HERO'S FOUNTAIN

HERO’S FOUNTAIN

Don’t you think that our ancestors were smarter than us that designed the stuffs with no electrical cord or batteries or obvious energy input of any kind? Hero’s fountain that can spout and spray gracefully is an obvious example of it. At first, the fountain looks like a perpetual motion machine. With time, however, and careful observation, a transfer of water can be noticed from a higher reservoir to a lower one, revealing the fountain to be nothing more than an elaborate siphon.

How to build it?

It's quite simple to build a hero's fountain from common household.

Things You Need:

(3) 16.9 FL OZ Water bottles 

(1) 9″ length of tubing

(1) 11″ length of tubing

(1) 15″ length of tubing

Small amount of clay (Play-Doh) 

Scissors

Drill (hand or electric powered)

5/32″ drill bit (slightly smaller than the tubing diameter)

Method 

 Step 1:

Cut (1) of the bottles in half as pictured. Keep the bottom of the bottle, you can use it to fill the fountain when we are all done.

 

Step 2:

You are going to need (2) holes in each cap. Start by drilling the (2) holes in (1) cap, use a piece of scrap wood to support the cap. When you are done with the first cap, use it as a guide to drill (2) holes into the top of the remaining (2) caps. You can place the caps top-to-top when drilling the holes. Now you should have (3) caps, each with (2) holes drilled in about the same location.

Step 3:

Take one of the caps and use it as a guide to drill (2) holes in the bottom of one of the remaining intact bottles. This will end up being bottle {b} as in the diagram below.

 

 Step 4:

Connect the tubing as in the below diagram. All connections should be airtight. If you used the 5/32 drill bit they should be. If not, just add a small amount of clay (Play-Doh) to seal the openings around the tubing. I had to seal the area between bottle {a} & {b}. You can see it in the first picture. The other connections didn’t leak and I did not use any clay.

 

Step 5:

Now all you have to do is fill bottle {b} with water and screw the whole system together. To start your fountain, add water to the upper bottle {a}. Enjoy your homemade Heron’s Fountain.