Leech Barometer
"The tempest prognosticator, also known as the leech barometer, is a 19th-century invention by George Merryweather in which leeches are used in a barometer. The twelve leeches are kept in small bottles inside the device; when they become agitated by an approaching storm, they attempt to climb out of the bottles and trigger a small hammer which strikes a bell. The likelihood of a storm is indicated by the number of times the bell is struck."
"Merryweather spent all of 1850 testing the device, sending a letter to the president of the Philosophical Society and the Whitby Institute, Henry Belcher, to warn him of an impending storm. The results of 28 of these predictions are kept in the library of Whitby Museum.. Merryweather stated in his essay the great success that he had had with the device.
Merryweather lobbied for the government to make use of his design around the British coastline but they instead opted for Robert FitzRoy's storm glass."
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