sorry about the image size, oooops.

hi,

i just downloaded it.  looks great!!  do you know if the pictures at the website are of a real working unit?

tom

I got google to translate the page, it did a good enough job to work out that the machine was left to fall apart for a good few years then was rediscovered and renovated back to a working setup, seems like it is a working machine, not a closed loop one though, it continually pumps water from a well.

could you tell if it could pump the water from the well itself?  or have to use grid power?

tom

yes it is a real machine , but not a closed loop ...
a lot of water is flowing away

So it is powered by a well where the flowing water is the input energy ?

it's built close to a river, the river enters at the middle (top of the diagram just under the tower that holds the lever thing) to fill up the left or right 'pan', they fall from the weight forcing the piston down, the water from the 'pan' drains away, they didn't pump the river water up just the water from a well (in the diagram, the box like item near the bottom inbetween the 2 pistons is the well). The funny thing is they kept the mechanical pump working as a model for visitors but replaced the water feed to the castle with an electric pump !!

G'day all,

I have updated my paper on hydrostatics. The updated version contains the first part as well so everything is kept neatly together.

There is more to come as I get the time.

Have fun,

Hans von Lieven

it's built close to a river, the river enters at the middle (top of the diagram just under the tower that holds the lever thing) to fill up the left or right 'pan', they fall from the weight forcing the piston down, the water from the 'pan' drains away, they didn't pump the river water up just the water from a well (in the diagram, the box like item near the bottom inbetween the 2 pistons is the well). The funny thing is they kept the mechanical pump working as a model for visitors but replaced the water feed to the castle with an electric pump !!

you can look also at :

La fontaine de Heron ( used in the flowing water of Versaille )


how it works in english
http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/hero/

you can read the pic but text in french
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9ron_d'Alexandrie

I gave a lot of thoughts to this fountain in my younger years (math calculations included) and I tried to make it run forever by combining two such fountains to get the water from one to another and vice versa, over and over again -  but I only got an oscillating system which eventually stops. If I have time I will draw a schematic on my computer - in those times there were no computers and I threw all hand drawn schematics back then when I realized it was no perpetuum mobile.

you can look also at :

La fontaine de Heron ( used in the flowing water of Versaille )


how it works in english
http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/hero/

you can read the pic but text in french
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9ron_d'Alexandrie