by Fern Shaw | Nov 1, 2013 | Water Boilers, water cooler, Water Coolers
Waxing philosophical (waxing possibly originating from the German word wachsen (to grow)) about water, I first thought of this one *pointing upwards*. The full proverb reads like this:
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
Meaning
People, like horses, will only do what they have a mind to do.
Origin
This proverb might be thought to encapsulate the English-speaking people’s mind set better than any other saying, as it appears to be the oldest English proverb that is still in regular use today. It was recorded as early as 1175 in Old English Homilies:
‘Hwa is thet mei thet hors wettrien the him self nule drinken’
Sticking with the water theme, here are some more corkers:
A fish out of water
Not feeling at home where you are.
Blood is thicker than water
Family is more important than anyone or anything else.
Don’t make waves
Don’t make trouble; do what others are doing.
Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water
When you’re making a change, save what matters to you and dispose of the rest.
You bring water to the sea
You take advantage of something.
It would seem that water is an integral part of life, even to do with philosophy. As you can see from the image headlining today’s blog, we even have our resident horse, Hoss, moonlighting as a zebra and lurking around the water cooler in the AquAid Africa office. Rather fitting, or, as they say in the classics, ‘if the hoof (harf harf) fits, wear it’, keeping in mind the whole zebra + Africa + … connection. Geddit? Geddit?
As you may imagine, I have used a lot of poetic license here, because truly, although we like to think of ourselves as being rather creative in this division of AquAid, we don’t really have a horse doubling as a zebra in our office lurking around the water cooler.
Disappointed? Never mind, so am I!
What we do have though, are water coolers:
Ask away, we’ve oodles of water cooler knowledge and experience and are happy to help. Click here. Neiggghhhhhh!
by Fern Shaw | Oct 16, 2013 | Health and Hydration, water cooler, Water Coolers
I still giggle when I think about drinking water fountains. Heavens only know why. We used to have one in the dojo I did karate at (jaha – more to this blogista than just a keyboard I tell ya). I just thought the water fountain was awfully clever. Our school certainly didn’t have them. No siree Bob, our school had school toilets – ugh – and school basins – double ugh – and Lifebuoy soap – *shudder*.
Then, schools changed and we got lucky. How so, you ask? This so, I say:
AquAid’s stylish drinking water fountains make a great addition to any school, gym or area where a high volume of water is required. Research has shown that children do not drink enough water during the school day which is why AquAid are one of the UK’s leading providers of water coolers and drinking fountains to schools. These machines offer you the added benefit of being durable as well as only using a small footprint.
Water Fountain – features:
- Rugged Steel construction
- Stainless steel sink top
- Both Swan neck and bubble options
- Extremely durable with proven reliability
- Drainage and mains water required
- Coil on Coil refrigerated cooling system resulting in reduced running costs
- Environmentally friendly
Why the emphasis on Water Coolers & Drinking Fountains for Schools?
Dehydration is serious for all of us, but no more so than to our children. At the time a child starts to feel thirsty, they will have already lost more than 20% of their ability to perform both physically and mentally. The direct result of this is not only a worsened academic performance but also lower concentration spans leading to increased classroom disruption.
An experiment in ‘brain hydration’ carried out at an Edinburgh primary school showed that the introduction of water bottles on pupils’ desks led to a significant improvement in national test results over a 2 year period. Despite these important facts:
- Two-thirds of children are still not getting enough drinking water, and
- A fifth of children drink no water at all,
according to research conducted by the Department of Health and Food Standards Agency.
So, this is rather marvellous news all round as having easy access to drinking water means a healthier and happier child, who is more able to pay attention in class, will have a better capacity to learn and will have sufficient (but not sugar-filled) energy to get through the day.
Please, contact us at AquAid today, we’ll be more than happy to take you through the choices for the optimum water cooler for use at your school; gym or play area.
by Fern Shaw | Oct 7, 2013 | water cooler, Water Coolers
Who among us doesn’t just love jetting water? Think about it – from those rather absurd, no-flow control drinking water fountains of yesteryear, to magical musical fountains which lit up in all the rainbow colours and the quintessential exploding water bombs and pranking someone with an unexpected squirt of water …
In the early 19th century, London and Paris built aqueducts and new fountains to supply clean drinking water to their exploding populations.
Fountains became a decorative feature of the English country house as early as the end of the 17th century. These baroque fountains were influenced by the fountains of the Italian Renaissance garden and the Garden à la française, particularly the fountains of Versailles. Chatsworth House in Derbyshire featured a cascade and fountains (1696-1703) in the style of French baroque gardens. It had a seahorse fountain and a willow tree fountain, which sprayed water on unsuspecting visitors.
In 1843 the Duke of Devonshire, the owner of Chatworth House, learned that the Tsar Nicholas of Russia was planning to visit his home. To mark the occasion, the Duke commissioned the architect Richard Paxton to construct the world’s highest fountain on his estate. Paxton built an eight-acre lake as a reservoir for the fountain, 350 feet above the level of the fountain, to provide water pressure. The Emperor Fountain was finished in just six months, and could jet water 296 feet high. Unfortunately the Tsar never came to see fountain, but it still functions today.
In the nineteenth century, the development of steam engines allowed the construction of more dramatic fountains. In the middle of the century the Earl of Stamford built the Great Fountain, Enville, which jetted water 150 feet above the surface of a lake on his estate. He used two steam engines to pump water to a reservoir at the top of the hill above his estate. The fountain could spout water for several minutes, until the reservoir was empty.
In the early 21st Century, Lord Neidpath (now Earl of Wemyss and March) commissioned a giant, gravity-fed fountain at his family’s ancestral home of Stanway House, in the Cotswolds. The fountain is driven by two reservoirs over a mile from the Canal in the gardens of the house, and the custom-made bronze nozzle in the lake can produce a plume of water 300ft tall. The fountain is the tallest gravity-fed fountain in the world, and the second tallest fountain of any kind in Europe.
Now that we have your attention, in a water fountain manner of speaking, in the next instalment, I’ll be telling you all about AquAid’s super functional (and pretty darn decorative) drinking water fountains, most especially effective when placed in schools to optimise healthy hydration habits for children.
If you’d like a preview, please do follow through here.
