In 1912, Simon Benson, lumber millioner and teetotaller, commissioned 20 drinking fountains with a $10,000 gift. He wanted to offer his loggers something cold on the streets to quench their thirst so they will not get drunk, at least not during work hours. Benson once said that after the fountains were installed, saloon sales decreased 40%. A. E. Doyle, architect of the Multnomah County Library and the Meier & Frank Building, designed the graceful bronze four-bowls. By 1917, the City had installed 40 fountains - known as Benson Bubblers - throughout downtown. There are now 52 Benson Bubblers (four-bowl fountains). The fountains have timers so they flow freely from 5 am to 10 pm daily.
Kever Benjamin has a lot to catch up with Portland. Our problem is not lumbermen felling dead drunk in the middle of Weizmann Street. Summer temperatures here are veritably hellish and there is no drinking water anywhere. The Municipality should install coolers in public places to fill in with cold water the water bottles that many people carry.
2 comments:
It's funny I was in Portland last year and I don't recall seeing any such fountains. It doesn't seem to make sense to run such fountains without valves - what a waste of water (not that they are short on water in Portland - it rains all the time and the Columbia River is unimaginably big by Israeli standards - at Portland, which is maybe 160 kilometers upstream from the mouth of the river, the Columbia is still maybe 1 kilometer across and it is filled with deep rushing water by the ton. The first time I saw the "River" Jordan I almost laughed - in America we would call such a river a "creek" and it would not even appear on maps.) I recall that Rome has spigots throughout the city also without valves.
http://www.romanconcrete.com/graphics/fountain.jpg
They are too low to drink from directly but you can fill a water bottle from them.
Adding electrical refrigeration to the fountains would add greatly to the cost of installation, operation and maintenance vs. a passive fountain which is just a pipe coming from a water main (hopefully with a spring loaded valve on the end). In the US I don't recall seeing many outdoor fountains that are refrigerated - ironically electrical refrigerators don't operate well in below freezing conditions - the evaporator coils ice up, the condensate lines freeze, etc.
Well, that problem (freezing weather conditions) we dont have here. Today it was 27 Celsius in the shade in Kever Benjamin. Tomorrow it will be yet warmer. I dont think maintenance of water coolers in the streets should be any problem, we have cool cola and tea in bottles in self service refrigerators. There is no technical difficulty, the problem is that people could abuse the free service and fill up gallons.
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