Where are all the water towers

[pacharan]

A recent trip to the Alsace region of France left me pondering the most strange of conundra.

Driving around in the Landy, it struck me that the one outstanding feature of human settlements that became immediately apparent as they hove into view on the horizon was a water tower.

Generally of a white painted concrete construction some of them are festooned with various decorative embellishments. I saw one painted up to look like the genie of the lamp.

I would imagine that the artist had in his mind's eye an image of it rising up out of the mist on a cold, foggy morning as the source of his inspiration.

All this led me to ask myself a question. Indeed, a question that has been at the forefront of my thoughts for some time now.

Where are all our water towers?

We just don't have them on the same scale as our neighbours on the continent. Or perhaps we do? Maybe we obfuscate these structures rather than celebrating them in the same way as the French. Or maybe we employ a different technology in the distribution of water, e.g. a greater reliance on pumps to generate the desired pressure?

I'm not denying that we have water towers but I can probably count the local instances of these structures that are known to me on my old man.

Do you know where your local water tower is? Perhaps you could post a picture of it. Do you know the answer to the great water tower mystery? Please share your thoughts, I look forward to being enlightened.

[Troll]

Why not join this?

I feel a Griceresque sockie is due....

[TimberWolf]

[EternalOptimist]

[TimberWolf]

Don't seem to see those big gas towers any more either - you know, the huge inflatable cylindrical thingies that were sometimes full and sometimes half empty. Going back to my childhood to remember that image though, which may not be accurate.

Other questions. How far can the electrical formulas for power, resistance, voltage, amperage, etc be applied to water towers, which are batteries. The potential difference (water pressure) of a water tower for example is 1 bar (~10,000N/m^2, 1000kg/m^2, 0.1kg/cm^2)) per 10 metres height, which is the pressure that would be in a pipe at the bottom of the tower, but pipes (especially thin ones) have resistance, so a lesser pressure (voltage) will be felt at a more distant supply and with thinner pipes.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Don't seem to see those big gas towers any more either - you know, the huge inflatable cylindrical thingies that were sometimes full and sometimes half empty. Going back to my childhood to remember that image though, which may not be accurate.

Gasometers - they did away with loads of 'em when I was a kid and we changed from manufacturing our own gas from coal to pumping it out of the underside of the North Sea. No need for local storage if you don't have a local plant.

[Doggy Styles]

Don't seem to see those big gas towers any more either - you know, the huge inflatable cylindrical thingies that were sometimes full and sometimes half empty. Going back to my childhood to remember that image though, which may not be accurate.

Other questions. How far can the electrical formulas for power, resistance, voltage, amperage, etc be applied to water towers, which are batteries. The potential difference (water pressure) of a water tower for example is 1 bar (~10,000N/m^2, 1000kg/m^2, 0.1kg/cm^2)) per 10 metres height, which is the pressure that would be in a pipe at the bottom of the tower, but pipes (especially thin ones) have resistance, so a lesser pressure (voltage) will be felt at a more distant supply and with thinner pipes.

There are indeed remarkable conceptual similarities between the flows of electricity through conductors, and water through pipes.

In fact, I have sometimes used water through pipes as a metaphor when explaining the basics of Ohms Law and its derived equations to small children.

[fullyautomatix]

Trainspotting, water tower spotting, land rover spotting, are you posting from some mental health instiution?

[CheeseSlice]

In the town where I grew up we had two water towers. They weren't the white concrete kind though.
Being on the coast, the whole town is on a slope and at the top there were two large grass mounds. Effectively these were large metal tanks built on the ground, then covered with earth and grass turf. They didn't look like natural geological features, but they certainly looked better than white concrete.

The school down the road from my house one of those UFO type water towers. Its all flat around here, so I guess that's why it needs to be free standing. Butt ugly though!

I can't believe I'm talking about water towers

[NotAllThere]

It was those environmentalists. They objected to water towers obscuring their view of wind turbines, so now they have to be buried underground.