Viktors Articles.

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TEMPERATURE AND THE MOVEMENT OF WATER III

The natural movement of water over the earth?s Surface
(Atmospheric Cycle) and its Relation to River Engineering
                                             Part I
An article by Viktor Schauberger published in "Die Wasserwirtschaft",
the Austrian Journal of Hydrology
Vol. 9, 1931

Content

The natural movement of water over the earth?s Surface
Turbulent&laminar motionHotwordStyle=BookDefault;
   
Before addressing the actual theme, it is essential to make a few prior comments about hydraulics in general and its implementation in theory and practice.
"The term hydraulics in its broadest sense is understood to apply to all those structures erected in and around water - and in its narrower sense, those structures which serve for water-utilisation or for the prevention of damage by water. River and stream engineering on the other hand encompass all works which enhance the use of flowing water for navigation, and which serve to protect the riverbank against flooding and rupture."
The science of hydraulics further asserts:
"A stretch of river in a state of equilibrium provides the river engineer with the reference point from which to establish a normal profile in a turbulent stretch of river, and to bring about a stable condition.  If the flow is confined within the appropriate width (normal width), then it creates the normal profile itself, if it is given the means to achieve this by a skilful hand."

According to these definitions, and in the light of innumerable existing structures, completed experiments and expert opinions, one would be given to believe that the management of water resources is nowadays very close to achieving its highest technical perfection.  Every single drop of water would appear to be encompassed by mathematical formulae and therefore in cultivated areas there ought to be no waterway that could deviate by even a centimetre from its prescribed course.
   
What are the actual facts?  What is the practical outcome of an already centuries-old brain-work in the domain of the Science of Hydraulics? 
Purely and simply, the sorry fact that in all areas of cultivation there is not even a single properly-regulated waterway in which a state of equilibrium has been achieved.
Firstly, let us take the Danube whose regulation today has already swallowed up almost a million hectares of valuable farmland and enormous sums of money, and will swallow even more - in spite of the fact that navigation is just as fraught as before. 

To get some idea of the magnitude of this devastation, it should be pointed out that if the Danube "were given the means by a skilful hand" to form a normal profile itself, in these areas about 400,000 people could have found a carefree existence.  With a deft flourish of the hand, enough land would be reclaimed in order to provide Austria's unemployed with adequate farmland. 

The same also applies to regulatory works on the Rhine, and the fertile lowlands of Italy and southern France, where already hundreds of thousands of hectares have equally fallen victim to completely misguided river regulation.
Another very instructive example is provided by all our mountain rivers and streams [in Austria], which as waterways are in an exceptionally ruinous state, consuming vast amounts of tax revenue annually.  In spite of all this, instead of bringing about an improvement, they exhibit even worse degradation than before, necessitating a constant increase in regulatory works.
The reason why all these present systems of practical river engineering and regulation projects are on, and must pursue, the wrong course is that today no one knows:
                                     What water is!

Thales of Miletus (614 BC) described water, one of Aristotles four elements, as the only true element, from which all other bodies are created.  Not only were the Greeks on the right path towards appreciation of the true significance of water, but they also provided us with information about the practices of long-vanished peoples, whose knowledge must have been considerably more advanced than theirs. 

Thus in his opus Timaeus and Critias, Plato relates that the inhabitants of erstwhile Atlantis regulated their waterways with the aid of cold and warm water. 
Only a complete understanding of the nature of water could have brought the Atlanteans to this method of river regulation - a science that sadly was already lost to the Greek sages, despite their intensive preoccupation with the medium of water. 
Even Thales of Miletus overlooked the fact that the regeneration and further development of bodies with the aid of water is also a question of temperature-associated processes.  He failed to perceive the here decisive forces and energies which themselves are a product of the tensions arising from alternating phases of temperature.
   
In order even to speak authoritatively of the efficient management of water and a systematic build-up of cultivable land, it is first necessary to understand that water and properly-regulated phases of temperature are essential for all new formation, regeneration and further development.  Furthermore, if humanity, ignorant of  Nature's laws, selects the wrong energy-form for the attainment of its goals, the energy-forms of water will become disorganised and the natural process of autonomous development will cease almost instantaneously and will actually degenerate.
Over the centuries humanity has therefore inherited an incomplete and false conception of the nature of water.  Today, in our libraries and archives, we already have a vast amount of literature on water resources management -  which bears silent testimony to a cultural advance that regrettably is only illusory. 
Until the most elementary principles concerning all evolutionary processes of vegetation have been completely understood it is impossible to speak of a real build-up of culture.  The development of any culture is directly related to the understanding of its environment - both water and vegetation.

