form N 13.7%, K20-46.7% and CI (chlorine) max 0.2%, is this enough info to ask if its alright to use?
and what type of ammonium chloride do i use? i can get univar which is 99.5% pure as unilab is 99%.

[WeatherHost]

There's a big thread on this somewhere, several months ago.  Search back a ways.

[danny]

yeh ive seen it, but it doesnt answer my questions.

[weather1967]

Hi Danny
You can read all this links ,i hope somewhere you find the answer where you want.

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=1056.0

[tweatherman]

The late great NiceBill sold these on the forum here back in Nov..

Tim

[danny]

thanks, it helps with a few things but the potassium nitrate, i need to know if the one i have is alright.

[tomcj2]

thanks, it helps with a few things but the potassium nitrate, i need to know if the one i have is alright.

I certainly am not a chemist, but Potassium nitrate is a compound, and not a mixture, in the same way that water is water, and you cannot change the chemical make-up of H2O.  You can pollute water by making a mixture by adding another compound to it, for example sugar, but it still remains water.  Modern saltpetre usually has a very small amount of  anti-caking agent in it, making it a mixture, so in the truest sense it will not be pure, but it is still KNO3.  I am sure that the the technology in Admiral FitzRoy's time was not able to separate all impurities from saltpetre.

Why not give it a try and see if it works?

Perhaps members who bought storm glasses from Nice Bill would post reports of their observations

[Anthony]

I really regret not having the funds to purchase one of Nice Bills Storm Glasses. It would have been something nice to remember him by.