Boiling Stress?

Question

My science teacher had a plastic, vertical stress device that was closed and sperical on the top and on the bottom, with the spheres connected by mostly vertical cylindrical shaped tubes. On the bottom sphere, there was a red-looking liquid (possibly mercury) while the top sphere would still be empty. To find out if a person were stressed, the person would put their hand where the bottom sphere was, holding the object right-side up. If this person were stressed, the red-liquid would shoot up to the top sphere, through the tubes, and instead of filling the top sphere up with liquid, would start to boil. What is this device and where I can get it? (It would help to provide a link to the store.)

Answer 1

The material inside is alcohol (not mercury, god forbid) with a moderate vacuum which lowers the already low boiling point. When the warmth of the hand (stressed or not) increases the vapor pressure in the bottom, the liquid is forced up the tubes where the flow through the tubes make it look like it is boiling.
Search 'scientific toys' www.scientificsonline.com or http://www.officeplayground.com/liquidmotion.html