A brief review is necessary in order to understand what is to follow.  Every new formation arises from the smallest first beginnings. 

Further development can only take place if circulation in the interior of the Earth proceeds correctly.  In conformity with natural law, higher forms of vegetation build upon the preceding lower vegetation.  This new growth is founded on substances contained in earlier vegetation which have been transformed into carbones through the effects of temperature - and which now will once more be decomposed with the aid of water and higher temperatures. 
In this process of decomposition, water will also be decomposed, resulting in a new mixture of gases which liberate carbon-dioxide as they stream upwards into the suffused and stirred-up salts.  With the exclusion of air, this process not only creates entirely new conditions and compounds in the Earth's interior, but also uncovers a new and hitherto-unknown  conformity with natural law in the movement of water, which is completely opposite to the presently recognised law governing its movement.
The inner atmosphere of the Earth is created with the aid of water, carbones and temperature - and with further adjustments of temperature it can also dissolve and transport salts. 
Through the deposition of these salts at the right time and place, the inner atmosphere is able to create a wide variety of new forms of vegetation and new bodies, such as ore and rock - but, naturally, always under the precondition that the individual  phases of temperature take place in the proper sequence.
From this it is possible to perceive the definite coherence between the vegetation that was formerly present and what is there today.  On this basis the interrelationship between all mineral substances is also explained: how the substances are raised from the depths, transformed and refined through temperature processes which take place with the aid of water and its movement inside the Earth, following a hitherto-unknown natural law.
   
Just what is this energy-form? 

It is the particular form of water-movement which, through the right mixture of Sun, Earth and water, results in a sequence of functions that lead to the refinement of primary forms after proper decomposition of basic substances has taken place.  From these new and higher forms of vegetation are built-up by the shortest and straightest route. 

In order to explain the functions of the movement of water, it is first necessary to examine the concept of motion itself.
It is generally known that the motion of a pendulum consists of a constant alternation between energy-forms (kinetic and potential). 
The same phenomenon we also find in the case of electric oscillations which can only arise when two energy-forms, electrostatic (capacitative) and electromagnetic (inductive), interact. 



Turbulent&laminar motion

In the movement of water, one differentiates between laminar and turbulent forms of motion.

Laminar motion is the stratified and unimpeded flow of water down an inclined plane. 
As long as the influence of temperature on the form of water movement is entirely excluded, one can readily speak of laminar motion. 
However, as soon as temperature is taken into account, any laminar (stratified, ideal) motion is absolutely unthinkable. 
One can only imagine what such a movement of water would imply: it would mean nothing less than the accelerating descent of water according to the law of gravity, which ultimately (at the lowest point on its path) would have to transfer to a motionless, almost rigid state of rest.

This example shows us how extremes come into being, since a state of absolute rest would then occur as a direct result of water's constantly increasing velocity down the sloping surface - providing a clue to the researcher that he or she is here concerned with a strict conformity with natural law and an orderly sequence of functional processes. 

Hence the steadiness in the flow of water-masses down an inclined plane (gradient) is solely attributable to the influence of temperature. 
It thus follows that there can be no stratified, laminar movement of water unless systems of water conduction are specifically directed to this end.  This movement corresponds to the kinetic aspect of the motion of a pendulum. 
It is therefore now quite superfluous to ask whether a second energy-form of water movement exists, corresponding to the potential component of pendular motion.

Turbulent motion then, is viewed as the second form of water movement. Since temperature has so far been excluded as a principal factor, for the same reason it naturally could not be acknowledged as a contributing factor in the proper understanding of the causes of the so-called turbulence of water. 
To date turbulence has been seen as a vortical phenomenon, attributable to mechanical effects alone - through which various quantities of water of different temperatures are mixed mechanically. 
A more precise analysis reveals that turbulent phenomena in water are nothing less than the counter-motion to laminar flow - arising from physical causes and generating vortical currents in flowing water, maintaining the steadiness of the descending flow through the creation of transverse currents. 

