How to Make an Automatic Bird Bath

In a previous blog, I briefly described my Automatic Bird Bath, and I will give more details here, especially how to make one.

  

Controlled by a timer, any debris accumulated during the day (fallen from trees or left by birds) is flushed out of the bowl of the bird bath at the end of the day.  I recommend setting the time to late in the evening when it is highly unlikely that a bird will be using it.  We don't want a bird to be suddenly and forcefully swept out while bathing!

The force of the flushing operation will leave the bowl nearly empty; but overnight, the dripper will refill the bowl.  During the day, the dripper will not only make a sound that advertises a source of water for the birds, but will also keep the bowl filled as the sun evaporates the water and as the birds splash some of the water out.

The next photo views the bird bath from the side, labeling some of the parts.  We will detail the hardware parts later.

I have supported the parts with a "shepherd's crook" pole, the kind typically used to support a hanging flower pot.  But the bent "crook" is not used, so any sturdy pole will do.

A bent metal strap is fastened to the pole with U-hooks U1 and U2, and to the hose with U-hooks U3 and U4.  The hose is a sturdy watering hose,  The usual male connector at the end of the hose is removed by cutting the hose with a hack-saw.  Clamp C flattens the end of the hose so that the water comes out as a flat, fan-shaped spray.  Before you adjust the angle and position of the bent metal strap, you should experiment with this fan-shaped spray to find the best angle and position of the hose to sweep out the bowl, tossing some debris into the bowl as part of the test.

The dripper D is just quarter-inch hose, the kind used for drip watering.  The drip hose is fastened to the pole with twist-ties or plastic tape.  The valve V in the photo is used to adjust the drip rate.  You can buy the valve from places that sell drip watering parts.  The part of the drip hose that arches from the pole over the center of the bird bath needs to be stiffened.  I wrapped wire around a wood dowel to make a spiral, which I slipped over the drip hose.  One end of the same wire that was not wrapped around the dowel was wrapped around the pole to anchor the drip hose.  The drip hose should be high enough to give large birds enough room for splashing.  Then bend the stiffened part of the drip hose so that it will drip near the center of the bowl.

The hardware parts are shown in the next diagram.  I bought one-inch wide steel material as thick as a typical steel hinge at a hardware store and cut it to the lengths indicated here.  I bought the U-bolts and small straps used with them as-is at the hardware store.  The U-bolts must be large enough to fit around the watering hose, and this will generally be large enough to fit around the pole.

The long strap must be bent on an angle at its center.  The angle is needed so that the hose can pass by one side of the pole.  To assure yourself of the correct angle, make a 'dummy' strap of cardboard, then hold the hose at the desired angle alongside of the pole, and bend the 'dummy' strap so that one half is parallel to the pole and the other half is parallel to the hose.  Note the angle of the bend (about 50 degrees) and how far it is bent (about 80 degrees).

Use a sturdy vise mounted on a work bench to bend the strap.  Mark the location and angle of the bend, and clamp the strap in the vise with the bend line at the edge of the vice jaws.  Then hit the strap near the bend line with a hammer until it is bent the right amount by your best estimate.  You can adjust this later.

The short strap can be bent by a similar method.  I recommend drilling the holes after bending, as this will make it easier make the holes aligned.  Here it is more important that the bend is centered, so that the two ends will come close together.   So reversing the strap in the vice after partly bending it can help.  Also, because the strap will wrap around a partly flattened hose, we don't want the bend the strap too sharply.  Clamping a big nail or small bolt alongside the strap near the edge of the clamp will promote a 'softer' bend (more like a U, less like a V).  Try how it fits over the end of the hose, flattening the hose, but not so much that water flow is shut off.  Drill a hole through both ends of the strap large enough for a bolt to go through the holes.  The short strap should not be bent too much; the two sides should be about 1/2 inch apart, and it should need the bolt and a nut to pull the strap a little more to make the two sides of the strap parallel on either side of the flattened hose.

Here are the controls.  A Y-connector divides the water supply for the flushing function and for the dripper.

The flushing is controlled by a water timer to turn on at 10 pm so no birds will be flushed out of the bird bath.  Three seconds is sufficient to flush the bird bath, by most water timers cannot be programmed for intervals that short, so it is set for the shortest possible interval (one minute).  When on, the water flows at full pressure.

Drip systems are not designed to operate at full water pressure.  So on the right side of the Y-connector, we have a pressure reducer and an adapter that adapts the 3/4 inch hose hardware to the 1/4 inch drip hose.  You can also insert a flow-control button in the 1/4 inch drip hose line.  These can be bought where drip system parts are sold.

