Modern Garden Decor: Fountains and their Roots
Modern Garden Decor: Fountains and their Roots A fountain, an amazing piece of engineering, not only supplies drinking water as it pours into a basin, it can also launch water high into the air for an extraordinary effect.Pure practicality was the original role of fountains. Water fountains were connected to a spring or aqueduct to supply potable water as well as bathing water for cities, townships and villages. Until the late 19th, century most water fountains operated using the force of gravity to allow water to flow or jet into the air, therefore, they needed a source of water such as a reservoir or aqueduct located higher than the fountain. Artists thought of fountains as amazing additions to a living space, however, the fountains also served to supply clean water and honor the designer responsible for creating it.
The main components used by the Romans to build their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly depicting animals or heroes. Muslims and Moorish landscaping designers of the Middle Ages included fountains to re-create smaller versions of the gardens of paradise. To show his dominance over nature, French King Louis XIV included fountains in the Garden of Versailles. The Romans of the 17th and 18th centuries manufactured baroque decorative fountains to glorify the Popes who commissioned them as well as to mark the spot where the restored Roman aqueducts entered the city.
Urban fountains created at the end of the nineteenth functioned only as decorative and celebratory adornments since indoor plumbing provided the necessary drinking water. Gravity was replaced by mechanical pumps in order to enable fountains to bring in clean water and allow for beautiful water displays.
These days, fountains decorate public areas and are used to honor individuals or events and fill recreational and entertainment needs.
Acqua Vergine: The Remedy to Rome's Water Challenges
Acqua Vergine: The Remedy to Rome's Water Challenges With the construction of the 1st raised aqueduct in Rome, the Aqua Anio Vetus in 273 BC, individuals who lived on the city’s foothills no longer had to be dependent solely on naturally-occurring spring water for their demands. When aqueducts or springs weren’t easily accessible, people living at greater elevations turned to water removed from underground or rainwater, which was made available by wells and cisterns.
Beginning in the sixteenth century, a unique approach was introduced, using Acqua Vergine’s subterranean segments to generate water to Pincian Hill. As originally constructed, the aqueduct was provided along the length of its channel with pozzi (manholes) constructed at regular intervals. Whilst these manholes were manufactured to make it simpler and easier to protect the aqueduct, it was also feasible to use buckets to extract water from the channel, which was done by Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi from the time he acquired the property in 1543 to his death in 1552. Though the cardinal also had a cistern to accumulate rainwater, it couldn't provide enough water. That is when he made the decision to create an access point to the aqueduct that ran directly below his residential property.
Did You Know How Mechanical Concepts of Water Fountains Became Known?
Did You Know How Mechanical Concepts of Water Fountains Became Known? Spreading practical hydraulic knowledge and water feature design ideas throughout Europe was accomplished with the written documents and illustrated publications of the time. In the late 1500's, a French fountain designer (whose name has been lost) was the internationally renowned hydraulics leader.
By creating landscapes and grottoes with incorporated and ingenious water attributes, he started off his career in Italy by getting Royal commissions in Brussels, London and Germany. “The Principles of Moving Forces”, a guide which became the fundamental text on hydraulic mechanics and engineering, was authored by him toward the end of his lifetime in France. Replacing key hydraulic discoveries of classical antiquity, the book also explains modern hydraulic technologies. The water screw, a mechanical way to move water, and devised by Archimedes, was highlighted in the book. Sunlight heated up the water in two undetectable containers adjoining to the decorative water feature were shown in an illustration. What occurs is the heated liquid expanded, rises and locks up the pipes leading to the fountain, consequently leading to stimulation. Concepts for pumps, water wheels, water attributes and outdoor ponds are also covered in the guide.