Inasmuch as laminar motion is the extreme condition of a real form of motion, the same can also be deemed to hold true for the turbulent motion of water.
In reality we are concerned with two new forms of motion which lie between both extremes and are reciprocally related.  In both cases each seeks to approach its extreme condition, but cannot reach it without the intervention of favourable or unfavourable outside influences. 
For this reason excessively strong turbulence in water must lead to chaotic conditions which express themselves in larger and larger cyclonic storms, catastrophic flood-rains and ultimately in continuous downpours over the same area, while conditions of absolute drought will occur in other parts of the world.
It thus becomes clear that in practice we are concerned neither with laminar nor with turbulent energy-forms, but with two other energy-forms:

the positive and
the negative energy-forms of water

A positive energy-form (positive temperature gradient ) is the internal movement of water temperature that occurs when temperatures of various water-strata approach +4?C, and is therefore a laminar form of motion.
Conversely, the negative energy-form (negative temperature gradient ) is the internal movement of temperature when the temperature of flowing water diverges from +4?C (39.2?F).  Since a departure from this laminar zero or neutral point occurs when water graduates from +4?C towards 0?C (32?F), then the true zero-point of water is at +4?C, as distinct from all other bodies which contract with cold and expand with an increase in heat. 
Water expands above and below +4?C - in both instances its volume increases and specific weight decreases. Compared to other bodies, this results in an irregularity, the anomalous expansion of water - hitherto considered of minor consequence, yet playing a far greater role than was ever imagined.

Hence we see that two influences are necessary for either energy-form: the Sun's influence on the Earth and water, and the Earth's influence on water.  Both forms of water movement, positive and negative (positive or negative temperature gradients), represent hitherto unknown magnitudes in the equation now to be solved - from which are derived not only the great fundamental laws of growth and synthesis, but also the equally important laws of destruction that result in the degeneration of all forms of vegetation. 

The world is not subject to random accident but is governed according to inner laws, only through the forces of Nature.  Left to herself, Nature would have supplanted the earlier vegetation with newer forms, and not only would have transformed the world into a blossoming garden of immense fertility and stable temperature, but in addition would have renewed herself in cycles, as we shall see later.
The opinion that Earth would have been covered with vast forests were it not for humanity's intervention is undoubtedly untenable.  Here too, precisely because she would have been left to herself, Nature would not only have withheld the supply of nutrient salts from the vegetation at the appropriate moment, but she would also have ensured that the refluence of sap occurred at the right time.  As an example of such self-regulation let us take the beech, when in high summer, due to the development of low temperatures from excessive evaporation in crown foliage, an immediate reflux of sap can be observed. 
The otherwise unrestricted further development would once again have been regulated automatically by an extremely simple reversal of temperature (change in energy-form).

For this reason optimum conditions, resembling Paradise, must have existed during periods when humanity was still unable to interfere.  Only thus can we explain how extraordinarily fertile soil once existed in a large part of the north coast of Africa, where today wilderness and barren wastes are on the increase.  According to the testimony of ancient scribes, in Carthage one could wander all day long in the shade of olive, pomegranate and almond trees.  The Carthaginians were delighted to see their vines heavy with grape twice a year and their crops produced more than a 200-fold yield. 

In contrast to this legendary fertility, reports of the downfall of whole nations through colossal downpours and whirlwinds have also been handed down to us.  Paradise and deluge are therefore not to be deprecated as mere fable.  These catastrophes and upheavals were initiated by humanity alone, and we are still causing them today.

The purpose of the movement of water in plants, brought about by reversals in temperature, is to enable the uptake of nutritive material. 
The clear-fellingHotwordStyle=BookDefault;  methods of regeneration initiated by modern forestry must in any case lead to an inevitable and unwanted  degeneration, and thus to the initial phases  in the death of the high forest.
The main reason for catastrophic decline throughout the forestry industry, which more than anything else has led to declining agriculture in upland areas, is none other than an involuntary reversal in the phases of temperature (temperature gradient ) caused by the practice of clear-cutting. 

This results in the cessation of the vital transportation of nutrient salts, which then are inevitably deposited in the wrong places.  Light-induced growth is certainly no manifestation of increased growth.  It is a fallacy for the detrimental enlargement of the trunk is caused not only by deposition in the wrong places, but also by the deposition of inferior matter, thus preparing the way for future degenerative development.  This unnatural growth results in the formation of sinuosities and even in the spiral-like configuration of water-supply vessels - which under normal conditions would lead to the formation of straight, plumb and extremely narrow ducts.

Nature works uncommonly slowly.  For this reason it is also impossible to observe the exalted processes taking place in Nature by way of laboratory experiments, since the proper relationships and preconditions are missing.  Therefore, even in river engineering, the causes of resulting effects can only be observed in the field in Nature's great examples - in a watercourse from source to mouth.  Once it has been determined how a waterway was decades ago and how it is today, records of its continually-changing pattern of flow should first be made, and then and then only the causes of its destruction should be sought. 
Observations over several decades are essential in order to understand the infinitely subtle, constantly-increasing potential in the interplay of forces, which even then is only perceptible through its mechanical effects.  The causes, however, remain mostly unnoticed and overlooked, and are usually not taken into account.

