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    20Déc, 2011
    THE WATER TOWER

    The expression “Tower water” comes out in the French language in 1704. It indicates the works the family works of the castellum inherited from the Romans. The latter had reached a perfect control of the water conveyance thanks to their aqueducts. The water tower is part of the water tanks, it is a significant component of the distribution network. When landscape makes it possible to have an elevated topography to build a tank on the ground, it is this solution which is in general selected.

    When the landscape is not appropriated, the builder of the network has the choice between a water tower (elevated tank) and a tank on the ground supplying a booster. In urban area the quantities of water required are such that the choice is generally made on a high pressure network.

    The water tower is composed of two principal parts: the tank and its support called turn.

    The water tower fulfills a double function, to constitute a surge tank between the production of water and the distribution with the consumers and to deliver water. The production of water must be done as regularly as possible whereas the delivery is subjected to the request as of users. At any time of the day and at the peak of the demand for water, it is necessary that each user profits from a correct flow.

    As far as possible these tanks are placed on a high grounds above the delivery source of the taps being served. The water supply will be able to use the natural phenomenon of the communicating vases to feed the distribution network.

    A water tower is before hand a raised tank, only the absence of a sufficiently high relief it is necessary to build it on a tower.

    The filling of the tank is made by automatic feed pump in way to maintain a level constant in the tank.

    The water tower, in activity or not, holds an important place in the landscape. It was often disparaged because it would cause a “visual pollution” but the experiment shows that it remains an economic solution, reliable, that it can be aesthetic and that it does many favours by offering a high point for the area.

    Even if most of the time the majority of the people does not see it any more or do not want any more to see it, others thought of embellishing it or using it for other uses that for water. It is mainly used as geodetic point by the IGN and can be used as support with the antenna-relays (firemen, local radios, mobile telephony, etc), but also like support for monumental paintings.

    Today, when the water tower arrives at the end of the lifetime, it is somewhat forsaken but some thought of giving him a new life. It can be reconverted either as public building, or as residences, restaurants, etc.

    A careful extrapolation on the totality in the metropolitan territory indicates a number of 16,000 the water towers. One would be able to know more precisely the population of the whales from the World oceans than that of the water towers in France.

    Source Internet

    3Déc, 2011
    L’ascensor

    At 5 km from Braga in Portugal, there is a vehicle running on water

     

    Conceived by Handbook Joaquim Gums, the ascensor is a
    tram allowing to take along the tourists at the bottom
    of a hill towards the sanctuary « Bom Jesus do monte »

     

     

    Two trams traverse the hill constantly. Both comprise tanks being able to contain a large quantity of water. When one of the two trams arrives at the higher station level the driver fills the water tank coming from a lake located higher on the hill.

     

     

     

     

     

    During this time the tram located at the lower station empties its tank, evacuated water carries at about half his way upon its way.. The difference in mass between the two vehicles is enough to give energy necessary to move up the tram located at the lower station.

     

     

     

     

    A cable and a brake on a toothed-rack are enough to ensure the vehicles in their courses.

     Michel

    Thank you to Jose for the pictures

    16Août, 2011
    THE CYCLE WATER

     

    The total volume of drinking water accounts for approximately 3% of the total volume of water on ground. Indeed, the major part of water is in the oceans and the seas.
    The drinking water is essential in the human society for the production of resources through irrigation, the agriculture and the industrial production related to the raw material transformation.

     

     

    ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

    The cycle of water represents the major phenomenon responsible for the transfer of material during erosion and the dislocation of the emerged continents (physical component). It regulates the productivity of the ecosystem and maintains the biodiversity (biological and geochemical component).
    The river transport, hydrological stops for the energy production, and human consumption are also dependant on the cycle of water. With a population constantly in growth (6.5 billion human), the drinkable water requirements become paramount. More than 1 billion people do not have access to drinking water (drinkable). Approximately 2.5 billion people is private of medical decent for lack of water and more than 5 thousand people especially of the children die the every day of diarrhea related to the water pollution (source: World Water Assessment Programs, 2003).
    The man modifies planetary geology (transport and reconditioning of the ground during constructions), causes the gas emission with greenhouse effect, and of this fact the biosphere modifies. Today, the disappearance of species of animals and plants reach a rate from 100 to 1000 times superior with that of the natural evolution.

    Roger