NEWQUAY The world’s first garden sprinkler has been recreated from a woodcut in a 16th-century gardening book.
The Great Squirt was featured in a popular manual called The Gardener’s Labyrinth, written in 1577 by Thomas Hill. Hill wrote: “There may be some which use [sic] to water their beds with Great Squirts.”
The picture featured a cross-section of a giant pump made with leather valves and wooden pipes. No example of the Great Squirt has survived and some experts even doubted it would work, until a life-sized replica was demonstrated at Trerice Gardens in Cornwall. The device managed to spray water a distance of 15 ft (4.6 m).
James Breslin, spokesman for the National Trust, which commissioned the replica, said: “It looks very weird but it works, although the person pumping gets as wet as the garden.”
The replica Great Squirt was built by John and Henry Russell, technology experts, with help from pupils of St Newlyn East Primary School.
Mr Breslin added: “The experts estimate that it would take about 40 squirts before it is empty. Originally there was some ongoing way of keeping it full – but we’re still trying to figure that one out.”
From: TimesOnline
No comments:
Post a Comment