This explains why, up to now, we have only ever seen and striven to control the effects themselves.  Because of this, all that we have managed to do has been to aggravate the causes - which again leads to the manifold intensification of effects, ultimately provoking catastrophes which legitimately happen according to natural laws. 
The present critical condition of forestry and agricult ure is a typical example of where ignorance and neglect of Nature's laws lead.  Without a complete reversal in thinking and approach there can never be any hope of improvement.
The spring that bubbles out of the ground in a healthy forest under the shelter of healthily-grown and undisturbed mother trees has important tasks to perform on its way down into the valley.
As it flows down, this water transports nutrients which are destined both for plants, and for the internal constitution and  development of animal life.  The way in which these nutrients are distributed qualitatively and quantitatively proceeds according to the laws of reaction, without which no life in Nature could exist.

If one now considers the senseless and reckless rape of water in countless wrongly-constructed hydro-electric power-stations, then we cannot even find words to describe the behaviour of the engineer who, in ignorance of the important function of water, thinks only in terms of its exploitability as a cheap source of power and does not concern himself with the extraordinary significance of water in Nature's housekeeping.  Moreover, he also fails to realise that with his wrongly designed machines he has destroyed Earth's pulse-beat a thousandfold.

Water's kinetic energy and tractive force is decisively affected by the influence of the external temperature, which also alters water's consistency.  The very instant that water comes in contact with the outside temperature, it absorbs oxygen, releases carbonic acid gas (CO2) and salts are precipitated, which under certain circumstances may be most valuable.   In this regard contemporary methods of spring-capture are inappropriate because the most valuable growth enhancing substances are lost at the spring itself.  In metal water-mains the same processes result in an even greater deposition of salts until a more or less stale, insipid and inferior water finally reaches its destination.

The more intense the influence exerted by temperature, the more direct its action and the stronger the effects become.  Amongst other important consequences, such as a change in the direction of the energies, this results primarily in the deposition of suspended solids. 
In addition to the energetic principle operating here (the laws of reaction), mechanical effects will not only be weakened or strengthened by physical causes, but conversely, physical causes will also be strengthened or weakened through mechanical effects.

Of prime importance is the observation of water from source to mouth, taking particular note of the alternating temperature influences and the resulting energy-forms of the water. Water-resources management or river regulation should never be undertaken until it has been established what happens to a drop of water after it infiltrates into the ground and what happens to it in the interim before emerging from the Earth as a spring and flows down into the valley.
   
The aim of these few lines is to trace the naturally ordained functions that water has to perform along its way.  It will thus become apparent on closer inspection that where water comes from and where it goes is of fundamental importance. 
During the observation of these processes we will be able to establish indisputably that all the changes we encounter in the energy and functions of water are solely to be traced back to the hitherto discounted effects of temperature.  In this regard the hasty construction of any large hydro-electric powerstations is to be avoided for there are cheaper methods that produce better results.

When water evaporates from the sea, leaving all substances behind, the air becomes saturated with water vapour, creating a protective envelope against the direct of the Sun. 
Without this envelope the Earth would inevitably dry up and turn into a desert. 
Secondly, warming of the Earth's surface is possible only because of the presence of water-vapour in the air. 
Thirdly, this water-vaporous air is a precondition for a further development of energy (electricity).

In this respect it should be noted that formidable climatic changes will occur if, as a result of incorrect systems of forest management and river regulation, the orderly formation of clouds is disturbed.  Where these systems have been implemented, the number of thunderstorms has consistently decreased, while those that do occur are becoming more dangerous. 
Following from this, the functions of water in the air become clearly apparent. As long as the preoccupation is to conduct water by the fastest and shortest route to the sea, less and less water will infiltrate the ground. This will cause the Earth to cool off, the supply of nutrients to decrease and the development of vegetation and life on Earth to undergo a radical change. If water is to fulfil its task and if the danger of catastrophes is to be averted, it is essential that water is not drained off arbitrarily, but only in a manner suited to its purpose - so that it can carry out its appointed functions according to the laws of Nature, unimpeded.  These important processes occur through a truly remarkable interaction between conformities with natural law.  All these would be destroyed were water to be channelled according to the dictates of humanity, with its supposed laws and mathematical formulae.

The movement of water over an inclined plane (gradient) takes place under a more or less unstable state of equilibrium, which depends on the correct proportion between water-quantity, gradient and temperature.  If consideration is given only to the quantity of water and the gradient, which can be calculated mathematically, the inner energetic processes actually taking place here will never be understood nor influenced in the right way.  Neglect of the part played by temperature leads to the destruction of the waterways.  It is now very hard to find a place to observe water under the conditions that existed before humanity interfered. 

