Jumping Water Flumes

[Caveman]

I tried the nipples with the straw effect today with
no banghead luck. I also tried other things and it
seems that the slicker the I.D. of the pipe or whatever
the better looking the Flume, I'm going to get some
seamless stainless tubbing and I Don't know, maybe some
copper tubbing.

I wish I had more cash to play with. And thanks to all
for your replys.

 

[glaverty]

One of the coolest things I ever saw done with water was a waterfall at the Jeep Exhibit at the 2002 AutoShow.

Check it out, go here:

http://www.jeep.com/autoshow/news_events/compass_specs.html

and click on the View Jeep Waterfall link on the right.

 

[Terry Woods]

glaverty,

The Jeep Waterfall is pretty cool. I've seen it somewhere else... a long time ago... in one of those Ethel Merman movies, I think. I don't remember letters... just pretty patterns.

Can you believe it, Musical-Watersports on the Big Screen!

I wonder if it can be made to move upward (at a slight angle into an over-head trough) instead of dropping from above. Then it might look like an apparition growing from the ground.

Hey! How 'bout this...
shoot the water down from above real fast and then use a strobe-light, you just might be able to "show" a movie!

Caveman...

What exactly did you do and what exactly happened?

Are you blowing the straws out?

As far as "cutting off" the flow with a "controller stream", how about just using a mechanical shutter a few inches away from the laminator output? The shutter could be air-operated, for on/off control as you wish, or you could use a motor-driven disc with slots to produce a regular pattern.

I should expect that the water would always be moving through the straws. That way the straws are not subject to constantly changing pressures. Then you either let the slug out or block it.

 

[Eric Nelson]

I wonder if it can be made to move upward (at a slight angle into an over-head trough) instead of dropping from above. Then it might look like an apparition growing from the ground.

Hey! How 'bout this...
shoot the water down from above real fast and then use a strobe-light, you just might be able to "show" a movie!

C'mon Terry, how do you think the Jeep Waterfall works?...

It IS a movie... They're just using a curtain of water as the screen. Try typing "waterscreen" (as one word) into Google...

Cool nonetheless!...

beerchug

-Eric

 

[Terry Woods]

Eric,

I know the laser light show thing. The Jeep show does not appear to be that sort of thing.

In a laser-show, the "lased" image is projected onto a solid object (wall, screen, ceiling...). I used to go see the "HeavyWater Light Show" troupe from San Francisco(?). They'd put on a hell of a show at the planetarium - domed ceiling... tooo coool, maaaannnn .... hey.... where's that... oh, here it is... nevermind....

-OR-

as you indicated, the "lased" image is projected onto a screen of water... actually, a mist of water-vapor. In this case, the image does not bear any close scrutiny. The image appears better at night and from a distance. I should think that they actually do "setup a screen" by ejecting a mist into the air at a particular area.

You can certainly see an image at the area where the vapor concetration is greatest... but you can also see slight traces of the laser beams, in the air, between the sources and the "screen". I imagine this is from the naturally occurring water-vapor and dust particles in the air.


That's not what I see in the Jeep WaterFall show.

I "see" a manifold with a whole bunch of tiny metering valves.

   _________________________________________

                water manifold

   _________________________________________

    V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V    <<-- metering valves

    | | | | |       | | | | | | | | | | | |

    | | | |       | | | | | | | | | | | |

    | | |       | | | | | | | | | | | |

    | |       | | | | | | | | | | | |

    |       | | | | | | | | | | | |

          | | | | | | | | | | | |

        | | | | | | | | | | | |

      | | | | | | | | | | | |              |

    | | | | | | | | | | | |              | |

    | | | | | | | | | | |              | | |

    | | | | | | | | | |              | | | |

    | | | | | | | | |              | | | | |

 

[glaverty]

Terry's picture is pretty much how I think it works. You could hear the valves clicking on and off if you got close enough to the waterfall. I walked around the entire thing but they had all the controls and valves hidden so you couldn't see anything.

 

[GOOFY]

The Truth

Silly boys, you think that the jumping water at Epcot
is controlled by a bunch of formulas and electronic gizmos.

Everyone knows it's one of Mickey's magic spells!

 

[David_Emmerich]

Hey Caveman......I'm right down the road from you in Bowling Green, and I have Free Run of one of the mid-south's best recycling yards..I maintain their shears for roaming rights....If you need stuff drop me a line.

 

[Eric Nelson]

Leave it to Terry to find a way to draw a waterfall in ASCII... That actually LOOKS like a waterfall!...

After looking at the Jepp thing again, I agree that it's most likely a thin "wall" of water rather than a mist spray. They're probably projecting the image from the side. IOW, shooting the image "across" the water, rather than perpendicular to it?

beerchug

-ric

 

[Terry Woods]

I primarily use my PC for graphics and tech-writing. It's plenty fast for those needs. It is a 75MHz processor.

So... the fact that it is a 75MHz processor connected through a 56k Modem creates an interesting effect... Stop Action (sometimes, No Action).

Eric,
The show at the Jeep Waterfall is a picture created by metered-water. As far as I could tell, with those great "No-Action" shots, the image is not projected on water. The displayed items are falling. Perhaps they were using a strobe to "Stop" the image. Or perhaps they used the local lighting, reflecting off the water, to follow the image all the way down... I got tired of waiting to see the damned thing move.

 

[Caveman]

Caveman...

What exactly did you do and what exactly happened?

Are you blowing the straws out?

As far as "cutting off" the flow with a "controller stream", how about just using a mechanical shutter a few inches away from the laminator output? The shutter could be air-operated, for on/off control as you wish, or you could use a motor-driven disc with slots to produce a regular pattern.

I should expect that the water would always be moving through the straws. That way the straws are not subject to constantly changing pressures. Then you either let the slug out or block it.

Terry, As I mentioned in post #13, the nipples with the slots & shim
stock didn't improve the effect as I hoped it would. But the smooth
I.D. stuff I mentioned works satisfactory enough to get the job done.
I don't have the funds to do all that stuff you mentioned, mainly the
pump. The pump is now a Sta-rite 1 1/2", 1 1/2hp which produces 25 psig. The pressure is maintained with up to 3 1/4" valves operating.

At least now I know to keep the towers no more than 12' apart, and add more towers later if this project is sucessful.

 

[glaverty]

Eric,

There is no projection, or special lighting. What you are seeing is the water itself falling in specific patterns contolled by opening and closing of the valves.

 

[Eric Nelson]

Yeah, I get it now...

beerchug

-Eric

 

[gbradley]

Took the kids to Disneyland yesterday, and you know one thing that I couldn't resist is checking out the shooting slugs of water. I think its called King tritons fountains.
It's over in a garden area where the house of the future once was just outside of Tomorrowland.
I leaned in real close, and I could definitely hear the water being deflected when the slug would not fly out. I couldn't see if it was a rotating disk, or a stream of water cutting off the flow. One thing I noticed was that the slugs seemed to have a random time between flights, and the size of the slug also seemed to vary. I am leaning towards the stream of water shutoff.
Good luck! Caveman
Cool project

 

[Eric Nelson]

For those who are interested, I found 2 more movies of that Jeep Waterfall at the '02 Auto Show in Detroit...

MOVIE 1 (.mpg format) ~1.5Mb

MOVIE 2 (.mpg format) ~2.5Mb

The "waving" American flag effect is pretty cool!...

beerchug

-Eric