Alexander had a lot of interesting people surrounding him back in his day. Great video Rob, I love the principal of taking electricity from water. Power your lights then quench that thirst.

Just use one container, pump water in the bottom, taking up space and compressing the air bubble on top, let the pressurized water out the bottom to discharge. It's called a hydraulic accumulator. Instead of air pressure you can also make the tank a piston and weight it down, this adds sealing issues but has the advantage of constant pressure regardless of state of charge (using a compressed air bubble, the pressure rises as the bubble gets smaller as opposed to having a constant weight pushing the piston, maybe a bellows would work?) you can buy an off the shelf hydraulic accumulator, most well systems include them so the pump can cycle on and off instead of maintaining constant tap pressure.

Looking forward to this exploration. There are so much favorable dynamics between the interaction between pressurized volumes of air and water. All sorts of mechanical implementations can be delivered perfectly with this very friendly and powerful relation between these two most indispensable gifts from nature. Love your videos mister Murray sir, your channel is a blessing to this site.

I always love to see the varied styling that go into these devices. The best ones are like yours; perfect function displayed in simplest fashion. It would be fun to experiment on other configurations. Great food for the creative spark.

Hi Robert, loving channel as always..I know you have done a few builds lately and deviated as new ideas manifested so if I may suggested patents that built on the Herons Fountain, namely the Hydrautomat . The Hydrautomat is a water-powered water pump that uses air and water pressure to lift water. Its patent is US1444442 . A more advanced version is British patent GB227991 . Both can be viewed on Espacenet or Google Patents. May just add some inspiration...keep going chap love it. May solve the need to rotate the vessels.

the only honest herons fountain I have found with proper explaination. Really looking forward to see how you generate electricity out of it sir. Tq.

I've been obsessed with perpetual motion since I was a young boy. Love this. (And all things like it) lol

Very interesting thought in combining the inline impeller and Heron's Fountain. Watching you flip the battery over throughout the video got me thinking about the "Drinking Bird" evaporative cooling and weight shifting demonstration. If you center balance the larger battery you intend on building, you may be able to flip it on its balance point very easily. Just an interesting thought. Looking forward to the large battery build. Cheers.

I like the idea of being able to just turn it over like a sand-timer. Something with those buckets with pivot in the centre on a stand so you can just flip it without effort might be quite handy. Imagine a huge version using 120-litre blue barrels! In fact, I wonder if such a thing could generate enough electricity to flip itself over with a motor?

I like this!! If those containers were inside a giant hamster wheel, you'd only need to roll/spin it to "recharge it". 😊

Your discussion of pumping the water to the upper container/tank brought up an old (partial) memory. Back in the 1970s when solar energy experiments were all the rage, I recall a household solar water heating system that was self pumping, thanks to the solar input to the upper unit on the roof. It would draw water from a lower and cooler source, at low rate of flow, and feed it to a channel across the top edge of a solar heating panel, which was sealed of course. The water was heated quite efficiently as it ran through this stage, being deposited into an insulated tank for household use. The tank was high enough that gravity feed distributed it on demand, though probably without much pressure. An overflow outlet would deliver excess water back to the source reservoir, where it would cool. I do not recall much more than that, except that I found the "self siphoning" action interesting, since no electrical or mechanical pump, i.e. no additional energy input, was required. The system was closed as far as the liquid transfer, but it seems it was sufficiently open to not be using air compression. My memory shows the water flowing across a sloping solar heated surface, but flowing through tubes with a downward slope (gravity feed) might better assist the siphoning action, though I don't recall this being a feature. The design was so poorly described that I did not understand it initially, and having no immediate need and only reading the article "recreationally", I applied no effort to it and moved on. However it was supposedly a working system in the magazine article author's remote passive solar (the term "off grid" had not been coined yet) home. I've thought about revisiting this over the years when such a "self siphoning" or "self pumping" action could have been beneficial, but I never did. I wanted to see if it (probably the overflow function) might be applicable to feeding the upper hydroponic tray from the lower fish tank in an aquaponics setup, making it a closed system not requiring electric or manual pumps to transfer the liquid. Now that I am semi-retired I may get around to it. Any ideas, references, or suggeations? EDIT: Of course as soon as I closed this video, two offered videos down, I found a Ram Pump, describing its self-pumping action. So long as you had a sufficiently large reservoir of liquid, it should pump constantly.

very clever & cool as usual. seems likely you could mimic the pressure gain of a lake by making 1 a the containers a plastic pipe of appropriate height for a 2 or multi story building.