Let us now observe a healthy spring bubbling up under healthy forest conditions.  The spring emerges into the outside world with a low water temperature and in deep shade.  As it emerges there are found light depositions of matter.  In these deposits is a profusion of small creatures which crawl about at the bottom of the spring pool and live off these substances.
Characteristically, water flowing from healthy springs, which are only to be found in healthy high-quality forests, does not attack the riverbed or the banks, even on the steepest of gradients and despite the often heavy and uneven flow.  In such clear, cold spring waters, bodies (stones etc) lying on the bottom are covered with moss and other aquatic plants. Astonishingly when closely observed, these delicate young shoots hardly move, in spite of the torrential force of water rushing past above them.  Careful study reveals that the direction in which these young shoots point changes with a change in temperature.  They point downstream when the external temperature deviates strongly from +4?C, and upstream when it dips sharply towards +4?C.  At very particular temperatures the tips of these plants and mosses stand at right angles to the direction of the current.

All these observations can only be made in water with healthy temperatures.  If such waters are suddenly set out in the open, where clear-felling has been done along the riverbank, this state of well-balanced harmony disappears almost instantaneously.  As a result, the watercourse changes colour and character, tears at its bed and banks, loosens sediment, and in areas prone to torrential flows degenerates into a torrent.  Whatever measures are undertaken to avert the dangers associated with such channels in the event of elemental disturbances is described as torrent confinement.  In reality, however, these merely endow it with even greater dimensions and inaugurate new perils.

The same applies to river and stream regulation.  We referred earlier to the regulatory works on the lower Danube, where today 950,000 hectares have been transformed into a flood plain - which have thus become useless as agricultural land.  In the Neue Freie Presse (New Free Press) Professor Vidrasku wrote:
Unfortunately, in the belief that construction of huge dams on the banks of the Danube would suffice, works were begun without having studied the problem in sufficient detail?.  He continues: "If we were to eliminate flooding with massive, high dams, and no longer permit inundation of the flood plain, then the floodwater would rise so high that all our river-ports and all riparian settlements along the Danube would be under water.  Moreover, river and lake navigation, which even today is unsatisfactory, would be significantly impaired, and the dams themselves would offer no additional security.?

Another excellent and informative example of intolerable artificially-created conditions is the raising of the Rhine bed at Salez.  The cross-section of the valley shows that the Rhine flows along an elevated strip of land, its bed lying up to 4m (13ft) above the lowest level of the valley, and its 1890 floodwater peak 7-8m (23-26ft) above the lowest point of the valley, ultimately intersecting the rooftops of the villages in the lowlands.  With good reason Mr Otto Rappolt, a chief government surveyor, states in his book River Engineering (Flu?bau - G?schen Sammlung) that:

The deforestation of the catchment area and the system of river realigment is to be considered the principal cause of this hazardous predicament.  Thus every important river in Europe provides us with sufficient cause to consider the consequences that incorrect river regulation can draw in its wake.  The rivers Etsch, Po and TagliamentoName=Tagliamento; HotwordStyle=BookDefault; note=See "The influence of the geographical situation and the ratation of the earth", 2.3;  in particular will present the Italian Government with many more problems, as well as swallowing up considerable amounts of capital, if there is not a radical departure in present government policy.? 

Very soon it will become apparent that these colossal structures were not only totally useless, but have also initiated damage on a scale that even the competent authorities find hard to assess.  If traditional systems of torrent-confinement, river and stream regulation, and contemporary methods of hydroelectric powerstation construction continue to be used, the causes of the increasingly frequent catastrophes will never be eliminated.  On the contrary, these incidents will assume even greater magnitude from year to year.  The havoc caused by the destruction of our high forest has without doubt already tipped the scales.

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TEMPERATURE AND THE MOVEMENT OF WATER IV

The natural movement of water over the earth?s Surface
(Atmospheric Cycle) and its Relation to River Engineering
                                           Part II
An article by Viktor Schauberger published in "Die Wasserwirtschaft",
the Austrian Journal of Hydrology
Vol..10, 1931

Contents
The natural movement of water over the earth?s Surface
The TroutHotwordStyle=BookDefault;
The movement of troutsHotwordStyle=BookDefault;
AviationHotwordStyle=BookDefault;
The rafting of timberHotwordStyle=BookDefault;


In the sheltered environment of forest a waterway can maintain its steady temperature to a certain extent.  The external temperature exerts only just sufficient influence - indirectly, through the triggering of weak vortical phenomena - as is necessary for progressive reduction in tractive force.  Healthy forest, or cold affluent streams that join the main body of water along its course, ensure that absorption of heat proceeds slowly, providing a basis for an even release of nutrients for the benefit of flora and fauna in its immediate surroundings. (The Amazon river in Brazil and the rivers of Java, for example.)

