A Project of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art
History of Early American Landscape Design

Jet

[http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/research/casva/research-projects.html A Project of the National Gallery of Art, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts ]
Revision as of 19:44, February 1, 2016 by B-zweig (talk | contribs) (→‎History)

History

The term jet (used both in its French form jet d’eau and its English translation “jet of water”) was used to describe a fountain consisting of a single continuous stream of water that was discharged into the air. The scale of jets ranged from modest, like the ten-foot example at Belfield [Fig. 1], to the spectacular, such as the jet of thirty or forty feet that would water surrounding gardens proposed for the Columbian Institute in Washington,

D.C. The height of the jet was a function of the fountain’s aperture and available water pressure. Before the advent of city pressurized water systems, these specifications or dimensions were generally determined by the diameter of the pipe and by the elevation of the reservoir, cistern, spring, or other water source. Peale’s design for Belfield added a gilded ball supported by the jet, which reduced its height by half (see Fountain). The advantage of a single jet was that it was relatively simple to construct, it conserved water, and it could issue a higher spout than a fountain with multiple streams, such as a “tazza” (or weeping) fountain. The scale of the jet made this type of fountain particularly appropriate for large-scale gardens, such as Capitol Square in Richmond, Va., or Fairmount Waterworks in Philadelphia [Fig. 2], where the visibility of a tall jet from a distance created a dramatic effect. The effect of a single jet was also admired in the middle of a still-water basin or pool, as at Belfield or in Charles Varlé’s design for the town of Bath (Berkeley Springs), Va. (later W.Va.), where he planned a jet d’eau in the center of a rectangular “bason” [Fig. 3]. In these examples the aesthetic appeal of the jet stemmed from the contrast of the vertical spout with the horizontal plane of the pool and the play of the spray on the surface of the water. The simplicity was, as Downing noted, also suited to sylvan scenes where other more elaborate fountains would be considered too artificial. Even though concepts of garden hydraulic technology were widely published by the early eighteenth century, [1] the making of jets of water and other fountains was expensive and not common in American gardens until the early nineteenth century.

-- Elizabeth Kryder-Reid

Texts

Usage

Citations

Images

Notes

  1. Stephen Switzer, An Introduction to a General System of Hydrostaticks and Hydraulicks, Philosophical and Practical (London: Printed for T. Astley, S. Austen, and L. Gilliver, 1729; reprint edition, New York: Garland, 1982), view on Zotero. Our research has not found any evidence that this work was prevalent in the colonies. More widely available treatises, which are cited in the term record (such as Miller and Chambers), discuss the role of fountains in garden design, but they do not include the detailed technical information that is found in Switzer.

Retrieved from "https://heald.nga.gov/mediawiki/index.php?title=Jet&oldid=18005"

History of Early American Landscape Design contributors, "Jet," History of Early American Landscape Design, , https://heald.nga.gov/mediawiki/index.php?title=Jet&oldid=18005 (accessed March 28, 2024).

A Project of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts

National Gallery of Art, Washington