Fitzroy's Storm Glass

[PaulC]

Is anyone familiar with Admiral Fitzroy's "Storm Glass"?

My daughter is in her third year of studying for a meteorology degree and I thought it would be fun to make one for her for Christmas. Getting the ingredients though is a bit of a challenge.

I have been looking at the recipe on this website:
http://chemistry.about.com/od/weirdscience/a/fitzroy.htm

Some of it is easy to find, like the ethanol and distilled water. Potassium nitrate used to be easy to get at a druggist, but they don't have it nowadays at Walgreens. I don't know where to find the ammonium chloride or camphor either. Does any one have any suggestions?

More storm glass info can be found at:
http://www.pmicro.kz/~ufl/ALMANACH/N1_96/StormGlass.htm

Thanks!

[Steve Paskey]

Interesting. I don't know much about the storm glass but, coincidentally, I just finished reading "Evolution's Captain" by Peter Nichols, a wonderful book about FitzRoy. FitzRoy was brilliant but tortured and was a devout Christian, more so later in life. In the end he was repulsed by the theories that Darwin developed aboard the Beagle, and the growing influence of those theories helped propel FitzRoy down the path to suicide. Though he is most often remembered as the captain of the Beagle, he served as Britain's chief meteorologist later in life and had a tremendous influence in that area.

It's part biography, part sea drama, and a subtle study of one of the defining moments in the history of science. Worth worth a read and it would make a nice gift, with or without the storm glass.

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Try chemical suppliers.

http://www.simplyincense.co.uk/products.asp?cid=1033 <<camphor

The ammonium chloride is easy enough too.

If you don't have a suitable supplier locally - do you know a high school chemistry teacher - these are usually fairly sensible people.