Without healthy forest there is also no healthy water, no healthy blood and therefore a deterioration in the most fundamental conditions for life, all of which result from the present methods of water and forest-resources management.

The longer water is shielded from the direct light of the Sun (through forest protection, proper arrangement of lakes and cooling affluent streams), the longer it will retain its energy and above all its tractive force, and the more regular the release of its substances, its overall flow-characteristics and direction.  Properly managed water - that is, water with a temperature adjusted to prevailing climatic conditions - cannot attack riverbanks, as will be shown later.  Incorrectly handled water whose temperatures are generally too high, has the capacity to tear into riverbanks, and for this reason assumes the characteristic behaviour of a torrent.  It must be emphasised here that all attempts to maintain the equilibrium of a watercourse by means of the riverbank itself, in the form of bank rectification, are futile.  The best proof of this fact are all the regulatory works carried out in accordance with this principle, which, despite the ongoing need for repairs and maintenance, continually give rise to new damage and further expense.

Naturally, the distribution of water-masses according to their various states of aggregation is of special importance.  Premature evaporation of water-masses (due to warm soils) during drainage over the ground surface results in disproportionate accumulations of water vapour in the atmosphere.  Because of this, a reversal in the reciprocal interaction between temperature gradients occurs too rapidly in the atmosphere, which again must lead to heavy rainfall and cyclonic storms.  The ensuing reciprocal effects of ground-temperature produce undesirable temperature gradients in draining water-masses, through which the full hydrological cycleHotwordStyle=BookDefault;  of water is further adversely affected.  In such instances, instead of infiltrating the ground, water flows into ever-broader channels.  As a result of excessively high temperatures thus arising, water transfers into the atmosphere too rapidly.  Because of this, not only is the vital extraction and supply of nutrients arrested, but in this way even greater and more catastrophic floods must also follow.

If we now apply the above concepts of temperature gradient, we are presented with a case where a blocking transverse current flow is created due to an over-strong outside influence, resulting in the widening of the channel through too rapid a departure from +4?C (thermal expansion of water).  In such a case we can also speak of an excessive negative temperature gradient , which must lead to a loss of the draining water's state of equilibrium, and to heavy, flow-dislocating accumulations of sediment.  More and more the draining water approximates the turbulent second energy-formHotwordStyle=BookDefault; , entirely loses its inner equilibrium through increasingly stronger counter-movements and eventually begins to scour the channel bed, creating pot-holes and washed-out depressions in order to brake its descent.  The channels become wider and flatter, the influence of external temperature more intense, and in the process, larger and larger volumes of water are returned to the atmosphere.  The apparent disappearance of the water, the constant increase in dried up channels and in catastrophic storms are the legitimate consequences, rightly attributable to river regulation projects as carried out today.

From the following results of observation it will become clearly apparent that current systems of water management must gradually lead toward total elimination of all species of vegetation, hence all forms of agriculture.  The economic decline taking place before our very eyes is but a first step down this road, which only a return to Nature may yet perhaps be able to arrest.
Frightening examples of the result of such treatment of water are deserts, which often were once the abode of higher cultures.  Excavations bear witness to the efforts that were made to preserve the dwindling supply of water through large-scale hydraulic installations of all descriptions, which regrettably were poorly designed.  Indeed, we have but to glance at a map of the Gobi desert, whose rivers dry up around the edges of this ever-widening wasteland. 

Thoughtless treatment of vegetation and excessive influence of the external temperature at these latitudes have created the present pattern of the deserts.  Once the reasons for the present destructive phenomena and how they were caused are fully understood, new places to live can be wrested from the deserts by reversing this gradual decline - by rearranging the energy-forms in question - and new possibilities for life can be created by starting again just as gradually from the very first beginnings.
To date the concept of temperature has not been evaluated at all.  Water flowing down a gradient is governed by two different influences: the direct influence of solar radiation and the indirect influence of the Earth's moist bulk.  Both these influences maintain the unstable state of equilibrium in draining water through changes in the energy-forms, which in turn modify the gradient.  Quite obviously the Sun's influence must be greater than the Earth's, and this more potent influence will primarily be brought to bear on the upper margins of the channel body.  At this location, due to the influence from outside, water will exceed its critical velocity and become more strongly turbulent.  If the outside influence is indirect - for example, due to the shelter of the forest - then it exerts an effect on both sides more or less uniformly, as long as both banks are similarly constituted.  If the outside influence acts directly (direct solar radiation), then it gives rise to an irregular, non-uniform development (diurnal fluctuations).  This greater effect of temperature results in the formation of sharper or gentler bends in the river (see 2.2HotwordStyle=BookDefault; )

In a manner of speaking, accretions, incipient breaches and other symptoms of flow-dislocation are to be viewed as places selected by prevailing disturbances for the deposition of matter. 

