A demonstration of how water power may be used efficiently even on a very small scale is the water-powered fire alarm. The device is still for sale today. Buildings protected by sprinkler systems often have outside alarm bells that are activated by very small Pelton turbines on the other side of the wall.

The hydro-mechanical device signals the flow of water in an automatic sprinkler system. The main flow of water lifts a valve that sends a small amount of water to the little turbine, sounding the bell. The great advantage for fire protection is that the system works independent of electricity.

Picture: a water-powered fire alarm. Source: The Reliable Automatic Sprinkler Co. Via The Museum of Retrotechnology.

Quoted from: The Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 0016 Issue 2 (February 1884).

The architects consider their work to be a toolbox, a starting point for thinking outside the conventional norms and recepies. They argue that decentralized services are more flexible, provide more autonomy, and are more efficient in space, energy and materials.

Antoni and Blasco present, in their own words, an equivalent to Neufert’s “Architect’s data“, the book for architects that records standardized dimensions for centralized systems. “Micromachins” is written in French but the visuals dominate.

“Micromachins”, Damien Antoni and Lydia Blasco, 2011 [download the page to get the high resolution PDF-document]. Thanks to Yann Philippe Tastevin. Update: the architects have added a new link with colour pictures and English translation.

“A spiral pump, first invented in 1746, has been recreated and tested at Windfarm Museum using lightweight and inexpensive modern materials. A 6 foot diameter wheel with 160 feet of 1-1/4 inch inside diameter flexible polyethylene pipe is able to pump 3,900 gallons of water per day to a 40 foot head with a peripheral speed of 3 feet per second.

With its low torque requirements, the pump is particularly suited to be mounted on and driven by a paddle wheel in a current of two feet per second or greater. This easily built, low maintenance spiral pump can be used to provide water without the need for fuel wherever there is a flowing stream or river. It can also be hand turned or otherwise driven to provide a low cost, efficient pump.”

Read more: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4. Thanks to Paul Nash.

See also:

• Power from the tap: water motors
• Back to Basics: Direct Hydropower

“Boat mills: water powered, floating factories” at Low-tech Magazine. Some extra images below:

Above: Boat mill, Encyclopédie Diderot, 1751

Above: boat mill, Fausto Veranzio, 1617

Above: boat mill, Fausto Veranzio, 1617

Above: miniature of a boat mill

Above: german ship mill, 1840

One of the last authentic boat mills in France, around 1914

Above: the last ship mill on the Rhône in Lyon, France, 1894

Above: ship mill on the Tisza, Hungary (from the postcard collection of Ton Meesters)

Above: reconstruction of a ship mill in repair (1990s). Photo: Karel Broes.

More at Low-tech Magazine.

Drawing of a water powered wire mill, taken from “The Pirotechnia” by Vannoccio Biringuccio (1540). Illustration credit. For the hand powered method, see: Lost knowledge: ropes and knots.

Update January 2015: Kurt B. writes us to say that “what you are looking at is a wire drawing machine, not a rope making machine. That is, taking a large wire and drawing it through a series of ever decreasing dies (holes in the die plate) to make the wire smaller. It is powered by water. The fellow with the rope in his hands is taking up the slack on the tongs which grip the wire. Every stroke of the wheel crank pulls the wire through the die just that amount and he takes up the slack each stroke, or tries to. Here is a guy drawing wire on a much smaller scale  Home made electric jeweller wire puller  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sieNdwdCQug“.

This engraving, published in 1798, shows the gigantic St. Malo raft, designed in 1791 during the French Revolution. The engraving informs us that this extraordinary structure was 600 feet long by 300 broad, mounts 500 pieces of cannon, 36 and 48-pounders, and is to convey 15,000 troops for the invasion of England. In the midst is a bomb-proof, metal-sheathed citadel.

The St. Malo raft was supposed to be propelled by means of 4 large paddle wheels powered by 4 windmills. Whenever the wind apparatus should be unavailable, the paddle-wheels could be worked by horsepower. Squadrons of cavalry are seen proceeding at full gallop, passing across the surface, having entered the great floating affair by a set of draw-bridges at one end, which can evidently be lifted up when the process of embarkation is completed. They are deploying round and passing into an arched entrance to quarters provided for them in the basement of the central fortress or citadel. Note the second raft in the distance.

These formidable appliances for the invasion of England were never constructed, of course. The idea originated as propaganda to convince the more gullible section of the French public that the notion of the invasion was to be taken seriously. The English, on the other hand, used these posters to arouse British patriotism and to raise awareness against possible French invasion.

Napoleon Bonaparte wrote to Tayllerand, his Minister for Foreign Affairs, in 1797:

“The government must destroy the English monarchy, or expect itself to be destroyed by these intriguing and enterprising islanders. The present moment offers a capital opportunity. Let us concentrate all efforts on the Navy, and annihilate England. That done, Europe is at our feet.”

A contemporary publication, entitled “Recherche sur l’Usage des Radeaux pour une Descente”, deals fully with this chimerical means of transport, and gives elaborate statistics to prove the absurdity of the plan, which was not, of course, ever seriously intended by those in authority:

“One of them would require thirty fir trees in length, 900 in breadth and eight in height, in all 216,000 trees; each a foot square, each containing sixty cubic feet, each foot weighing from fifty-two to fifty-five pounds, would make 3120 to 3300 feet, or three horse loads; and the whole would require 618,000 horses or 108,000 carriages and as many carters to bring them from the forest to the sea. The total weight of one raft would be 44,500 tons.”

The foreseen invasion never happened. Napoleon abandoned the plan because he realised he could not cross the Channel as long as the powerful Royal Navy was patrolling it. Admiral Jervis of England proved right when he said:

“I do not say that the French cannot come – I only say they cannot come by sea.”

Napoleon also seriously considered using a fleet of troop carrying balloons as part of his proposed invasion force. But, his air service chief said the proposed aerial invasion would fail because of the winds. A tunnel was also considered.

Napoleon kept the idea of the invasion alive, but then planned to hit England indirectly, by conquering Egypt, where English trade interests were high. In May of the same year, Napoleon set sail for Alexandria.

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Sources:

• “Two Napoleon Relics“, a booklet published in 1895
• “Napoleon and the invasion of England, Vol.1″, a book from 1908.
• “Napoleon’s planned invasion of the United Kingdom“, Wikipedia.
• “Anti-Napoleon caricature and propaganda in England 1798-1803“, Bogdan Andrei Bernevig.

Related:

• Guido Vigevano’s wind car: 14th century war vehicle
• Wind powered factories: history and future of industrial windmills
• A steam powered submarine: the Ictíneo II