Modern Garden Decor: Large Outdoor Water Fountains and their Roots

Modern Garden Decor: Large Outdoor Water Fountains and their Roots The incredible construction 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 complement your home.

Modern Garden Decor: Large Outdoor Water Fountains Roots 2244436194168655.jpg

Pure practicality was the original purpose of fountains. Inhabitants of urban areas, townships and small towns utilized them as a source of drinking water and a place to wash, which meant that fountains had to be linked to nearby aqueduct or spring. Used until the nineteenth century, in order for fountains to flow or shoot up into the air, their source of water such as reservoirs or aqueducts, had to be higher than the water fountain in order to benefit from gravity. Designers thought of fountains as amazing additions to a living space, however, the fountains also served to provide clean water and honor the designer responsible for building it. Roman fountains often depicted images of animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks. To replicate the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages added fountains to their designs. Fountains enjoyed a considerable role in the Gardens of Versailles, all part of French King Louis XIV’s desire to exercise his power over nature. 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 location where the restored Roman aqueducts entered the city.

Indoor plumbing became the main source of water by the end of the 19th century thereby limiting urban fountains to mere decorative elements. Impressive water effects and recycled water were made possible by replacing the power of gravity with mechanical pumps.

Contemporary fountains are used to embellish community spaces, honor individuals or events, and enhance recreational and entertainment events.

The Dissemination of Water Feature Design Knowledge

The Dissemination of Water Feature Design Knowledge Throughout Europe, the principal means of spreading practical hydraulic facts and fountain design suggestions were the published papers and illustrated books of the day, which added to the development of scientific technology. An unnamed French water feature engineer became an globally celebrated hydraulic leader in the late 1500's. His competence in developing gardens and grottoes with integrated and brilliant water attributes began in Italy and with mandates in Brussels, London and Germany. In France, near the end of his lifetime, he wrote “The Principle of Moving Forces”, a publication that became the fundamental text on hydraulic technology and engineering. Replacing key hydraulic advancements of classical antiquity, the publication also explains contemporary hydraulic technologies. As a mechanized way to shift water, Archimedes devised the water screw, chief among important hydraulic discoveries. An beautiful water feature with the sun heating the water in two vessels hidden in an neighboring accommodation was shown in one illustration. The heated liquid expands and then ascends and shuts the pipes consequently triggering the water feature. Yard ponds as well as pumps, water wheels, and water feature styles are incorporated in the book.