My bird feeders and bird bath are at the back edge of my back lawn, near scrubs and trees, an ideal location because birds want a place that feels safe from predators, at the boundary of a place to hide in foliage (but close enough to look for an opportunity to visit the feeders or bath) and an open area to flee if needed.  Because it is near trees, the bath tends to collect debris from the trees; and because the water supply and controls are near the house, the flush and drip hoses must cross the lawn.

My method of burying a hose under a lawn is fast and simple.  I thrust a flat shovel as deep as I can into the grass, and tilt it forward and back to wedge open a narrow trench, repeating this along a mostly straight line.  Then I push the hose down into the trench as far as I can, using a broom handle or long scrap of 3/4 inch lumber.  Then stepping on either side of the trench pushes the grass back into place, closing the crevice.  Within a week, all evidence of the crevice will disappear.  Winter freezing is not a problem when the water is turned off, because the hose is soft, not rigid like metal pipes.

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I have acquired 45 patents during my 43-year career, all of which are expired by now.  But in my retirement, I am too lazy to file for a patent for my automatic bird bath.  I know how much work it takes, even with the help of a patent lawyer.  I have preferred to put it in the "public domain" for any one to use.

Not everyone has the tools and muscle to make the straps.  But if you are willing to make these or more parts of my design for others, leave me a comment with your contact information, and I will publish it here.  But I won't get involved with any financial arrangements.

One reader of this blog makes and sells his own patented design, which automatically cleans and refills, but does not include a dripper.  See http://selfcleaningbirdbath.com/ .

The Ingraham Circus

I was watching the Ingraham Angle last night, and in the introductory monologue, it was indicated that "transgender women" in sports would be discussed.

Now it may seem silly, but I feel that a review of basic English grammar is needed before I proceed.

English has nouns and adjectives.  "Women" is a noun.  "Transgender" is an adjective.  "Transgender Women" are women that are transgender.  People that are described as transgender are invariably confused about their gender.  So "transgender women" means gender-confused women.  In normal English, that is.

But when Laura Ingraham said that transgender women were a trouble in women's sports, I suspected that something was wrong, because I knew it was the transgender, that is, gender-confused men that were making trouble in women's sports.  It soon became apparent that Laura was speaking in Gender-confused English.

In Gender-confused English, the word 'transgender' is a special adjective that triggers novel rules of grammar never seen before in the long history of the English language.  It has the power to reverse the gender of any noun to which it is attached.  Moreover, it has the power to not only modify the grammar of sentences, but even paragraphs, because the gender of all pronouns that refer to such a gender-reversed noun must likewise be reversed.  In short, when you speak Gender-confused English, you sound like you are pretending to be as confused as the transgender people you are talking about.

The show became more interesting, astounding I thought, when Laura began to interview Martina Navratilova on the subject.  Martina was speaking normal English while Laura spoke in Gender-confused English, one saying "men" and the other saying "transgender women" to refer to the same trouble-makers.  They must have understood each other in spite of this, because they acted like they heartily agreed.  It was quite a circus, more entertaining than the traditional bearded lady.

How do you write "Jim Clark" in Chinese?

I have a funny story about a Chinese friend that I knew where I worked before I retired.  I knew that Chinese writing is "ideographic", meaning that the symbols represent ideas, not sounds.  For example, the symbols for 'sun' and 'moon' are combined to make the word  for 'light'.  So one day I asked him how do they write a name like "Jim Clark" in Chinese, because who knows what 'Jim' and 'Clark' mean?

He said that they find Chinese words that sound like the name, and combine them.  He thought for a minute, and thought of Chinese words that sounded to me like 'jin', 'kar', and 'lok'.  He told me what the words meant, but I forget, except that one meant a small dish used for offerings to idols.  He wrote it on the blackboard, and I asked him to teach me how to write it.

He told me to first see each stroke in my head, then write it with a quick, chopping motion.  I memorized it, practiced it, and wrote it on a small slip of paper so that I would not forget it.

About a week later, a couple of engineers were in my office, and we started talking about languages.  I told them  that I knew a few words of German, Greek, and Latin, and that I could write my name in Chinese.  They said that they could believe me about the German, Greek, and Latin, but about the Chinese, I was a bragging liar.

I protested, "no, I really can".  I wrote it on the blackboard with quick, confident strokes.  They still did not believe me.

They said, "It LOOKS like Chinese, but it is fake.  We can prove that you are a liar.  We will go get an expert."  They left the room, and a minute later came back with their 'expert'.

