Author Topic: please help with fitzroys storm glass  (Read 3627 times)

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Offline danny

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please help with fitzroys storm glass
« on: March 13, 2009, 03:17:29 AM »
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%.

Offline WeatherHost

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Re: please help with fitzroys storm glass
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2009, 05:31:25 AM »
There's a big thread on this somewhere, several months ago.  Search back a ways.


Offline danny

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Re: please help with fitzroys storm glass
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2009, 05:55:20 AM »
yeh ive seen it, but it doesnt answer my questions.

Offline weather1967

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Re: please help with fitzroys storm glass
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2009, 10:14:01 AM »
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
Best regards from Greece
Dimitris
http://users.otenet.gr/~meteo/index.html

Offline tweatherman

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Re: please help with fitzroys storm glass
« Reply #4 on: March 13, 2009, 02:32:32 PM »
The late great NiceBill sold these on the forum here back in Nov..

Tim

Offline danny

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Re: please help with fitzroys storm glass
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2009, 04:32:02 AM »
thanks, it helps with a few things but the potassium nitrate, i need to know if the one i have is alright.

Offline tomcj2

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Re: please help with fitzroys storm glass
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2009, 09:08:51 AM »
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

Davis VP2 (6163), WL 5.9.0..  VWS 14.01 p25, Panasonic HM371A camera. WU & W4U KORCANBY3, CoCoRaHS OR-CC-27

Offline Anthony

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Re: please help with fitzroys storm glass
« Reply #7 on: March 14, 2009, 01:24:41 PM »
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.


Thanks,
Anthony
WB8YUE