As base goes , water tower are pretty picturesque . Some peopleturn them into housesonce the metropolis no longer want them . The designers atPop Chart Labonce create a optic ode to New York City’swater tower taxonomy . But why just does water postulate to be stored hundreds of feet above the city ?
Why Water Towers Need to Be Tall
Most body of water towers are prettysimple machine . Clean , treated water is pump up into the tugboat , where it ’s stored in a bombastic tank that might carry a million or so gallons — enough water to run that particular city for a day . When the neighborhood needs water , piss pumps utilize the pull of sobriety to provide eminent water pressure . Because they work with gravitation , they have to be tall than the construction they ’re put up water to so as to attain the highest floors . Each extra invertebrate foot of altitude in a water column increase piddle insistency by.43 pounds per square inch .
Here ’s a basic diagram of what a water supply tug arrangement looks like :
Keeping water high off the ground plays another important role for a urban center infrastructure . It allows regions touse small water pumps .
In ecumenical , water supply demand for a city fluctuates throughout the day . Lots of folks are taking showers before work and schoolhouse , but fewer multitude are running a lot of H2O at 3 a.m. Without a urine tower , the municipality would have to buy a H2O pump big and herculean enough to keep up with peak demand in the cockcrow , which would then mostly go to waste during less busy division of the day for weewee utilization ( plus obtain extra costs ) .
rather , municipality can buy a pump just turgid enough to fulfill the realm ’s average water demand for the twenty-four hours , and let the top executive of the water tower take over during the times with requirement that exceeds the pump ’s capabilities . When H2O demand goes down at dark , the pump can supplant the urine in the towboat . Also , if the big businessman goes out and the metropolis ’s water pump bomb , the water tower can keep water system go smoothly for at least 24 minute .
Take a Water Tower Tour
Go inside a water tower in Edmond , Oklahoma :
And in Bloomington , Minnesota :
And here ’s a 1 - million - gallon piss tank getting cleaned :
The Important of Water Tanks
While piss towers generally seem like the mathematical product of a bygone geological era , they ’re still very much relevant today . TheLouisville Water Towerin Kentucky , built in 1860 , is the one-time surviving piddle tug in the body politic , and it ’s still in use of goods and services . In New York City , millions of peoplestill get water from water towers , though it ’s one of thelast prominent citiesto bank on the organization . Stored on top of magniloquent buildings , these water tower provide the air pressure for water to flow even if the electricity goes off ( especially during a fire ) .
And , of track , one can not discount the cultural importance of the piss pillar :
Every city deserves a skyscraper - sized civic repository to its preferent crop . Orbeverage decanter .
A variation of this story ran in 2015 ; it has been update for 2023 .