That brass and aluminium pipe arrangement that you placed in the river comes to mind.

I'd like to say I knew this was the design I used in my original shown idea Pretty much same fountain Definitely gonna be working on more of this this week

Fascinating!

So, I ran into this trying to figure out why my renewable fountain wasn't working. This explained that and so much more. Thank you for a proper explanation. No BS, I love it. With that said, what would happen if you put the jugs on scales?

Very cool, thank you for sharing!!! Thinking mounted on a wheel may be of benefit, has me pondering, thinking along the lines of Minto's Wheel... Seems a bit of "baking time" is in order...lol. Bravo, as always!!!

Interesting Gadget. Not bad for Lifting Water above a Certain Reservoir Level. Of course Slightly Different to Straight Forward Pumped Hydro. The Rotation Idea is Clever. I have had similar ideas myself. RMS, Thanks for the History.

I love the way you designed yours to be flipable. It would make an interesting display piece. As a battery, I would have to agree with Somethingsomething. Putting the impeller inline with a downline from the top bucket to the bottom would be more efficient as a water/gravity battery than the pressure of the Heron's fountain.

Awesome video!!!

This device is hypnotizing, I can look at it all day

Hi love your content, I achieved a science degree 20 years ago despite being blind it was always amusing how lectures got cancelled when the overhead projector bulb failed, however those there and that are my least favourite words can you try to describe just a little sometimes, love your stuff cheers

An ideator's day is never dull. Making these devices is a challenge I can see, but what fun, and it shows! HERON WOULD HAVE BEEN PROUD! I tend to find my expression writing code, these days javascript, and ideas just scream out to be tried out. Frustration levels can be high, but I would not have it otherwise! They said don't re-invent the wheel, but whoever they were, they have no idea how wonderful it is doing just that. Robert don't ever stop. You are an inspiration to us in the over-50s club.

Even if you already know about the device you feature, it is fascinating to have a recap and a further stretching of the imagination in the uses it can be put to! impractical it is information learned. A bit like the famous Edison quote!

Do you think if you anchored the center container with a barring attached to a rod that attached to a post, and maybe paint the bottom container black and possibly replaced the air with some sort of gas it would move or tip over once a day just from the difference in temperature fluctuation between night and day? (Kind of like that drinking bird?) Or maybe just paint one side of the bottom container black and the opposite side of the top container black? You could make it as long as you wanted I guess 🤔 Sort of like a mechanical sundial/grandfather clock?

Awesome! Speaking of fluids and gravity, do you know the Japanese shishi odoshi fountain? I've always thought it has a great generating potential.

Great vid mate. Not seen anything like this.

Rob What About Using One Of Those Electric Window Motor's To Turn The Unit Upside Down When Needed ? Like An Old Fashioned Egg Timer Bless Up Earthling Quality Video

That’s a nice idea but the problem with those water turbine generators is that they require a significant amount of water pressure in order to generate electricity , I have 3 of those and I did a few experiments with them so I know they won’t spin that easily and they need some mass to really accelerate..

Oh WOW, now you have me interested in this, I want to know how in the world you are going to flip the bigger containers once you have it built, That is going to be one big carousel, LOL - love that steampunk mindset you got going... Awesome

I was looking at this a couple of weeks ago. Great video and a great build. This is the first sealed system I've seen. A water wheel, or a water mill? To get the water to the top, (upstairs).

silicon carbide with graphene or graphite is becoming a popular solid state battery design. Would love to see you give it a try.