As they entered, I saw that the 'expert' was my Chinese friend.  He gave me a quick smile when they were not looking.

"Don't say one word", they warned me. Then pointing to what I had written on the blackboard, they asked the expert, "What does that say?"

He answered, "It means Jim Clark", and their mouths dropped open.  Then my Chinese friend and I laughed, and we explained how he had taught me a week ago.

Unfortunately, I have lost that small slip of paper with my name written in Chinese.

Does someone know Chinese well enough that they can tell what "Jim Clark" looks like, as my friend probably told me?

The Geometry of the Times Square Ball

After watching the traditional New Year's Day ball drop in New York City (on television; I wouldn't stand in the rain for hours even if I were capable of doing so), I became curious about the construction of the ball, and did some research on the Internet, finding https://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=311 and other descriptions.

 

[Images derived from Times_Square_Ball_2010.jpg by Susan Serra, CKD from Long Island, USA - 222 (2), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23313305]

It is described as having "a diameter of 12 feet and weighing 11,575 pounds" and is "covered with 2,688 Waterford Crystals", also called "triangular crystal panels".  It has a total of "32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel energy-saving LEDs", and from this I figured that there are 12 LEDs per triangular crystal panel.

There are 672 "LED units", each having 48 LED lights, 12 each of "red, blue, green and white colors".  672 times 48 is 32256, confirming the total LEDs.  We can also conclude that each "LED unit" has 4 triangular crystal panels, because there are 12 LEDs per crystal panel.

In the photo of the Times Square Ball, we can see triangles framed by the black aluminum struts; we will call these 'frame' triangles.  Each frame triangle is divided into four 'color' triangles which apparently have independently selectable colors.  And if you look carefully, each color triangle is divided into four 'tiny' triangles.  So which of these triangle sizes is a "crystal panel"?

Geodesic spheres are nearly always based on the geometry of an icosahedron, generally by dividing its triangular faces into smaller triangles.  There are 20 triangles in a icosahedron; 12 vertices, and 30 edges, and 5 edges meet at each vertex.  A typical geodesic sphere is full of triangles, and in most places, a cluster of six triangles around a vertex form a hexagon.  But in rare places, a cluster of five triangles around a vertex will form a pentagon.

Finding these pentagons is the trick to discovering the icosahedron from which the geodesic sphere was formed, because the centers of these pentagons are the vertices of the icosahedron.  You can impress your friends by 'counting' the number of triangles in the complete 'sphere' that you see (even though it is not actually complete or not all visible) in two or three seconds, as follows:  Find two pentagons and along the line that connects their centers, count the number of edges of the small triangles.  Square this number and multiply by 20.  That's it.  If you counted 10 edges, the answer is 10x10x20=2000.  In a few seconds, you have 'counted' 2000 triangles!

In the photo at right, we have located the centers of three pentagons, and thus one triangle of the icosahedron.  Three struts make one side of this triangle of the icosahedron, making 3x3=9 frame triangles in  one triangle of the icosahedron, or 9x20=180 frame triangles in the complete geodesic sphere, not enough for "672 LED units".  But there are four color triangles in each frame triangle, so there are 4x180=720 color triangles in the complete geodesic sphere, 48 more than the "672 LED units".  But there must be two holes in the sphere to allow it to slide down the supporting pole, so we can guess that each hole must account for 24 color triangles, or 24  "LED units", or 24/4=6 frame triangles.  A hexagon of 6 frame triangles is marked on the next photo below, which looks plausibly the right size for a hole.  A study of the symmetries of the icosahedron confirms that such a hexagon is matched by one on the opposite side of the sphere.

So we conclude that each color triangle corresponds to an LED unit, which has 48 LED lights.  And each tiny triangle must correspond to a Waterford crystal panel, which  has 12 LED lights, 3 LEDs of each color, which can be neatly arranged in a triangle.  I have seen a number of products using LEDs which embed LEDs in a plastic sheet to distribute the light over the area; so I guess that LEDs are similarly embedded in the Waterford Crystals.

We have been ignoring one small but interesting detail.  When a flat triangle of an icosahedron is divided into smaller triangles (144 Waterford Crystals in this case) by dividing the edge length by an integer value (12 in this case), the big triangle remains flat.  What is actually done is that the smaller triangles are made a tiny bit larger; making the big triangle bulge out just enough so that all the triangle corners (vertices) lie perfectly on a spherical surface; which is how geodesic spheres look almost like real spheres.  The calculation of this adjustment involves trigonometry; need I say more?