House & Garden 
possibilities. An interesting stage of this 
development may be studied in the fountain 
at Freiburg, Switzerland. Here are the 
three basins, the two inferior ones connected 
with the central structure merely by tubes. 
It was not until after the sixteenth century 
that metal piping was introduced in any 
except costly fountains. T his meant that 
water under pressure was rarely used ; that 
upright jets were not often available. The 
Romans, though they knew of the law that 
water, confined in a tight tube, seeks its own 
wind may blow the water outside the rim. 
By sinking the basin and surrounding it with 
low flowers or grass, to catch the drops, the 
limit may be slightly decreased. But a jet 
of this sort, while highly effective in parks 
or pools, is rarely convenient in a street 
fountain. It was soon found that the maxi¬ 
mum effect of the water was obtained by 
sub-dividing the fall, and spreading the fluid 
out in thin layers, so as to get the value of 
every drop. Extra basins, over whose edges 
drip filmy water, are effective if not used too 
THE PFERDESCHWEMME 
AT SALZBETRG 
level, applied the principle scarcely at all to 
fountains. When some bold experimenters 
carried water under pressure two kilometres 
in a stone conduit for a fountain at the Place 
Clautre, Perigueux, in 1533, it was regarded 
as a remarkable achievement. 
With this simple, though hard-won, ver¬ 
tical jet of water at his disposal, the modern 
architect may figure easily the size of his 
basin,— that is if he intends to use the full 
head. The radius of the basin must be a 
little more than the height of the jet, else the 
often in one design. Incidentally the archi¬ 
tect must see that the edge of every basin be 
true and level, else the result will be that 
seen in the little fountain of S. Cosimato in 
Rome, the sheet having concentrated itself 
into a single stream. These sheets of water 
are used importantly in the Trocadero foun¬ 
tain, Paris, and in numerous other large and 
small designs. One of their merits is their 
evaporation into the air of a perceptible 
amount of liquid. 
In the Brussels design, it will be seen that 
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