musical fountains history

Musical Fountains - history

You may have seen a musical fountain, and thought "isn't modern technology wonderful" but did you know that musical fountains are older than you think, MUCH older.

In 1908 (Yes 100 years ago) saw the "birth" of "The electric fountain" made by FW Darlington. In short, this was a custom made concrete building in the of Ferril lake in Denver U.S.A. It was very clever, it had nozzle formations on the roof which were built around what we would call skylights. Below each skylight was an electric arc light above the arc light was a coloured disc which could be rotated to give different colours. (What we would call a colour wheel)

The whole building was submerged underwater and everything was operated remotely from the shore, including the steam driven pumps that made the water shoot high up into the air.

The remote operator controlled the fountain by moving a series of levers in time to music played by the local band.

The first truly portable musical fountains had to wait at least another 12 years, back in the company was started by Otto Przystawik the company is still running today.

Above is a picture of an "old" musical fountain, it is at least 20 years old, ( We were invited to restore it back in 2001, it was at least 15 years old then) it is now redundant, it is constructed from galvanised steel, its lights are mains operated (Which are not allowed in the UK, which is where we saw this fountain )

It did have one "novel feature" it had moving rows of jets, but they were operated by a mains operated motor, which was all seized up, and being a mains non ip68 rated it is not permitted in the UK.

It was really was a pleasure to have seen it. Unfortunately the cost of restoring this old fountain (Which is why we went to see it) will cost more than a new fountain will. It is not feasible to restore it due to the fact it has mains lights and motors, (Which are broken and seized) Also all the nozzles, and some pipe work are blocked and its showing its age.

You may also want to see our refurbish a fountain page)

We have been asked to point out by Michael Przystawik that this is NOT one of his family's creations. This fountains actual origin is unknown.

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