by Fern Shaw | Jan 27, 2014 | Water, Water Coolers
Photo: Mike Hollingshead
I have had a life-long fascination with tornadoes. Forgetting for a moment the absolutely devastating effect they have on life, limb and property, I think they are amaaaaazing. Just recently I tried my second ditch attempt with loved ones about my burial service and what I’d like. It bombed almost as badly as the first ditch attempt.
In a previous blog about dams, I mentioned 007. It is precisely because of one of his movies that my aversion for cremation set me on the alternative path of how my earthly remains are to be disposed of. Don’t blame me, blame 007!
The first idea involved a leaky wooden boat, bows and arrows, a beach, sea and fire. The second idea is some brave person travels with me to Kansas in tornado season; drives me as close as dammit to a raging tornado and leaves me there. This will then fulfil my dream (hopefully) of me finally being able to see the inside of the funnel. I would imagine that if I am in the correct path and I am swept up, I’ll probably only have seconds (if that) to have a look see – after that I’ll be toast.
Anyhow, as it happens no-one I know is too keen on this idea either. Perhaps I can speak nicely to the storm chasers when the time comes.
What are tornadoes you ask?
Tornadoes are rotating columns of air formed in intense thunderstorms. If the vortex extends from the cloud all the way to the ground, then it’s officially a tornado. The funnel cloud is an actual cloud; the low pressure causes the air to expand and cool below the dew point. However, a tornado can exist without a funnel cloud; if the air is dry enough, the only visible sign of a tornado might be a small dimple in the base of the parent cloud. The lower part of a tornado funnel can also consist of dust and debris blown up from the ground.
The dew point in case you were wondering is the temperature below which the water vapour in air at constant barometric pressure condenses into liquid water at the same rate at which it evaporates. The condensed water is called dew when it forms on a solid surface. Now you know.
To think that little ol’ innocent dew could be responsible for such wracking ruin is quite something.
So as if it’s not bad enough to be rejected outright by the loved ones, I was told at the office that no-one’s prepared to participate in my storm chasing demise.
But then, that might be based on my mentioning that I’d like to use our Orio Water Cooler as a tornado test dummy. It might have been, can’t be sure.
by Fern Shaw | Jan 27, 2014 | Water, Water Coolers
I was galloping around the internet (translation: pulling up pages every 5.8 seconds as opposed to my regular speed of 20.3 seconds) when I came across a site about dams. Dams, you ask? As in the females in the animal world?
No, not those dams, dam dams (ahahaha) you know, large, usually man made reservoirs of water that usually keep cities and towns in water.
This water wonder (pictured above) is the:
Contra Dam
Location: Ticino, Switzerland
Height: 220m
Length: 380m
Impounds (water source): Verzasca River
The surface area of the dam is 44,500 m2
This magnificent venue was used in the 1995 James Bond film, Golden Eye, where 007 jumps from the top. Do you remember that? I certainly do. My dad was an avid movie goer and 007 topped the list of must go sees.
Anyhow, I digress. Back to the main event.
Dams are pretty incredible if one thinks about it and pretty daunting from another perspective – all that water held back by tons of concrete and some pretty nifty engineering. Don’t judge, but it’s always been a bit of a bother to me that concrete is so porous and you mix it with water and then…. it becomes solid. When it meets water again, why doesn’t it crumble or return to its sludgy state? Never been able to figure that one out.
The water from AquAid doesn’t come from this dam though. It would be nice to think that it did (all that glacier run-off) but it doesn’t. Have to keep the carbon footprint in mind ye know.
That said, our water’s nothing to sneeze about – all sourced from three different locations around the UK.
Our water coolers (if you’re using our bottle fed that is) are then kept supplied with said delicious drinking water to keep you and team well watered and bright eyed and bushy tailed.
(I won’t be standing at the base of any dam though, that whole concrete thing still freaks me out).
by Fern Shaw | Jan 21, 2014 | Health and Hydration, Water
Colour me amazed! I was watching a programme and this info blurb popped up. One of those ‘Did you know?’ thingies. It said that penguins can convert salt water to fresh water.
This led to some serious research – ‘just imagine,’ thought I, ‘there are sufficient penguins that each water drinking person could have their very own penguin water cooler + penguins are rather terrific and always sufficiently well dressed for a night on the town’- bonus!
The facts:
The supraorbital gland is a type of lateral nasal gland found in penguins, which removes sodium chloride from the bloodstream. The gland’s function is similar to that of the kidneys, though it is much more efficient at removing salt, allowing penguins to survive without access to fresh water. Contrary to popular belief, the gland does not directly convert saltwater to freshwater.
