Makai Guy
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- Joined
- Jun 3, 2004
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- Aiken, SC, USA
- Resorts Owned
- Spicebush (Hilton Head Island)
Since someone at TUG knows just about everything ...
We just returned from an Alaska adventure. There were a bunch of these along the boardwalk coming in from the Railroad cruise dock in Juneau, every 10 yards or so apart.
They look sort of like Olympic torches, but the bowl at the top is really more like a funnel, with a discharge at the bottom, so rainwater would be channeled out the bottom of the bowl and into the opening at the top of the shiny diagonal tube. The tube is pivoted at the middle and its bottom is closed and has a striker pad where it would contact the horizontal tube at the bottom.
All I could guess was the tube is blocked internally at a point at or above the pivot, allowing water to accumulate up to a point, then the water weight would cause the tube to pivot (clockwise in this view) and pour the water out. The heavier bottom part of the tube would then return it to its normal position.
At first I thought it might be the rain equivalent of a wind chime, but when the pivot tube contacts the large horizontal tube it just makes a non-melodic "thunk".
My next thought was that there could be a counter associated with the pivot and that his might therefore be a rain gauge. But I could find no evidence of any wiring associated with this device.
None of the web searches I've tried have come with anything. Anybody have a clue as to what these are?
We just returned from an Alaska adventure. There were a bunch of these along the boardwalk coming in from the Railroad cruise dock in Juneau, every 10 yards or so apart.
They look sort of like Olympic torches, but the bowl at the top is really more like a funnel, with a discharge at the bottom, so rainwater would be channeled out the bottom of the bowl and into the opening at the top of the shiny diagonal tube. The tube is pivoted at the middle and its bottom is closed and has a striker pad where it would contact the horizontal tube at the bottom.
All I could guess was the tube is blocked internally at a point at or above the pivot, allowing water to accumulate up to a point, then the water weight would cause the tube to pivot (clockwise in this view) and pour the water out. The heavier bottom part of the tube would then return it to its normal position.
At first I thought it might be the rain equivalent of a wind chime, but when the pivot tube contacts the large horizontal tube it just makes a non-melodic "thunk".
My next thought was that there could be a counter associated with the pivot and that his might therefore be a rain gauge. But I could find no evidence of any wiring associated with this device.
None of the web searches I've tried have come with anything. Anybody have a clue as to what these are?
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