Bert Bolle Barometer

Bolle's old three-story country house had ample height, the highest point of which was the roof of the main hall: a leaded glass cupola.

Bolle designed the top end of the water barometer to be connected to a rotary vane pump, which was governed by timer relays.

At ten-minute intervals, the pump evacuated the air from the glass pipe, causing the 12-metre-tall instrument to fill with 55 litres of water within one minute.

The instrument proved to be a massive drawcard and appeared several times in the media during the subsequent twelve-year period during which Bolle's Barometer Museum operated.

Furthermore, the shire announced that the tower would be dedicated to the water barometer and the history of weather instruments in general and access would be free of charge.

At the moment when the water reached its highest possible point in the glass pipe, visitors could witness an interesting physical phenomenon for about a minute.

During the time the water level was calm, there was still some turbulence at the surface due to air bubbles rising to the top of the apparatus.

Within another two minutes all the water had returned to the reservoir downstairs, after which the six-minute pump cycle of the Bert Bolle Barometer repeated.

In the Reading Room, tribute was paid to the pioneers of the barometer, the Italian scientists Galileo Galilei and Evangelista Torricelli.

Bolle had written a booklet titled "Weird and Wonderful Weather Predictors", of which 1,000 copies were printed and given to visitors in December as a present.

Shortly after the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Bert Bolle Barometer the Denmark Visitor Centre lost its world attraction.

The Otto von Guericke Museum in Magdeburg in Germany erected a copy of the water barometer in 1995, after Bolle had been asked for his expertise.

A narrower pipe was used, made of polycarbonate and the instrument was named the ‘Bert Bolle Wasserbarometer’ after the Dutch record holder.

[20] Wear and tear also places considerable strain on the vacuum system's vulnerable pump, its 11 solenoid valves and its relays.

A well-considered choice of durable materials like oak and borosilicate glass certainly play an important role in its continued longevity.

Other attempts to copy the instrument have floundered due to the use of inferior material, a lack of constant supervision, pollution of the pipe system and other factors reducing durability.

The 18th-century country house ‘Rustenhoven’ at Maartensdijk, formerly the Barometer Museum, about 1995
The water barometer in the central hall of ‘Rustenhoven’ at Maartensdijk, formerly the Barometer Museum, 1995
Entrance of the former Barometer Tower in the Denmark Visitor Centre, Western Australia, 2007
The Bert Bolle Barometer in the former Barometer Tower of the Denmark Visitor Centre, 2007