Hi, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh. Chuck's here too. Jerry's hanging around out there, just kind of loitering, smoking cigarettes with her leather jacket on being a bad kid. And this makes the stuff you should know. Don't ruin the illusion, Chuck, I know. Uh So this is about water towers and we need to shout out a very special person. This is not only from our old how Stuff Works website that we used to write for, but the very founder. His name is Marshall Brain. That's his real name, and he created How Stuffworks so many years ago and technically is why we have a job doing what we do today. So hats off to you, Marshall, because he used to write everything himself. And this is one of the kind of the good old Marshall Brain articles. This is a Marshall Brain special water towers. Um. That was very Marshal Brain kind of like, hey, how does that air condition to work? Me tell you? I think he wrote how a condishers working his kitchen in North Carolina years ago for so. UM. One of the things that Marshall points out, and we're on a first name basis with them, don't worry, um, is that you very rarely run into a water failure, like as a utility goes the pressure of water. Now, something might have happened and it maybe brown, it may have lead in it. True. His point is is that your water pressure is pretty reliable as far as utilities go. Yeah, like get a blackout, get internet outage, all that kind of stuff happens. But if you ever go and turn your fascel on and nothing comes out, then there's something really bad has happened. Yeah, there's probably like a break in a water main and that's why it lost pressure. And at that point, pressure is like the least of your warries. Right. But what we have to thank for all of this, And we had people recently right in about this suggesting this as a topic. I don't know if you took a name down, did you? I'm looking now? Sorry sorry, uh listener if we don't get your name. But people suggested water towers. But we have water towers to thank for this. And it's a very simple thing. If you drive through a town and you look up and you see a big, giant water tower, it may be painted to look like something cool, like like a Georgia peach or or a walnut Georgia peach or a buttocks perspective, or it may not, or it may just have the town's name, or it may have nothing on it. But in that tower is water about five i'm sorry, about fifty times as much water. And this is a generalization as you might find in a backyard swimming pool. And that water is very tall because it needs to be tall because it uses gravity to make that water pressure happen. And that water tower helps spell the water pump that sends water through your town. Yeah, and it's really really simple because it's just a huge giant water tank and because it's elevated, it can use gravity to pressurize that water. Right, it gets it going when it starts to drop, and that's it. Like, that's a water tower. There's nothing special about it aside from its height or that it looks like a peach. It's a really really simple idea, but it's also a really ingenious idea that really really works because no pump is needed. So if you do have a power outage in your whole town, that's why you still have water pressure. And because of the amount of water in it, they usually can cover the amount of time it will take to get those pumps back online, so you never are out of water. Yeah. I think in the idea that there's enough water in the tower to cover the town for like a day. Yes, And I mean I would guess you could probably deal unless it was a major natural disaster. Let's say it was a routine problem with electricity or the pumps or something like that. Yeah, I guess you could probably deal with just about any problem you get the pumps going within a day. Um. Again, I think Jackson, Mississippi, just found out that you can go many days without water pressure at all if you have a bad enough natural disaster with the floods that they had. But I think under normal circumstances, if you have a water tower, it's got a day's worth of water and most of the time it's going to cover you. Yeah, that's the idea. Um, let's talk a little bit about these statistics or this math, because Marshall was kind enough to do the math many years ago. Uh. Every foot of height for a water tower provides point to four three pounds per square inch of pressure. Uh. He says a municipal water supply will run between fifty p s. I so you're gonna have to have. You know, it's very simple math. You do the math to figure out how big tall tall your tower needs to be, along with how much water you're gonna need, and bing bang boom, you build it. You're filled up with water and you're done. Right. Um. I saw that the average um uh p s I that comes out of a faucet and the house is between forty and forty five and sixties the backs. So if you're on completely if your town is totally flat at sea level, um, you would need to have between a ninety three and a hundred and four foot water tower to to achieve those pressures of forty or a hundred and forty foot water tower to hit that sixty. Al Right, it makes sense. It's probably wrong because I did the math, but