Where did Fountains Begin?
Where did Fountains Begin? The incredible architecture of a fountain allows it to provide clean water or shoot water high into air for dramatic effect and it can also serve as an excellent design feature to enhance your home.The main purpose of a fountain was originally strictly functional. Water fountains were connected to a spring or aqueduct to provide potable water as well as bathing water for cities, townships and villages. Until the late nineteenth, century most water fountains functioned using the force of gravity to allow water to flow or jet into the air, therefore, they needed a supply of water such as a reservoir or aqueduct located higher than the fountain.
Serving as an element of decoration and celebration, fountains also supplied clean, fresh drinking water. Bronze or stone masks of wildlife and heroes were commonly seen on Roman fountains. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden designers included fountains in their designs to mimic the gardens of paradise. The fountains found in the Gardens of Versailles were intended to show the power over nature held by King Louis XIV of France. To mark the entryway of the restored Roman aqueducts, the Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries commissioned the construction of baroque style fountains in the spot where the aqueducts arrived in the city of Rome
Since indoor plumbing became the standard of the day for fresh, drinking water, by the end of the 19th century urban fountains were no longer needed for this purpose and they became purely ornamental. Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity allowed fountains to bring recycled water into living spaces as well as create special water effects.
Beautifying city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the functions of modern-day fountains.
Did You Know How Mechanical Designs of Fountains Became Known?
Did You Know How Mechanical Designs of Fountains Became Known? Spreading useful hydraulic information and water feature design ideas all through Europe was accomplished with the printed documents and illustrated books of the time.
In the later part of the 1500's, a French water fountain developer (whose name has been lost) was the internationally distinguished hydraulics leader. With Royal mandates in Brussels, London and Germany, he started his work in Italy, developing expertise in garden design and grottoes with incorporated and clever water hydraulics. The text, “The Principles of Moving Forces,” written towards the end of his lifetime in France, turned into the fundamental text on hydraulic mechanics and engineering. Detailing modern hydraulic technologies, the book also modernized key hydraulic advancements of classical antiquity. The water screw, a mechanical means to move water, and developed by Archimedes, was showcased in the book. Sunlight heated up the liquid in two concealed vessels next to the decorative fountain were shown in an illustration. The end result: the fountain is triggered by the hot water expanding and ascending up the pipes. Pumps, water wheels, water attributes and garden pond concepts are mentioned in the text.