Any study of fountains and the water systems that sustain them must be aware of the importance of pumps. When used successfully they allow settlement away from the original sources of water or away from places which cannot be fed by gravity. They were originally used to force water to storage reservoirs above the distribution points.

Most of the water supply to modern towns is still pumped and supplied in this way. Consider the water towers near most habitations. This method allows water to be pumped to storage reservoirs at a constant rate whilst allowing it to be drawn upon at a constantly changing one. Over history the methods of raising water have evolved broadly as follows:

Man and animal power.
The man powered Shaduf, or well sweep is considered to have been invented by the Egyptians. The Shaduf consists of an upright pole with a cross arm, From one end hangs a basket for collecting water and at the other a counter weight. This method is still in use, a single operator being able to raise five or six hundred gallons of water to a height of 6 feet in a day. For greater heights a series of shadufs lifted the water in small stages into small pools at differing heights up the river bank. These practices are shown in the ancient Egyptian paintings, which also reveal that many of our small fluid handling items were in use thousands of years ago, eg the siphon, the pipette and the syringe.

Water wheels driven by animals were, and are, also extensively used. The Saqiya developed in Syria was in use in Roman times and is still in use in Pakistan today. It utilises two gears meshing at right angles and allows for an animal, in a circular walk, to drive a wheel with a chain of pots which dip into a lower source and discharge into a higher header tank.

The labour required for raising water for gardens, along with the high rates of evaporation in hot countries, probably accounts for the Egyptian, Persian, Islamic and Mughal style of gardens and fountains where small quantities of water are used to great effect.

Wind and water power. It was only because of the development of the water powered wheel as a pumping device that the French were able to develop their style of formal gardens on flat lands.

Although at the time of the doomsday book in 1089, 600 water driven mills were grinding corn in England, water driven pumping devices appear to have been developed firstly in the Islamic culture. In the 13th century AD a water driven pump was built at Damascus and was kept in use until 1960. These ideas were developed in the Middle ages. In 1588 Agostino Ramelli, a military engineer serving Henry III of France, published a work which illiterates a wide range of water driven pumps and devices.

It was the development of these devices that made it possible to develop grand water gardens and fountains away from springs and mountains. The fountains at Versailles, for example, where the French formal style of water garden reached a peak, were only possible because of the development of the water wheel as a water pumping device.

France led the way with new and grand water features, some of which utilized the water wheel. At Versailles water gardens were commissioned by Louis XIV. and designed by the vastly influential director of Royal gardens, Andre Le Notre, who completed them in 1668. (Figure 13.)

Figure 13. The Apollo Basin. Verseilles.

Water was supplied from a complex of water wheels, known as the machine at Marly. This was the biggest water-wheel installation ever constructed and was completed in 1682. In fact it never was entirely satisfactory ; it is said that the fountains of Versailles were operated only when in the eyesight of the king because of the limited water supply.

The gardens at Versailles, however, were a spectacular success and became the model which garden makers all over Europe aspired to. In each country in Europe the French influence was grafted on to national traditions.

At a more practical level at Petworth in Sussex, the Third Earl Egremont, in 1782 commissioned a beam pump to force water one and a half miles from the river to the town, vastly increasing the supply to the town which hitherto had only been supplied by springs.

The wind driven scoop wheels developed in Holland were a 14 th century invention . Windmills were widely used to pump water in Holland by the end of the 17th century and their use spread to England, especially to the fenlands.

Steam and diesel In 1712 a stationary steam engine was invented and put to work pumping water from the mines of Cornwall. This heralded the industrial revolution and with it the possibility of pumping water cheaply and without natures help. With the new pumping technology industrial and domestic water supplies started to be piped under pressure. In landscaping, water features and fountains could be placed in sites where previously they could not be considered.

The first steam pump was exported to France in 1779 and was used to help pump the Paris water supply from the Seine.

The industrial revolution brought great wealth to some, and as a consequence grand houses, gardens and fountains were commissioned. An outstanding grand example of an ostentatious display of wealth was built a at Whitley Court in Worcestershire, where in 1858, William Andrews Nesfield was commissioned to lay out the gardens and fountains. He utilized steam power to pump water from an ornamental lake at the front of the property up to two newly constructed reservoirs nearly a mile away and some 120 feet above the scheme. The two fountains were massive in proportion and were fed by two pipes, one 15 inch and one 20 inches in internal diameter. The effect was described in the 1920s in his diary by I L Wedeley thus "The great central jet of the fountain sends a vast column of water to a height of 90 feet, while at every conceivable point other streams are issuing, making a huge circle of arched cascades around the group itself, At each end of the long oval basin stand other fountains of considerable size, the basin being surrounded by greensward and having a beautiful walk on the margin. When set playing, the onward coming of the waters can be heard like the rush of a train- until the central jet sends up its huge column, when the sound becomes almost deafening as it rushes into the air, then falls with a mighty roar into the basin itself. . . There are dissolving views of shifting rainbows and with the rush, dash, splash and light feathery spray of the many rising and falling streams or jets one seems riveted to the spot, as by the spell of all the water-nymphs enchantments".

Sadly, these fountains fell into disrepair but are now being restored, however, the intricate pipe work and steam system was broken up for scrap, so the fountains of Whitley Court will now be powered using electrically powered pumps, the technology which now powers most fountains around the world.

Electric powered pumps.
This is the pumping technology that is most widely used today and can in fact be used in reverse, when water power is harnessed to drive turbines which supply electricity in otherwise uninhabitable places, for example Las Vegas. Electrical power and pumps makes closed circuit fountains possible. These fountains, recirculate the same water again and again and are only topped up to counteract the effects of evaporation, or after cleaning. This makes possible fountains where it would be prohibitively expensive and wasteful to build them otherwise, and accounts for the majority of modern fountain schemes. The first alternating current motor was invented in 1888 by Nikola Tesla, and was manufactured in America by Westinghouse.

A grand theatrical fountain complex exploiting the early potential of the electric pump is found in Barcelona where, in 1929, after more than decade of delay, The Magic Fountain flowed. Originally it had been intended to be built for an exhibition extolling the virtues of electricity in 1916. It utilizes four electric motors of 250 horse power and puts between 4 and 8 tons of water in the air when in full play. (Figure 14.) It also represented a revival of the 18 century theatrical fountain display which had prospered in post renaissance Europe, particularly France, where, although much admired, the tradition had fallen in to disuse probably because of the difficulties in providing the necessary large amount of water under pressure .

Figure 14.
The Magic Fountain. Barcelona.

Most large fixed fountains systems now use electric power and re-circulate the water. Traffalgar Square, La Place de La Concorde, now even the Trevi fountain are electrically operated, also the vast and growing number of small water features in shopping malls, town centres, and other areas where the public are encouraged to gather.

The submersible electric pump, made practical since the second world war, has brought about, in parallel with the micro processor, a new and mobile form of water display where the water, lights and often accompanying music are quickly set up in a place of public gathering. It is the quick response and high power and portability of these pumps which are in process of bringing us a new and delightful entertainment

Compressed air systems
These have had a long history and been rediscovered at regular intervals.

The most recent use of compressed air systems is illustrated in Tokyo where an innovative American water feature company uses compressed air technology to project precise quantities of water in highly controlled patterns.

Hero of Alexandria utilized and illustrated the same principles in the first century AD when he produced a book called Pneumatica which outlined some sophisticated fountains which utilized steam and compressed air to achieve their amusing effects. In the Renaissance these ideas were reproduced and it is recorded that in 1580 an Heros fountain devise, with an owl and singing birds, was copied and made in working order.