you know, I say, we take a break. I'm gonna go over my work again. All right, we'll be right back. So, Chuck, like you said, of water towers, pretty big. Um, it can have a million and a half gallons. I'm guessing if you've got a town that's flushed with I don't know, local casino money or something like that, you probably have one that holds even more water than that. There's a lot of toilets flushing in the casino right well, and that brings up this point, right that it actually lets your your city save on the size of the pumps they buy for their water supply because your your city does have pumps under normal circumstances, that's how water initially gets pressurized from the treatment plant to begin with. But because there's such things as water towers, they can cover things like peak demand so that you only have to buy pumps. They can handle the average amount of demand right right, So in the morning, when everyone's taking showers and uh, they're having their morning constitutional, uh, there's gonna be a lot of water are pumping through the system, and that's when they rely on that water tower to spell the pumps. When demand is less, those that water tower is going to fill back up. The pump is gonna say, all right, we don't need as much water, so we're gonna give some back to you and you hold onto it until we need it tomorrow morning. And it's just sort of a beautiful little cycle. Yeah. And um, the reason or the way that that happens is the way that the water system is configured. So you've got the water treatment plant shooting out water to the pump station, which pressurizes the water initially, and then that from out of the pump station goes to the you know, people's houses. But right after the pump station, say, you will have the water tower connected and water goes in or out depending on demand. So when there's so much demand that the pump can't handle it, the water just starts to naturally come out of the water tower to supplement it. And then when there's an excess of it of um pressure from the pumps, that's when the water tower gets filled back up. And if there's neither, this is a little known fact your town's water tower will explode in a thermonuclear explosion and take your entire town out. Really, I don't think so. There's only one way to find out. If you've ever been to New York City. Say it New York City. If you've ever been there and you've looked out of your hotel room and seeing, uh, those big water tanks on top of all those buildings, and just thought, man, you never really notice those until you notice them, and they are everywhere. That's because New York is a city of tall buildings, and a lot of those buildings, uh, they don't even have to be that tall to exceed that what your water pressure can handle, like to get water up to the top floors of those apartments and offices and things. So all those buildings have their own little water tanks sitting up there on top, and it does the same thing that those water town wars do in the small towns that you drive through. Yeah, it's pretty neat. It's so New York too, very New York. We got I've got my own take up there. A lot of those buildings too, will have a lot of pumps uh themselves, not just water towers, but also pumping systems too. Yeah, especially ones that are, you know, flushed with casino money, or buildings in New York that are known for lots of pooping. Sure, which is there's a lot of buildings in New York known for that. Yeah, we won't mention any though. The only murders in the building building that's a big pooping building. I love that show. It's a great show, for sure, it is. Did you finish up this last season? No, I'm still in the middle of it. Actually I I started and then I was like, I'm already out of episodes. On episode three, so I was waiting for the rest and I think it finished right. Yeah, yeah, it's all out. We watched it. It's a lot of fun and just reaffirms that. But don't tell me, don't tell me the funniest tell me ever live. Man. I love that guy. You just spoiled it. Martin. Short's funny in the rest of the season. God, he's so funny. So there's one last thing about water towers, Charles, that I think we should talk about. Um that they will save you money on your fire insurance for your house. Huh, yeah, I think that is the case because, uh, you've got to have, you know, a lot of water pressure on demand if something is on fire, and that water tower is going to guarantee that if there's a fire, you're not going to run out of water pressure to put that fire out. So you're gonna get your fire insurance rates determined by the fact that you have a great water system and water tower. Fantastic. And before we go, we should shout out some of the people who rode into request and water towers. There's so many of them we cannot name them all. But starting all the way back in two thousand nineteen with Lila Craig all the way to two weeks ago with Magan Stall and thank everyone in between. Yeah, and everyone in between. That's right. Uh. And since we just thanked a bunch of people that you've not met yet, that means short Stuff is out. Stuff you should Know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H

