Modern Garden Decoration: Outdoor Fountains and their Roots
Modern Garden Decoration: Outdoor Fountains and their Roots 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.
Originally, fountains only served a functional purpose. Cities, towns and villages made use of nearby aqueducts or springs to provide them with potable water as well as water where they could bathe or wash. Up until the nineteenth, fountains had to be more elevated and closer to a water source, such as aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to take advantage of gravity which fed the fountains. Fountains were not only used as a water source for drinking water, but also to adorn homes and celebrate the designer who created it. The main components used by the Romans to build their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly illustrating animals or heroes. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden planners included fountains to create mini variations of the gardens of paradise. The fountains found in the Gardens of Versailles were meant to show the power over nature held by King Louis XIV of France. The Romans of the 17th and 18th centuries created 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.
The end of the 19th century saw the rise in usage of indoor plumbing to supply drinking water, so urban fountains were relegated to purely decorative elements. Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity enabled fountains to bring recycled water into living spaces as well as create special water effects.
These days, fountains decorate public spaces and are used to honor individuals or events and fill recreational and entertainment needs.
The Original Fountains of Human History
The Original Fountains of Human History The water from creeks and other sources was originally supplied to the residents of nearby towns and municipalities through water fountains, whose design was primarily practical, not artistic. The force of gravity was the power source of water fountains up until the end of the 19th century, using the potent power of water traveling downhill from a spring or creek to force the water through spigots or other outlets. The elegance and spectacle of fountains make them ideal for traditional memorials. Simple in style, the first water fountains did not look much like contemporary fountains. The very first accepted water fountain was a rock basin carved that was used as a receptacle for drinking water and ceremonial functions. The original stone basins are believed to be from about 2000 B.C.. The earliest civilizations that made use of fountains depended on gravity to push water through spigots. These original fountains were designed to be functional, frequently situated along reservoirs, streams and waterways to provide drinking water. The people of Rome began creating decorative fountains in 6 B.C., most of which were metallic or stone masks of creatures and mythological representations. A well-designed collection of reservoirs and aqueducts kept Rome's public water fountains supplied with fresh water.
The Distribution of Outdoor Garden Fountain Engineering Knowledge in Europe
The Distribution of Outdoor Garden Fountain Engineering Knowledge in Europe Throughout the European countries, the chief means of dissiminating useful hydraulic understanding and fountain design ideas were the circulated papers and illustrated books of the day, which added to the development of scientific technology.
An unnamed French water feature designer became an internationally celebrated hydraulic pioneer in the late 1500's. With Royal mandates in Brussels, London and Germany, he started his work in Italy, acquiring experience in garden design and grottoes with integrated and clever water hydraulics. The publication, “The Principles of Moving Forces,” written towards the end of his life in France, became the fundamental text on hydraulic mechanics and engineering. Describing modern hydraulic systems, the publication furthermore modernized critical hydraulic breakthroughs of classical antiquity. Prominent among these works were those of Archimedes, the developer of the water screw, a mechanized way of moving water. An decorative water feature with sunlight heating the water in two vessels stashed in a neighboring accommodation was displayed in one illustration. The hot water expands and then ascends and closes the water lines consequently triggering the water fountain. Garden ponds as well as pumps, water wheels, and water feature designs are incorporated in the book.