There are a number of exhibits that stand out and yet do not fit in any particular collection. Such exhibits are described below.

1951 Model of Tempest Prognosticator

The tempest prognosticator was invented by Dr George Merryweather, a curator of Whitby Museum, in 1850 who described it as an 'atmospheric electromagnetic telegraph, conducted by animal instinct'. The apparatus consists of 12 glass bottles set round the perimeter of a circular stand above which is a bell surrounded by 12 hammers. Each hammer is attached, by a gilt cord and a piece of wire, to a piece of whalebone set loosely in the lower end of a tube in the neck of one of the bottles. Each bottle contained a leech which when a storm was due climbed into the neck of the bottle and disturbed the whalebone causing the bell to ring. Dr Merryweather tested his invention over 12 months predicting storms to Henry Belcher, the President of the Whitby Literary & Philosophical Society. The library possesses a booklet written by Dr Merryweather describing the invention and giving the results of 28 of these predictions. The prognosticator on show is a model constructed for the centennial Festival of Britain in 1951. Dr Merryweather's original no longer exists.

Hand of Glory

The "Hand of Glory" supposedly comes from an executed criminal and was cut off the body while the corpse was still hanging from the gibbet. The recipe for its preparation is simple : squeeze the blood out of the hand; embalm it in a shroud and steep it in a solution of saltpetre, salt and pepper for two weeks and then dry in the sun. The other essential for its use is a candle made from hanged man's fat, wax and Lapland sesame. This candle was then fixed between the fingers of the hand and lit when a burglar broke into a house. Reputedly it prevented the inhabitants of the house from waking up thus allowing the burglar to investigate the house at his leisure. Various forms of this European legend abound. Probably the Museum's most viewed (and popular?) exhibit!

The cabinet of curiosities or Ripley Cabinet is a fine collectors cabinet made from mahogany with numerous drawers William IV in date containing various things collected by Dr. Ripley 1788- 1856. The collections was carried on after his death by members of his family. The last item to be included was a leaflet from the 1940's to say the Germans were winning the battle of the Atlantic which had been dropped on the moors.

Ripley Cabinet - Drawer 5	Ripley Cabinet - Draw 7

The contents of the cabinet are many and varied and include various seals of Earls, Bishops and other gentry. A great number of plaster casts of classical cameo reliefs that would have been collected on the grand tour in the 18th and 19th century. A wood container with weeping willow from the tomb of Napoleon and a iron boss from his coffin before it was taken from St Helena to Paris. Jet beads from a tumulus near Castleton. A watch paper cut out by a Miss Murrell the daughter of John Morrell watchmaker born without hands or arms she cut out the paper and signed her name with her feet in the presence of Dr. Ripley. There are many other interesting artifacts from geology fossils, embroidery etc from the 18th century to the 1940.

The cabinet was left to the Museum by a Miss Ellis in memory of her family and relatives in Whitby, the Ripley family.

Paddle steamer in a bulb

Graham Leech Collection
Finally we must make mention of a large collection of ships and other items both in bottles and in light-bulbs. These are all the latter the work of a local retired district surveyor, which never fail to fascinate visitors. Some of the models work (off batteries). The epitome of model making.