Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Reverse fountain Charybdis looks like water tornado

This brilliant "reverse fountain" is called Charybdis, designed William Pye for Seaham Hall, in Sunderland, England, using a massive acrylic cylinder to give the appearance of a containerless volume of water. The water is contained inside a transparent cylinder and using a motor its moves in circular motion creating that cool vortex.

The sirens Charybdis and Scylla resided in the Sicilian Sea. Homer tells us that because Charybdis had stolen the oxen of Hercules, Zeus struck her with a thunderbolt and changed her into a whirlpool whose vortex swallowed up ships. In Charybdis the circular movement of water inside a transparent acrylic cylinder forms an air-core vortex in the centre. Steps wrap around the cylinder and allow spectators to view the vortex from above. The cylinder was manufactured in Grand Junction, Colorado

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