Eber’s water towers 2013

The leading trade journal in Sweden, VA-tidskriften Cirkulation has since 1998 an article series under the heading Ebers vattentorn (Eber’s water towers), where Eber Ohlsson with text and photo presents interesting water towers in the world (except Scania and Sweden). Below is a free translation to English of these texts.


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 1/2013

A free translation to English:

When we today look at Austria and Hungary on the map, we see landlocked countries. But that was not the case a century ago. At that time the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary had both coasts and ports on the Adriatic. The Habsburg Empire large export and import port was the city of Trieste.

That is one of the reasons why you today in Trieste harbor find many beautiful, more than 100 years old port warehouses and one old water tower, all reminiscent of the empire’s heyday. The cosmopolitan city, which in more than 500 years belonged to Austria, came after World War I to be part of Italy and serve a reduced area.

Published 2013-02-13


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 2/2013

A free translation to English:

How to act if a region is the largest and best in peach cultivation and the neighboring state instead unjustified is known for this? You design the new water tower as a peach and place it next to a busy highway. For that reason you find since 1981 a 20 meter high peach water tower in steel along Interstate 85 in Gaffney, South Carolina, USA.

It’s a juicy peach with no core, from which one can get 3 800 m³ of water. The water tower design by Peter Freudenberg is so observed that it is almost a traffic hazard. This has given rise to tourism, but also a similar, but half as large copy in Clanton, Alabama.

Published 2013-03-20


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 3/2013

A free translation to English:

Water unites heaven and earth in the eternal cycle. Sky and water were also united in Hamburg’s water tower in Winterhude. Architect Oscar Menzel won the 1907 an ideas competition for this tower, located in the end of a 1 400 m long axis in the Hamburg city park. The tower was in operation in the city high zone 1916 to 1924, when it partially lost its function when the city’s two pressure zones were merged.

1930 a planetarium was added in the tower bottom and 1944 became the water pipe to the tower so damaged by a bomb that the tower was brought out of operation. The 64.5 m high tower, which is heritage building since 1981, contained 3 000 m³ of water.

Published 2013-05-02


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 4/2013

A free translation to English:

Netherlands’ most sustainable office is a water tower from 1897. It stands in Bussum, a town southeast of Amsterdam. From being a classic 200 m³ large Intze-tower, it has now lost its reservoir function, but has a new top of the glass with a windmill on the roof and a side building.

Here is it zero energy and carbon neutral, with thermal energy storage, heat pumps and cogeneration. All necessary electrical energy generated internally with wind, solar and cogeneration, a cogeneration using vegetable waste oil. The tower has its own water and sewage plant. Etc, etc. A tower in the time.

Published 2013-06-05


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 5/2013

The Swedish word “Stålmannen” is a direct translation of “Man of Steel”.

The Swedish verb “super” is when someone drink much alcohol, so when the “Superman” was introduced in Sweden 1949, the name “Stålmannen” was choosen.

A free translation to English:

The American cartoon series Superman, subtitled Man of Steel was in Sweden known as Stålmannen, which probably can be explained by the risk of misunderstanding of the original name at this time, but he could then also keep his S on the tricot.

Superman lives in the fictional city of Metropolis, which also is the name of a small town on the right bank of Ohio River near the Mississippi. This U.S. town depicted therefore the super hero at its central steel water tower. The tower roasted however and was scrapped a few years ago. Superman has now been resurfaced on a water tower in the town’s periphery.

Published 2013-08-28


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 6/2013

A free translation to English:

The construction of the water tower in the Lithuanian city of Šiauliai was in progress last longer than planned. 1939 started building of the tower, designed by Professor P Morkunas and A Janulionis, but in the year after the building was delayed when Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, and after another year came Nazi German troops.

In 1944 returned the battlefront and now became the Soviet occupation more permanent. Eventually, however, continued construction of the 47 meter high water tower and in 1948 it was clear. A reasonable delay, given the circumstances. The tower is still in operation and in the downstairs is there now a water and sewer museum.

Published 2013-10-02


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 7/2013

A free translation to English:

An eminently classic waterworks and water tower was built by Louisville Water Company in 1856 close to the Ohio River in the city of Louisville in Kentucky, USA. Architect Theodore R. Scowden used this ancient idiom on the tower Doric column, surrounded by a Corinthian portico with ten pillars and above where classical statues.

A tornado in 1890 destroyed much, but most of it, nevertheless, could be restored. The 56 meter high water tower is a stand pipe, which helped to even out the pressure of the piston stroke at the powerful steam engine. The water tower was decommissioned in 1909 and is now of course an official landmark.

Published 2013-11-06


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 8/2013

In Scanian, the word “vann” means both “won” and “water”, and “på” means “on”.

In Swedish, the word “bett” means both “asked” and “bite”. And “folkmun” is translated to “popular parlance”, but a direct translation should be “peoples mouth”.

A free translation to English:

Buildings get sometimes popular epithet, something that even can applies on water towers, as one of the towers of Danish Korsør with the popular parlance epithet The Molar. The water tower is the result of an architectural competition in 1947, which was won by E Frandsen and J Falster. They “vann på vann”, as a Scanian would have said. The 30 meter high tower of reinforced concrete can hold 450 m³.

Teeth, dental status and caries were otherwise something widely discussed 50 years ago. There were proposals to add fluoride to drinking water. But there were protests, no one had asked for this general medication. Citizens have nevertheless a good bite without prostheses.

Published 2013-12-11


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