Demonstration apparatus, known as intermittent fountain

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This hydrostatic apparatus, known as an intermittent fountain, was made around 1870, probably in France. It is unsigned.

The apparatus has brass dish and a hollow brass pillar with four nozzles at the top. Surmounting the pillar is a glass bulb containing a glass return tube which goes through the pillar. The bulb is three-quarters filled with water, which spouts into the brass dish. The return tube is open near the bottom of the dish, so that when water fills the dish the air is cut off and the spout ceases. Water in the dish then flows out of a small hole in it, so that the water level falls, air enters the globe and the water spouts again.

This piece of demonstration apparatus would have been used to illustrate hydrostatic principles to the growing late 19th century educational market.

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• Online ID: 000-100-104-290-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  T.1984.179
• Date: Around 1870
  c. 1870
  
• Material: Hydraulic demonstration / intermittent fountain
  
• Dimensions:
• What: Hydraulic demonstration / intermittent fountain
  
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: France
  
• Event:
• Description: Intermittent fountain hydraulic demonstration apparatus, unsigned, probably made in France, c. 1870
  
• References:
  • Turner, G. L'E., Nineteenth Century Scientific Instruments. London: 1983, pp 86-7 
• Translations:
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