Can't wait to see how the scaled up version works with the impeller. Could be interesting paired with a small pump run off solar or one of the wind generators you've been showing.

I really like the idea of a water powered energy buffer. Before central electricity generation, when there were canals, reservoirs, and aqueducts all over Northern New York state, people could generate electricity off the water pressure of an open tap using a dynamo. It would be great to see this used, with solar and wind power to charge the system, for a single home or a small neighborhood.

Wonder if the copper & aluminium tubes you demonstrated in another video could be used in conjunction with this

I have messing around with variables of this and have found myself wondering if I have gone and lost my mind. And if my next stage of further devolution is a qualifying success, then what goes down, will have to powerfully go up.

instead of turning it over, use tidal rise to fill the container

If you do 4 in line and name it reversible like you said you could simply mount it on a frame with a stop at the top so they never quite are 90° so as one side empties and the other side fills up it will flip, then flip again, issuing gravity as both generator and battery

So this could be the fountain in every major town square coupled with brass and aluminium tubes creating energy !! Hiding in plane sight !!

Very nice sir 💐🙏🇮🇳

Watching this video also made me think of a system of a constant siphon running you're turbine and something like a pump periodically returning the water back up

Hi Robert, did you ever make the 3 bucket version?

If u would put a vent in the bottle and raise the airpressure with a bicycle pump than u should increase the flow.

Rob, are you familiar with that water-ram (or ram-pump), thing that people supposidly use off-grid to pump water without any power?

If you had any evenly balanced number of these [typically in pairs] so that the rotational balance is relatively neutral, you can set it up so that it automatically trips a lever that makes it roll over to reset it. Admittedly, you might need a lot of water volume, as well as vertical height, but, again, if you can easily flip it over like an hourglass, maybe it can continue to run infinitely. No, not as 'perpetual motion' but basically, if the rotational balance is very very close to equal, it should require very little force from a passive side motion to rotate the assembly the 90 or 180 degrees one needs to put the next column into position to begin working.

Hello sir thanks for your video. Let me share an idea i was experementing before replacing the water turbine and it was working perfect.. basically i took a big sealed container and drill 2 holes on top.. then from the first hole i was filling the container with water and from the second hole i had a valve.. so the water was taking the air place in the container and because the valve was close air was compressing in the tank.. then i was able to start a steam engine basically a 2 stroke engine converted to run on air and it was running for a long time and in very high rpm controlling them with the tank valve as the throttle... A cool idea to replicate it.. i can see a huge potential in a bigger scale for example a city creating energy by its water consumption just running it very simple through a second pressurised tank.. Cheers mate i like your mindset so much !!!

I am not sure I get it. What benefits would this have over a simple pumped hydro setup?

I rember this mentioned in school, but our foccas was on the first 'steam engine' I have been thinking about as many ways as I can , to generate power on my mini homestead, for my offgrid home. I have a small spring, that can go dry in summer, I was thinking water wheel generator, then I thought a small pumped hydro, I'd like to get atleast 400-500 watts, and use excess solar to ' charge' the system, I have a river close by, I could probably set up a undershot water wheel on pontoons, with the possibility of generating 500 watts plus, but would be a job, in a tough to access area, but with a wheel about 7' dia, and about 8' wide, and slightly dam and deflect the water to go through the water wheel, I'm not sure, but if I could get 1200 watts, 24/7 I don't think I'd need solar! But I'd keep it to charge the batteries faster, at night my consumption drops to below 400 watts, so the solar could charge during the day, and about 800+ nightly, in theory, But this system is interesting, building it with 400 gal, containers, and double everything! Do you think it could be 'supercharged' by adding energy to the system, like pressurising the draining chamber? Just 1/8 bar could make a substantial difference, forcing the water out, depending on the diameter of the discharge orifices, adding a hydraulic motor, to spin a generator, or possibly a turbine, Have you heard about the gravity generator, a guy in the 30's possibly used it to power his garage with a 100w motor, it amplified the power, using gravity to spin a shaft, the 100 watt motor just wiggled the shaft, so the offset weight, on the shaft is always falling, spinning the shaft, I have seen ppl try to replicate it, by old video clips, they have the weight loose on the shaft, I think it's where they fail. Sorry about the rambling, it's a rainy day here, and we had a earthquake here Sunday! Crazy it was a 5.1 in the NC mountains/foothills. The first in 100years, great video, I guess you can see , it made me think! What's NEXT???

