Water Effects

The vocabulary the studio designs in. Every effect is listed with the nozzle family that produces it, the height it will actually reach at a sensible pressure, what it sounds like, and the wind speed at which it stops being a good idea. Numbers are for clean water at 15 °C at sea level; a rooftop in a coastal city gets a different sheet.

WE-01 Vertical jet The plain vertical column. Clean for the first two-thirds of its rise, then it breaks into droplets and turns white. 1–12 m · Shape lost above 5 m/s WE-02 Aerated jet The white foam column. Half air by volume, which is why it is visible in daylight from 200 m and why it never sounds subtle. 0.6–6 m · Column holds to 9 m/s; spray does not WE-03 Weir sheet An unbroken curtain leaving a machined edge. The whole effect lives or dies on the flatness of one line of metal. Fall of 0.3–6 m; 18–40 mm head over the crest · Unbroken to about 6 m/s; sheet tears beyond WE-04 Laminar jet A glass-clear rod of water with no visible turbulence. Reads as solid glass and carries light down its length. 0.4–4 m · Intolerant above about 3 m/s WE-05 Mist A 5 to 10 micron cloud that evaporates before it lands. Not a small fountain — a different discipline with a different failure mode. Cloud depth 0.3–2.5 m · Moves with any air movement at all WE-06 Water bell A continuous film that leaves the nozzle as a dome and lands as a perfect circle. The most delicate thing we sell. 0.2–1.2 m, spread 0.4–2.4 m · Fails at 2 m/s WE-07 Pop jet A discrete slug of water launched by a fast valve. The only effect in the catalogue that can be choreographed at human reaction speed. 0.5–4 m per burst · As WE-01; sequence hides the drift WE-08 Film wall Water held in contact with a face all the way down, rather than falling clear of it. Quiet, wind-proof, and utterly dependent on the surface. Face height 1–9 m · Good to 8 m/s — the water never leaves the surface