Hi, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh. Chuck's here too. Jerry's hanging around out there, just kind of loitering, smoking cigarettes with her leather jacket on being a bad kid. And this makes the stuff you should know. Don't ruin the illusion, Chuck, I know. Uh So this is about water towers and we need to shout out a very special person. This is not only from our old how Stuff Works website that we used to write for, but the very founder. His name is Marshall Brain. That's his real name, and he created How Stuffworks so many years ago and technically is why we have a job doing what we do today. So hats off to you, Marshall, because he used to write everything himself. And this is one of the kind of the good old Marshall Brain articles. This is a Marshall Brain special water towers. Um. That was very Marshal Brain kind of like, hey, how does that air condition to work? Me tell you? I think he wrote how a condishers working his kitchen in North Carolina years ago for so. UM. One of the things that Marshall points out, and we're on a first name basis with them, don't worry, um, is that you very rarely run into a water failure, like as a utility goes the pressure of water. Now, something might have happened and it maybe brown, it may have lead in it. True. His point is is that your water pressure is pretty reliable as far as utilities go. Yeah, like get a blackout, get internet outage, all that kind of stuff happens. But if you ever go and turn your fascel on and nothing comes out, then there's something really bad has happened. Yeah, there's probably like a break in a water main and that's why it lost pressure. And at that point, pressure is like the least of your warries. Right. But what we have to thank for all of this, And we had people recently right in about this suggesting this as a topic. I don't know if you took a name down, did you? I'm looking now? Sorry sorry, uh listener if we don't get your name. But people suggested water towers. But we have water towers to thank for this. And it's a very simple thing. If you drive through a town and you look up and you see a big, giant water tower, it may be painted to look like something cool, like like a Georgia peach or or a walnut Georgia peach or a buttocks perspective, or it may not, or it may just have the town's name, or it may have nothing on it. But in that tower is water about five i'm sorry, about fifty times as much water. And this is a generalization as you might find in a backyard swimming pool. And that water is very tall because it needs to be tall because it uses gravity to make that water pressure happen. And that water tower helps spell the water pump that sends water through your town. Yeah, and it's really really simple because it's just a huge giant water tank and because it's elevated, it can use gravity to pressurize that water. Right, it gets it going when it starts to drop, and that's it. Like, that's a water tower. There's nothing special about it aside from its height or that it looks like a peach. It's a really really simple idea, but it's also a really ingenious idea that really really works because no pump is needed. So if you do have a power outage in your whole town, that's why you still have water pressure. And because of the amount of water in it, they usually can cover the amount of time it will take to get those pumps back online, so you never are out of water. Yeah. I think in the idea that there's enough water in the tower to cover the town for like a day. Yes, And I mean I would guess you could probably deal unless it was a major natural disaster. Let's say it was a routine problem with electricity or the pumps or something like that. Yeah, I guess you could probably deal with just about any problem you get the pumps going within a day. Um. Again, I think Jackson, Mississippi, just found out that you can go many days without water pressure at all if you have a bad enough natural disaster with the floods that they had. But I think under normal circumstances, if you have a water tower, it's got a day's worth of water and most of the time it's going to cover you. Yeah, that's the idea. Um, let's talk a little bit about these statistics or this math, because Marshall was kind enough to do the math many years ago. Uh. Every foot of height for a water tower provides point to four three pounds per square inch of pressure. Uh. He says a municipal water supply will run between fifty p s. I so you're gonna have to have. You know, it's very simple math. You do the math to figure out how big tall tall your tower needs to be, along with how much water you're gonna need, and bing bang boom, you build it. You're filled up with water and you're done. Right. Um. I saw that the average um uh p s I that comes out of a faucet and the house is between forty and forty five and sixties the backs. So if you're on completely if your town is totally flat at sea level, um, you would need to have between a ninety three and a hundred and four foot water tower to to achieve those pressures of forty or a hundred and forty foot water tower to hit that sixty. Al Right, it makes sense. It's probably wrong because I did the math, but