Part 2 of 2 fixing a mercury wheel barometer

Please read the stuff.. In the two videos (see links below) I show you how successfully repaired a mercury wheel barometer. When the barometer arrived it had a number of faults on it, the indicating hand and the setting hand fouled one another, there were several airlocks in the mercury column, some of the mercury was lost and the float was thoroughly jammed in the lower chamber. I know there are kits that you can buy to help fix these things but it arrive on Christmas eve and there was no way to get any special tools and being an impatient sort of a guy I decided to use what I had to hand. Unfortunately I forgot to put the close up lens on for part of my work but I've included the sequence as its part of the process I went through. I do take chances and I'm not saying that this is how it should be done it's simply a record of how I chose to overcome the problem that I was faced with. The barometer is working perfectly well and confirms the readings from the local Metrological Office that is only a few hindered yards away from our home. There are safety issues with mercury so please seek for advices elsewhere.
Again, I'm not saying what I do is right; I couldn't find any videos that dealt with these problems so I made these videos to show how I chose to deal with the problems.
Thanks for watching.
Kind Regards ... Andy

[stevenlawrence]

Hi.
Interesting video.
I have just started restoring a barometer that I bought from a charity shop yesterday for £10!
It too had bubbles in the mercury.
I had to strip it all down anyway, as one of the last owners had covered it with varnish, I think he must have put ten coats on it!
When I got the long tube out, I noticed that if I knocked it at all, the air bubbles would move.
So I carefully tapped the tube on my workbench, it took 20 minutes, and there are no bubbles anymore.
The thermometer tube was missing, so I will have to source one of those, and the wood finish around the thermometer has also broken, so it looks like the thing has dropped at some time.

[musicurio]

Fascinating! I love your under-stated style, which conceals a wealth of experience! Such a pleasure to see someone who actually KNOWS what they are doing! Thank you, sir.

[AndyDaviesByTheSea]

Hi Wilf your right, I get a lot of satisfaction from fixing things. It started at a very early age when I guess I wrecked most things trying to find out how they worked. I remember my big sister been more than unhappy with me when she found out I’d taken her dainty little wristwatch apart with a kitchen knife. I’ve had a lifetime of designing and manufacturing special purpose machines for industrial and scientific applications and I'll try and have a go at fix anything.
Kind Regards ... Andy

[baconsoda]

I really enjoyed these two videos because I've been fascinated by mercury since I first saw it in a petri dish in school. I never knew a barometer could be calibrated by adjusting the tube...so obvious when I see it explained. Thanks Andy.

[oddballlw]

Very elegant and ingenious solution! Your videos where you repair and tinker with things is very inspiring to me as a fellow "tinkerer"...

[Skracken]

Good job getting that old piece of history fixed! Personally I try to avoid mercury as best I can. A guy tried to give me a couple of mercury switches at a swap meet once when I bought some other stuff from him, but I insisted that I didn't want them. Don't feel comfortable with having a poisonous liquid metal at home.

[lawnking]

happy new year andy!! i have had a call of kb8mpr since 2001, life has thrown me a few rocks over the years. so, my intrest of radios have been put aside for awhile. thanks to you, i have started to back into this hobby!! plus, i still have family in england. warwickshire. so, you sir, have bridged a gap so to speak. iam for now repairing radios and ham radios as well tube and transistorset. i have 4 english radios, philips, ultra trans. six made in london in 1958/59. again, thanks posting! ed

[Zone]

Great repair Andy. What a lovely piece to now have on display - and in full working order too!
Cheers, John

[fcjtifiknow]

Thanks for posting those two videos. I recently inherited a mercury barometre similar to the one in the video. It came by car wrapped up in bubble wrap but when I opened it, I noticed some of the Mercury had escaped. I managed to recover the Mercury and now I'm going to have a go at putting it back in. I liked your method for removing the air bubbles, I'll probably have to do the same.

[AndyDaviesByTheSea]

Hi Paul, the barometer has been handed down to Sophie as a family heirloom so the repair was for ourselves so no cost attached. I had the mercury to hand from old electrical switches. I spent more time setting up and making the video than actually fixing the fault. If I had broken the glass then I guess it would have been a costly affair
Kind Regards ... Andy

[SeanBZA]

Your nylon provides a path to allow the gas to escape to the outside, as mercury does not adhere to most non metals. I learnt from this, normally I just dump the tube contents, wash the inside of the glass with alcohol and then filter the mercury through a cloth then pour back into the tube and invert when it is full. Good on the fixing of the mechanism.

[willford]

Hi, I love these sort of projects, the satisfaction involved is immense. Great videos. Thanks

[philharris]

Really helpful video, thank you. I have a non-dial ‘stick’ barometer to repair and your video has given me confidence! 73 de Phil G4SPZ

[AndyDaviesByTheSea]

Hi Ed, well I do enjoy making the videos and it’s great to think that I can inspire someone so far away, so, is it radio repair or ham radio that you’re interested in?
I really do appreciate your kind comments as it’s only when I receive feedback that I know my efforts are well received, thank you!

A very Happy New Year to you and your family Ed, let’s hope that it’s a good year for everyone.
All the very best to you my friend.
Kind Regards ... Andy
GWØJXM

[AndyDaviesByTheSea]

Hi there, well I’ve never done this before but it struck me that getting the mercury out of the tube would be a lot harder than you’d credit. With such a small diameter hole in the tube air simply won’t do what one would normally expect, so I guess there are some tricks that one would learn if you did it often enough. How would you empty the column, would you poke it out?
Kind Regards ... Andy

[AndyDaviesByTheSea]

Hi, thanks for the feedback, I was anticipating some fallout over my working practices but so far folk are been kind.
Kind Regards ... Andy

[Turbohh]

lovely job...fun to watch...learned a lot...thank you

[neillconnor]

I failed miserably! I used a nylon guitar string to get the bubbles out of a admiral Fitzroy barometer I got for £30 at an auction. Cleared the bubbles as you showed but when I withdrew the nylon, the bubbles reappeared and suddenly a lot of mercury escaped! Must have tipped it the wrong way and the dish I was collecting it in tilted spilling the mercury all over the patio. I now have a barometer only half full. I’ll try and source some of the quick silver on ebay

[AndyDaviesByTheSea]

Hi there. Just don’t underestimate how tricky the mercury can be.
If you search the net you’ll find ‘filling kits’ and clean up powder to mop-up any mercury that escapes. Good luck.
All the best ... Andy
GWØJXM

[simonkosh]

Hi Andy I have a barometer similar to this with mercury missing. I have 'acquired' some and I have also bought a refill kit from Ebay. I was wondering whet the brass needle - the one which is set - actually does?