Living in saltwater environments would naturally pose a large problem for penguins because the ingestion of saltwater would be detrimental to a penguin’s health. Although penguins do not directly drink water, it is taken in when they engulf prey. As a result, saltwater enters their system and must be effectively excreted. The supraorbital gland has thus enabled the penguins’ survival in such environments due to its water-filtering capability. The penguin excretes the salt by-product as a brine through its bill.
Right then, so perhaps not your very own penguin water cooler, but what about your very own brine producer? No?
Oh, alright then! As you can see from the photo on the right, my pitch to the penguins was not well received – they left in rather a hurry.
As it turns out, there are two bits of good news stemming from this blog.
1) Hopefully you’ve learnt something new (I most certainly have) about nature and the animals in it and;
2) although, sadly, you can’t have your very own penguin water cooler converter you can, of course, contact AquAid for any super-duper water cooler requirements.
Our water coolers don’t smell of fish and don’t leave guano all over your workspace. Bonus.
by Fern Shaw | Dec 18, 2013 | Water
Using a Rough Surface to Stay Dry
*Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University have found a new clue to staying dry, and it has to do with time and texture.
James C. Bird, now of Boston University, and Kripa K. Varanasi at M.I.T. and their colleagues, were considering the problem of icing, which is a version of getting wet, and they decided to focus on the time a water drop stays in contact with a surface.
There is a maximum amount of time a water drop can touch frozen material before it freezes and sticks, causing all sorts of problems for wings and machinery, for starters.
They tested ways to shorten the amount of contact time, and recorded the tests with high-speed video, which they analysed. A smooth surface might seem most likely to repel water, but they found that a rough surface, with ridges, for example, worked better.
The key is the way a water drop changes shape and bounces off material that has been treated to make it super water-repellent. The drop flattens into a pancake, then recollects itself and bounces up.
Ridges broke up the drops, and the smaller droplets re-formed and bounced away up to 40 percent quicker than the larger drops.
With refinements, Dr. Varanasi said they hope to be able to cut the contact time by 80 percent. If it can then be adapted for industrial uses, it could benefit wind turbines, other kinds of machines, and even the fashion industry.
After their discovery, the scientist looked to nature to see if plants and animals had evolved the same trick. And they had. Although the lotus leaf is often thought of as highly water-repellent, nasturtiums did better, with a rougher surface. They also found the wings of the Morpho Butterfly bounce water off in the same way.
While we like to stay afloat (harf harf) of all topics water, we are in no way suggesting that you use your water cooler as a test site for anything. Yes, that will include water spray ratio, rough surfaces; how high water will bounce off the carpet vs. the floorboards – none of it. We ask, as I’m sure your company does, that you use the water cooler for its primary purpose – supplying you with cool, fresh drinking water at the press of a button.
You may also wish to remember during these chilly winter months that AquAid also provide water boilers too. Anything you’d like to ask, drop us a line here.
*Excerpts from an article in the New York Times by James Gorman
by Fern Shaw | Nov 13, 2013 | Water
Well, in the simplest terms that I can understand, which means you have to dumb down to my level, Sunshine, is that;
‘Water is made of two hydrogen atoms attached to an oxygen atom. This seems like pretty basic chemistry, so why don’t we just smash them together and solve the world’s water ills? Theoretically, this is possible, but it would be an extremely dangerous process, too.
To create water, oxygen and hydrogen atoms must be present. Mixing them together doesn’t help; you’re still left with just separate hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The orbits of each atom’s electrons must become linked, and to do that we must have a sudden burst of energy to get these shy things to hook up.
Since hydrogen is extremely flammable and oxygen supports combustion, it wouldn’t take much to create this force. Pretty much all we need is a spark – not even a flame – and boom! we have water. The hydrogen and oxygen atoms’ electrons’ orbits have been conjoined.
But we also have an explosion and – if our experiment was big enough, a deadly one.
The ill-fated blimp, the Hindenburg, was filled with hydrogen to keep it afloat. As it approached New Jersey on May 6, 1937, to land after a trans-Atlantic voyage, static electricity (or an act of sabotage, according to some) caused the hydrogen to spark. When mixed with the ambient oxygen in the air, the hydrogen exploded, enveloping the Hindenburg in a ball of fire that completely destroyed the ship within half a minute.
There was, however, also a lot of water created by this explosion.’
This example, I think, would be enough to give anyone pause about trying to get oxygen and hydrogen to do the nasty to produce water. But fear not, fellow homo sapien, there are some wonder workers out there that have come up with some interesting and feasible ideas on how to create water – more about that next wee.
For now, and in the foreseeable future, should you require drinking water that doesn’t go boom when you drink it, have a look at our rather nifty range of water coolers; water boilers; water fountains … (the list goes on). You’re welcome to drop us an e-mail and we’ll be happy to take you through the best water cooler for your requirements.
Rather unfortunately, our water coolers are not cut out for scientific water experiments. Just in case you were wondering.