you know, I say, we take a break. I'm gonna go over my work again. All right, we'll be right back. So, Chuck, like you said, of water towers, pretty big. Um, it can have a million and a half gallons. I'm guessing if you've got a town that's flushed with I don't know, local casino money or something like that, you probably have one that holds even more water than that. There's a lot of toilets flushing in the casino right well, and that brings up this point, right that it actually lets your your city save on the size of the pumps they buy for their water supply because your your city does have pumps under normal circumstances, that's how water initially gets pressurized from the treatment plant to begin with. But because there's such things as water towers, they can cover things like peak demand so that you only have to buy pumps. They can handle the average amount of demand right right, So in the morning, when everyone's taking showers and uh, they're having their morning constitutional, uh, there's gonna be a lot of water are pumping through the system, and that's when they rely on that water tower to spell the pumps. When demand is less, those that water tower is going to fill back up. The pump is gonna say, all right, we don't need as much water, so we're gonna give some back to you and you hold onto it until we need it tomorrow morning. And it's just sort of a beautiful little cycle. Yeah. And um, the reason or the way that that happens is the way that the water system is configured. So you've got the water treatment plant shooting out water to the pump station, which pressurizes the water initially, and then that from out of the pump station goes to the you know, people's houses. But right after the pump station, say, you will have the water tower connected and water goes in or out depending on demand. So when there's so much demand that the pump can't handle it, the water just starts to naturally come out of the water tower to supplement it. And then when there's an excess of it of um pressure from the pumps, that's when the water tower gets filled back up. And if there's neither, this is a little known fact your town's water tower will explode in a thermonuclear explosion and take your entire town out. Really, I don't think so. There's only one way to find out. If you've ever been to New York City. Say it New York City. If you've ever been there and you've looked out of your hotel room and seeing, uh, those big water tanks on top of all those buildings, and just thought, man, you never really notice those until you notice them, and they are everywhere. That's because New York is a city of tall buildings, and a lot of those buildings, uh, they don't even have to be that tall to exceed that what your water pressure can handle, like to get water up to the top floors of those apartments and offices and things. So all those buildings have their own little water tanks sitting up there on top, and it does the same thing that those water town wars do in the small towns that you drive through. Yeah, it's pretty neat. It's so New York too, very New York. We got I've got my own take up there. A lot of those buildings too, will have a lot of pumps uh themselves, not just water towers, but also pumping systems too. Yeah, especially ones that are, you know, flushed with casino money, or buildings in New York that are known for lots of pooping. Sure, which is there's a lot of buildings in New York known for that. Yeah, we won't mention any though. The only murders in the building building that's a big pooping building. I love that show. It's a great show, for sure, it is. Did you finish up this last season? No, I'm still in the middle of it. Actually I I started and then I was like, I'm already out of episodes. On episode three, so I was waiting for the rest and I think it finished right. Yeah, yeah, it's all out. We watched it. It's a lot of fun and just reaffirms that. But don't tell me, don't tell me the funniest tell me ever live. Man. I love that guy. You just spoiled it. Martin. Short's funny in the rest of the season. God, he's so funny. So there's one last thing about water towers, Charles, that I think we should talk about. Um that they will save you money on your fire insurance for your house. Huh, yeah, I think that is the case because, uh, you've got to have, you know, a lot of water pressure on demand if something is on fire, and that water tower is going to guarantee that if there's a fire, you're not going to run out of water pressure to put that fire out. So you're gonna get your fire insurance rates determined by the fact that you have a great water system and water tower. Fantastic. And before we go, we should shout out some of the people who rode into request and water towers. There's so many of them we cannot name them all. But starting all the way back in two thousand nineteen with Lila Craig all the way to two weeks ago with Magan Stall and thank everyone in between. Yeah, and everyone in between. That's right. Uh. And since we just thanked a bunch of people that you've not met yet, that means short Stuff is out. Stuff you should Know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H