A life without love in it is like a heap of cold ashes in a hearth, the fire dead, all warmth and laughter gone, and no more light.
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Gosh! I didn't know that.... Thanks 
Pretty Please... 
When I first arrived in this country 
, a lot of things really caught my eye 
. Stuff that I've never seen before or something that I see over and over again. Among those that really intrigued me are the tall structures that look like white mushrooms that seems to appear in almost every towns I've been to. They are everywhere, especially if you live in a flat area full of small towns. 
I didn't even know what they're called and what they are for until recently when my curiousity got the best of me. They are called water towers. After a little more reading 
, here's what I found out.
A water tower is an incredibly simple device. Although water towers come in all shapes and sizes, they all do the same thing. It is simply a large, elevated tank of water and is tall to provide pressure. Each foot of height provides 0.43 PSI (pounds per sqaure inch) of pressure. A typical municipal water supply runs at between 50 and 100 PSI. It must be tall enough to supply a level of pressure to all of the houses and businesses in the area of the tower. 
They are typically located on high ground.
In a city, tall buildings often need to solve their own water pressure problems. Because the buildings are so tall, they often exceed the height that the city's water pressure can handle. Therefore, a tall building will have its own pumps and its own water towers. You'll see them on the tops of these buildings. 
A water tower's tank is normally quite large. A normal in-ground swimming pool in someone's backyard might hold something like 20,000 or 30,000 gallons (that's a lot of water!), and a typical water tower might hold 50 times that amount! Typically, a water tower's tank is sized to hold about a day's worth of water for the community served by the tower. If the pumps fail (ex during a power failure), the water tower holds enough water to keep things flowing for about a day. One of the big advantages of a water tower is that it lets a municipality size its pumps for average rather than peak demand. 
That can save a community a lot of money.
Over the years, I've seen water towers in all shapes and sizes. Some towns are nice enough to paint the town's name on nearly every tower. When I started driving and had some navigational challenges, I sometimes used the water towers as my point of reference for locations and directions. When you don't have a GPS receiver, water towers make navigation a LOT easier! Some of the towns are really very creative and even have themes and designs on them. Some towns even have the smiley face water towers. I plan to take more photos of those that I find really unique and interesting. Here are just some that I took in my vicinity. 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sistersalvation/tags/watertowers/show/
Another interesting fact about water towers-- they can affect your insurance rates!
During a fire, the water demand increases significantly and may greatly exceed the capacity of the pumps at the water plant. A water tower guarantees that there will be enough pressure to keep the water flowing through the fire hydrants. 
Fire insurance rates are normally lower in a community in which the water system has water towers.
The next time you're driving around 
, especially if you are driving through a series of small towns, take the time to notice the water towers. Now that you know how they work, 
you will be amazed by how many you see and by all the different forms they take! If your town has an interesting water tower or if you have seen one somewhere else, maybe you can send me a picture of it so I can add it to my gallery. I would surely appreciate it. 
hi rose...thanks for the comment didto sa akong balay. nweis when i came here the first time too. i wonder what is that huge tank i asked my hubby about it and he says that its a water tower. at napa comment akong ABA SOSYAL!! kasi wala naman yan sa atin diba? hehehe anyhow..i see near in our place a newly constructed water tower, as in talagang malaki ha looking far pa nga ako. one thing though, pag we travel far or near yon ang tinitingnan ko kung saan na kami aside from the road signs. kasi dito sa MICHIGAN they put a name of the town. then nakita ko rin yan sa indiana nong pumunta kami dyan sa chicago. so parang landmark na rin hehehe.
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