Contemporary Garden Decor: Outdoor Fountains and their Roots

Contemporary Garden Decor: Outdoor Fountains and their Roots A fountain, an incredible piece of engineering, not only supplies drinking water as it pours into a basin, it can also launch water high into the air for a noteworthy effect.

Pure practicality was the original role of fountains. Cities, towns and villages made use of nearby aqueducts or springs to supply them with drinking water as well as water where they could bathe or wash. Up until the 19th century, fountains had to be higher and closer to a water supply, including aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to take advantage of gravity which fed the fountains. Artists thought of fountains as amazing additions to a living space, however, the fountains also served to provide clean water and honor the artist responsible for creating it. Bronze or stone masks of animals and heroes were commonly seen on Roman fountains. To illustrate the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages added fountains to their designs. Contemporary Garden Decor: Outdoor Fountains Roots 183547136757.jpg The fountains found in the Gardens of Versailles were meant to show the power over nature held by King Louis XIV of France. Seventeen and 18 century Popes sought to exalt their positions by adding decorative baroque-style fountains at the point where restored Roman aqueducts arrived into the city.

Indoor plumbing became the key source of water by the end of the 19th century thereby restricting urban fountains to mere decorative elements. The creation of unique water effects and the recycling of water were two things made possible by replacing gravity with mechanical pumps.

Embellishing city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the uses of modern-day fountains.

The Dissemination of Outdoor Fountain Design Innovation

The Dissemination of Outdoor Fountain Design Innovation Throughout Europe, the principal means of dissiminating practical hydraulic facts and fountain design suggestions were the circulated pamphlets and illustrated books of the time, which added to the evolution of scientific development. A globally celebrated leader in hydraulics in the later part of the 1500's was a French water fountain engineer, whose name has been lost to history. His experience in making gardens and grottoes with built-in and brilliant water attributes began in Italy and with commissions in Brussels, London and Germany. The publication, “The Principles of Moving Forces,” authored towards the end of his life in France, turned out to be the definitive writing on hydraulic mechanics and engineering. Updating vital hydraulic discoveries of classical antiquity, the publication also explains contemporary hydraulic technologies. The water screw, a mechanical way to move water, and developed by Archimedes, was featured in the book. An beautiful water fountain with the sun heating the water in two vessels stashed in a adjacent room was presented in one illustration. What occurs is the hot water expanded, goes up and locks up the piping heading to the fountain, thereby leading to activation. Yard ponds as well as pumps, water wheels, and water feature designs are included in the book.