Yes very good coverage of the different batteries cells I'm keeping up on the tesla car batteries lithium phosphate cobalt aluminum carbon advances What I really want you to cover is a dry crystal copper zinc cell that is powered by the quantum flux activating piesio crystals with the cashmere effect oscillating the pesio electric crystals. One will make 1.4volts but the amperage is small Check John Hutchinsons work Please do a show on them as they do not decompose Thank you Robert James

I may have a dumb idea. Is there a way to integrate a siphon somewhere in the system to refill one tank once the other empties with out turning the whole thing?..... Might not work....

Maybe it would be possible to put two other units at 180 degrees to each on a pivot and have a wind turbine tip it over once equilibrium is reached.

Is there a way to pressurize on side and maintain the pressure until the water is completely through then allow that pressure to reverse tanks? Sorry if that is a stupid question

This could work with a olds elevator with a uginsky wind turbine to turn the olds elevator to bring water back to top And keep on motioning even at night with wind Plus charge battery or hydro generator from a standing pool dispense back from heaight .

i was delighted by today's offering though the next size up would be something that can turn a car alternator that can give you 500 to 1000 watts output which is about as small as you can go for house sized projects i have always thought that windmills are much better suited to high torque low rpm like you might use to pump water or air then you could use several of your smaller devices to accumulate enough water or air power to run the alternator for a useful amount of time:-)

Have you considered adding an air lift water pump? Perhaps powered by a small blower or compressor and solar panel?

What about running a small ram pump to increase the preasures into the impeller and possibly recerculating the system

Funny this, I was looking at a 3 gear transmission and thinking of using one gear to drive the other, that drive the main gear. So the same with pressure. The falling water added pressure to one container, which adds pressure to another container (Smaller volume, greater pressure), which can push the water back up and have a continuous cycle. Maybe add air bladders, in the system, that can pressurize a little to add in the circulation.

I've been thinking lately about a crossover between gravity battery and water battery. I wonder how efficient it would be to use a pulley with two buckets on same cable. Filling bucket up high then the weight running a small generator, emptying at bottom, while the alternate bucket is being filled at top. Cycle repeats.

Your videos inspire me @Robert Murray-Smith .

While we are here. I've always enjoyed the idea of a hourglass with a generator in the middle.

Awesome

I have a crazy question, could this be slightly modified, and used with multiples, and put on a wheel and Axel. With the water causing it to rotate slowly? Like perpetual motion? Just a crazy idy! Like have a fire under the wheel, or concentrated solar, to help move it along, like air/sream pressure pushing water to a offset container, causing rotation, when it moves, cooling, pulling the water back, but before it cools, another setup, pushes water to a chamber, causing rotation, it would be slow, but torque would be upto the diameter, and the water volume! Possible ???

How about using capillary tubes to transfer the water from the bottom container upwards using multiple levels of open containers? No idea if that could work though, but its been on my mind since a long time. Anyway, Heron's fountain, cool

LOL, Just yesterday I seen those Impeller generators on the BangGood site.

That's cool wonder if it can be made to turn by itself?

You can combine it with Bell siphon

RMS, instead of the turbine, why don't you consider a Kelvin water dropper? It will produce DC and the mechanical losses will be nil. I considered doing this on the main water pipe to the house but never got around to it. The current may be small but with a supercap, could you store enough energy to charge a smartphone?

I tried to make a Heron's Fountain but all I got were cormorants and seagulls. And when I flipped it a turn showed up. Is this normal?

