Hero's fountain
Datecirca 1860
Inventory NumberDW0823
ClassificationFountain
Subject
Maker
French
Cultural Region
Dimensions81.3 x 35 x 35 cm (32 x 13 3/4 x 13 3/4 in.)
Material
DescriptionThis fountain consists of two glass globes mounted above one another and attached together by two brass pipes. The latter also connect the globes through brass fittings caps. The fountain is surmounted by large brass bowl inside which is a water spout. At the base of the lower globe is a thumb screw, which was use to evacuate the water from the globe after the demonstration was completed. The fountain is supported by an iron tripod.
Signedunsigned
FunctionThis is a demonstration apparatus that uses air pressure as a means to move water from one glass globe to another, and creating a water spout.
The upper globe would first be completely filled with water. The lower globe would be empty. To start the fountain, some water is poured into the bowl. This water goes down to the lower globe. Because water takes space inside this globe, it forces the air to go up the other tube into the upper globe. That air now creates pressure on the water inside the globe, forcing it up through the middle tube into the bowl. That water goes down again to the lower globe and the process continues, until water in the lower globe reaches the level of the tube going up to the upper globe.
For a nineteenth-century description of this fountain, go to the following website.
The upper globe would first be completely filled with water. The lower globe would be empty. To start the fountain, some water is poured into the bowl. This water goes down to the lower globe. Because water takes space inside this globe, it forces the air to go up the other tube into the upper globe. That air now creates pressure on the water inside the globe, forcing it up through the middle tube into the bowl. That water goes down again to the lower globe and the process continues, until water in the lower globe reaches the level of the tube going up to the upper globe.
For a nineteenth-century description of this fountain, go to the following website.
ProvenanceDavid Wheatland purchased from Alain Brieux, Paris, July 13, 1962 (lot 7/19).
John Cuthbertson
Date: 1770-1815
Accessories: brown storage box, descriptive tag, thin strip of paper in box with the inscription "lucernal microscope" in David P. Wheatland's handwriting (which refers to figs. 47-48 and 51 in this series), page from the book "Old Science and Medicine" with a photographic copy of the first print from this series, entitled "The Large Electric Machine at Haarlem."
Object number: 1998-1-1087
Charles-Louis Chevalier
Date: circa 1820
Accessories: (b) glass cup (stored separately on same shelf); (c) long, Y-shaped brass tube (tied to pump)
Object number: DW0822a-c
W & A. K. Johnston, Ltd.
Date: c. 1872
Accessories: rectangular and round wood stretchers
Object number: 2008-1-0308d
American
Date: circa 1750
Accessories: Formerly with stand that now belongs, with its pair, to the terrestial globe (inv. 1997-1-2060b).
Object number: 7402
Edison Manufacturing Company
Date: late 19th-early 20th Century
Object number: RS0370
James Ferguson
Date: circa 1760
Accessories: case
Object number: 1998-1-1416
Staatlicher Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon
Date: 1980-1990
Object number: 1998-1-1139