Once again, particular attention is drawn to the fact that deposition occurs in the interior of the Earth (with the exclusion of air) as the temperature approaches +4?C, whereas on the surface of the Earth (under the influence of air) this deposition takes place as the temperature moves away from +4?C.

Apart from this important physical outside influence, consideration must also be given to the influence of frictional heat (mechanical effect).  Cold, healthy mountain water flowing rapidly over the riverbed and along the walls and edges of the riverbank generates slight eddies and hence counter-currents at the above contact surfaces.  This is as a result of localised exceeding of critical velocity relative to water temperature, induced by frictional heat.  The prerequisite for such a counter-current is a difference between the influences of the outside temperature and that of the ground.

The lower the temperature of the central mass of core-water, the greater the relative rate of flow.  In the same relative proportion this now triggers off a reaction on the riverbed and banks through mechanical and physical impulses in the form of counter-currents.  If the proper proportions between temperature, mass and riverbed gradient should now exist, then the preconditions for the unstable state of equilibrium of the water-masses would be met.  This state, however, is virtually impossible.  If the riverbed gradient is too slight for the prevailing water temperatures, then removal occurs - or in the opposite case, accretion.  The riverbed gradient therefore adjusts itself according to the temperature gradient , whose constancy will again remain undisturbed as long as protecting forest continues to exist in its proper measure and composition (presence of cold affluent streams).
The preservation of the watercourse is thus exclusively dependent on the proper conservation of the forest, and the necessity to regulate waterways today is therefore a consequence of unnatural forest management.  Should it now be contended that the forest would in any case have to be cleared for agriculture, then it is to be countered that this is quite in order up to a certain extent, on condition that suitable substitutes (properly constructed reservoirs and river profiles) can be provided in lieu of forest.  In the absence of forest these substitutes must be capable of constantly maintaining the essential labile state of river equilibrium.

Under such preconditions, the previously-described phenomena observed in the behaviour of aquatic plants will also be reproduced.  If these plants should now incline up- or down-stream, then it is merely the effect of slight fluctuations and rearrangements of the temperature gradient .  If the tips of mosses stand motionless and perpendicular to the direction of the current, like a needle on the scales pointing towards zero, then in this way they affirm the existence of the proper conditions for equilibrium.  The formation of minor eddies (counter-currents) described above continues to take place in the proper measure for as long as the correct conditions of temperature prevail in the main body of water.

If, after the removal of forest, the water is exposed to the direct light of the Sun, then along the upper contact-surfaces of the riverbank strong vortical currents (turbulence) develop.  The central core water-masses forge ahead and exceed their critical velocity.  The gurgling up of turbulence in these core water-masses at the position of the greatest velocity is an after-effect whose original cause has so far not been clarified.  In a manner of speaking it is the emergency brake against over-rapid drainage of water-masses down a gradient, and the hitherto unexplained maintenance of the steadiness in the flow of water down an inclined plane (gradient).

All of a sudden a reaction sets in, in the form of a sharp counter-motion.  In this braking curve the whole body of water will be pulled around hard to the left or to the right.  Pot-holes in the riverbed develop because the runaway water is braked too severely and too abruptly, subsequently leading to familiar destruction of the riverbed and banks.  Instead of being alleviated or arrested, these phenomena will only be made far worse through contemporary preventive measures.  It should be mentioned here, for example, that avalanches are also created in a similar fashion, and in the process of combating their ravages, as is the case with water, mechanical effects alone are perceived - and with no consideration given to the physical causes, attempts are made merely to redress the mechanical effects themselves.

A further function of the formation of vortices, which evolve through mechanical and physical processes,  is to enable aeration of water-masses, adjustment of water temperature and modification of kinetic energy - as a direct result of which banks and riverbed will also be re-modelled at the same time. 

The riverbed gradient is therefore a secondary effect of the temperature gradient .

