often used lead which brought its own problems of lead poisoning,
particularly in the wine goblets where the vinegar in the wine dis-
solved the lead.
Before the expansion of cities during the Industrial Revolution,
many water mains in Europe, and even in New York, were con-
structed of wood, which allowed the water to breathe and to inter-
act with its environment. After the water mains in Vienna were
extended to new suburbs with steel or iron pipes, internally coated
with tar, as opposed to the traditional wooden tubes, Schauberger
found that the incidence of cancer more than doubled between 1920
and 1931.^20
The laminar structure of water quickly disintegrates owing to
the chaotic flow through a cylindrical pipe. Friction with the pipe
walls heats up the water, decomposing the dissolved trace elements.
As the surface of the iron pipes start to rust, oxygen is taken out of
the water, and the rust deposits encourage disease-promoting bac-
teria. The accumulating rust in turn constricts the water flow, so
that what is delivered is dead water, disinfected with chlorine.The wooden water mainSchauberger knew that water can maintain its vitality and energy
only if it is allowed to tumble about in a spiralling vortical manner.
So in 1930 he set about designing a pipe that would actually encour-
age this movement. It was constructed of wooden staves, like a bar-
rel, which allowed the moisture to seep through, transferring a
cooling effect (as in sweating) to the water in the pipe. The spiralling
movement was created by a series of guide vanes, which act like
rifling in a gun barrel. These were made of silver plated copper to
Fig. 12.1. The double-spiral longitudinal
vortex.
This is a longitudinal vortex showing the
development of toroidal counter-vortices. These
occur due to interaction with the porous pipe
walls and have an effect similar to ball-bearings,
enhancing the forward movement. Their interior
rotation follows the direction of rotation and flow
of the central vortex. These toroidal vortices
transfer oxygen, bacteria and other impurities to
the pipe walls, where the concentration of oxygen
destroys the inferior, pathogenic bacteria.- SUPPLYING WATER