Contemporary Garden Decoration: Garden Fountains and their Roots
Contemporary Garden Decoration: Garden Fountains and their Roots The dramatic or decorative effect of a fountain is just one of the purposes it fulfills, in addition to delivering drinking water and adding a decorative touch to your property.The central purpose of a fountain was originally strictly practical. People in cities, towns and villages received their drinking water, as well as water to bathe and wash, from aqueducts or springs in the vicinity. 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. Fountains were not only used as a water source for drinking water, but also to decorate homes and celebrate the artist who created it.
Roman fountains usually depicted imagery of animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden planners included fountains to create smaller depictions of the gardens of paradise. To demonstrate his dominance over nature, French King Louis XIV included fountains in the Garden of Versailles. To mark the entrance of the restored Roman aqueducts, the Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries commissioned the building 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 clean, drinking water, by the end of the 19th century urban fountains were no longer needed for this purpose and they became purely decorative. The creation of special water effects and the recycling of water were two things made possible by swapping gravity with mechanical pumps.
Decorating city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the purposes of modern-day fountains.
The Distribution of Water Fountain Industrial Knowledge in Europe
The Distribution of Water Fountain Industrial Knowledge in Europe Contributing to the development of scientific technology were the printed letters and illustrated books of the day. They were also the primary method of transferring useful hydraulic information and fountain design ideas throughout Europe. An un-named French water feature engineer was an internationally renowned hydraulic innovator in the late 1500's. By developing landscapes and grottoes with integrated and clever water features, he started off his occupation in Italy by getting Royal commissions in Brussels, London and Germany. He wrote a publication titled “The Principles of Moving Forces” towards the end of his lifetime while in France that became the fundamental text on hydraulic mechanics and engineering. Modernizing principal hydraulic discoveries of classical antiquity, the book also highlights contemporary hydraulic technologies. Prominent among these works were those of Archimedes, the developer of the water screw, a mechanical way of moving water. An ornamental water fountain with the sun heating the water in two vessels hidden in a neighboring accommodation was presented in one illustration. What occurs is the hot water expanded, goes up and closes up the conduits heading to the water feature, thereby leading to activation. The publication additionally covers garden ponds, water wheels, water feature designs.