Could you use a ram pump to push the water back to the centre unit

Couldn't you have 2 "standard units" connected together, one filling the other and vice-versa as they empty? Perhaps with the turn of a valve?

How about a Minto wheel could you do something on that.

Add a ton of 10watt micro generators in every tub going down maybe.

Why not using the temperature difference from inside to outside to pump the first container to the second with one way valve (I have in mind Stirling engine principles...gas expansion to hydraulic power

I think you might run into water pressure issues with those containers.

Is there a way to use a solar heater run through soil to cool and incorporate a tesla turbine as it is suppose to be so efficient?

Is there such thing as ionized magnetized water or vinegar ? I know you can do this to hydrogen gas can it be done to a liquid ?

Do you think there is some way this fountain could be arranged as a Kelvin water dropper and take the charge to a capacitor for continuous charging and use? 🧐

Freeon gas in an enclosed loop and a temperature differential? Not sure of spelling or if I remember correctly lol:)

hey how can a trompe pump be added?

Vascular action could transport the water

I made a huge one out of 55 gallon plastic barrels

I wonder if the micro turbine outperforms a permanent battery installed within invertable hourglass ?

Wouldn't this be the same as storing water in a tank and simply using the pump as a generator? The amount of energy available will be E = mass*gravity*height minus inefficiencies. This is pretty cool though to watch.

Hello, I realize this video was posted some time ago. I fact, I have viewed your 4 cell update to this concept. However, in this video you mentioned that you were going to build a version of this concept with 20l buckets and an impellor generator. This now brings me to my question. Have you completed this "20l buckets and an impellor generator" project? If you have completed such, then please foreward me a link for that. I would be quite interested in seeing what energy it might produce for you. I really enjoy most of your videos and believe you are doing some really fun stuff! Have a great time! Thanks 2023/05/04 ----

How would you classify Robert? An Engineer, an inventor or something else? I aspire to become like him some day, I dont know where to start and what knowledge I need to get, which is why I am asking.

Why not use the salty water drops and graphene generator at the fountain head...i wonder if the water imbalance of masses could be used to tip it over when it's "flat".

my first read was HEROINE FOUNTAIN...

I came for the Heroin Fountain...hmmm.

Why is their no love button on YT

Nice! Autark Energy, dream of mankind as always 🙏

Off topic - any ides on generating electricity from burning alcohol? Like an alcohol generator. Couldn't find one, except one German company, selling a commercial solution, with Stirling engine for around 10K euros... :O thanks for replying anyone :)

Hey. I don't know if you read comments on old videos however i have a design for making this possible

Okay I have a dumb idea, 2 of these thing side by side, in opposite direction on a wheel, one discharge as the other charge. The thing is, given a good pivot, how much energy it would take to turn the wheel upside down? I don't think it would be quite a perpetual motion machine (there is a lot of implicit ambient energy too for the system to work, like the heat to keep water liquid, gravity, the support of the ground), but the idea is that generally tangential energy needed is less than moving the whole system. Simple men can turn wheel weighting tons, obviously those heavy wheels have evenly distributed weight, while this is a liquid so the mass is not only unequally distributed, but that distribution change over time. Anyway the idea is that maybe it can make the system just a bit more efficient with a slight push of external work that make the system rotate when charge discharge cycle is complete... Probably dumb, I need to figure out the math.

Just wait til it rains to fill up the battery :-)

🤔But why 12 “dislikes”?

I fear you will get almost nothing ...That generator expects many PSI and lotsa flow ... Noble idea though ... Thanx again!

Make a fusion reactor

Seems a bit wasteful letting the water just dribble out of the top of the impeller when you could connect it to a Kelvin Water Dropper and reclaim some power!

This is interesting. It got me thinking that if you could use gravity to passively assist in recharging, you could potentially generate more power than you need to put in to rotate the system. But that would make it a perpetual motion machine. Yeah, I think I was being too optimistic about the power generator's efficacy.

A liquid hour glass. You have to put energy into it to keep it going by turning it over. So it runs on gravity.