[Sca-cooks] table fountains

[Ana Valdes]

It must have been based on levels and weights, as Leonardo already
used in many of his works as engineer in the Milano court. The
"automats" clocks in Prag and Lund, Sweden, were early (13th century)
proofs of remarkable engineery.
Greeks and Romans used advanced engineery for their weapons of siege.
Ana

On 10/27/06, Mark Hendershott <crimlaw at jeffnet.org> wrote:
> The Hesse family exhibition in Portland, Oregon had a couple of
> these.  17th c if I recall.  No explanation of how they worked but
> you might find some answers by looking for info on them.  They were complete.
>
> Simon Sinneghe
> Briaroak, Summits, An Tir
>
> At 09:22 PM 10/26/2006, Stefan wrote:
> >I am currently reading "Feast - A History of Grand Eating" by Roy
> >Strong.
> >
> >On page 99-100 in the medieval section he says:
> >"Ironically it [the nef] was not the salt that was destined to be the
> >greatest of all the display pieces but the table fountain.  These
> >were not only ches d'oeuvre of the goldsmith's craft but were items
> >of extreme ingenuity, involving the movement of liquids, wine or
> >perfumed waters, which spurted or spouted and whose pressure caused
> >figures to move or bells to jingle. We know that they already existed
> >in the thirteenth century, and they begin turning up in inventories
> >in the fourteenth century." Various examples of these fountains. "The
> >surviving example in the museum at Cleveland (ohio), despite its
> >missing basin and foot, gives some impression of the magnificence of
> >these pieces, whose sole purpose was to amaze."
> >
> >So, anyone near Cleveland seen this?
> >
> >Has anyone created such a fountain for a feast?
> >
> >While it is probably more appropriate for a headtable, it still might
> >be intriguing for a regular table. My first idea would be to use a
> >pump from one of the miniature table fountains that have become
> >popular in the last few years, or maybe even use the correct style of
> >fountain itself as a starting point. I'm not quite sure how to get
> >the auxiliary items to do their movements, but I can see using
> >additional motors or the flowing liquid itself.
> >
> >Does anyone have any ideas on how they would have done one of these
> >fountains in period, since the modern cheat of using small battery
> >driven pumps wasn't available? I can see using a storage resevoir at
> >a higher position, but without recirculating the liquid i imagine the
> >amount of liquid squirting out of the fountain would have to be a
> >tiny stream. Unless they were removed after one course.
> >
> >I can also imagine some problems if the fountain malfunctions and
> >starts squirting red wine about.
> >
> >Stefan
> >--------
> >THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
> >     Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas
> >StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
> >**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
> >
> >
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