The transverse, blocking disposition of the water-masses, the widening of the channel, the external influences which thereby exert a more direct effect on the one hand, and the eventual evaporation of water en route (drying up of rivers), the creation of deserts and unparalleled floods on the other, are the all-too-familiar outcomes of manipulation of water according to current theories.  This end-result, however, is the entirely legitimate and proper consequence of contemporary systems of water resources management.  Disasters and devastation must therefore increase automatically in precisely the same ratio that capital is sacrificed for river engineering projects carried out according to conventional practice.



The trout

In the above, the influences affecting water have been described in broad outline.  In the following it will now be shown in greater detail just how dependent aquatic creatures are on water, and how they have to pay the penalty for every man-made mistake.
   
In healthy water immediately below a spring, we find the healthy mountain trout, famous for its tastiness.  Under the careful scrutiny of a watchful observer, this stationary trout, which enjoys a comfortable and peaceable existence in healthy water conditions, is reminiscent of the gentle swaying movement of the previously-described moss-tips.  To those who know how to observe, this now offers a plethora of fascinating insights.  They learn to understand the purposefulness of the trout's very slightest movement and begin to realise that both in theory and practice the human mind consistently has the perverse inclination to take the wrong road, although Nature constantly demonstrates the right way with countless reiterations and allusions.
   
With the exception of the spawning period, feeding is the sole reason for every movement.  Slight changes in the height or depth of station neutralise the variations in the movement of the food supply, occasioned by outside influence.  If the trout is frightened, then it bolts upstream like a streak of lightning, only to return once more to its former position after a certain period of time.
   
With a very simple procedure it can be established that, as a rule, a trout positions itself in the axis of core water-strata at the place where water particles closest to +4?C flow, which are therefore least turbulent.  Water particles moving along this axis possess the relatively highest velocity, due to orderly (more laminar) forward motion.  All foreign bodies heavier than water, including the trout's food, also travel along this energy-line, which is the true axis of a river.  It is also here that turbulence and eddies created by the trout's own body are best able to assist its own motion.  As long as healthy conditions prevail - as long as the core water-masses remain in proper relation to bed-gradient and river bends - vortical phenomena will continue to appear, which are more intense at the upper margins of the riverbank and which become increasingly weaker the further down they occur.  Under such conditions the position of the current axis hardly varies at all.
   
The minor vortices running counter to the current-flow at the edges carve out small hollows and cavities as the channel necessarily widens and flattens out.  In the process they dislodge bits of soil from both banks, and with them food for fish (worms which prefer to live in the cool, damp edges of the riverbank).  The constant increase in the strength of outside influence, due to the widening of the channel, ensures the progressive reduction of water's tractive force, and with it the even deposition of salts, which are anyhow of increasingly lower grade.  Towards evening the temperature gradient once again approaches a positive energy-form and in the night the transport of sediment takes place.  Similarly, higher quality water also arrives in the lower reaches during the night (less deposition - greater sediment transport - deeper bed).  At an appropriate temperature the watercourse regulates itself entirely.  Noticeable bed-load movement, sediment accretions or breaches of the riverbank are unknown phenomena in healthy waterways.
   
In waterways with the correct conditions of water temperature, the channel will not only widen itself in the right proportions but will also deepen itself in the lower reaches.  Therefore it automatically develops longitudinal profiles suited to the varying shape of the river cross-section - to the extent necessary for the removal of bed-load, which under orderly forest conditions is in any case minimal.
   
If flooding occurs in watercourses still undisturbed by human hand, then the influence from below becomes more intense as the volume of water increases, due to external temperatures - which as a rule are low at such times.  As it also does at night, the temperature gradient approaches the positive energy-form, and because of lower temperatures, the water-masses flow faster without overflowing the banks or attacking them.  The temperature gradient is primary in function and the riverbed-gradient becomes secondary if, as a result of proper rearrangement of temperature, the mass-transport of sediment is regulated in accordance with the corresponding increase in velocity.
   
Were the channel not to flatten out (as in fords), then a reduction in tractive force would also not occur.  The release of nutritive matter would also not take place, owing to low temperatures which remain constant in deep waters.  In properly managed water conditions - or more accurately, in untouched waterways protected by natural, undisturbed forest - the correct channel profile will be formed.  This will also lead to an increase in the volume of water in the lower reaches, and with such an increase in mass, the corresponding influence will also develop from below, from the Earth, resulting in a weakening of the stronger influence from above (the Sun).  Because of this, it will not only be almost impossible for sediment to be left lying on the bottom, but it will also be almost impossible for flooding to occur in the lower reaches.
   
The greater the volume of water, the greater too the rate of flow under otherwise-identical conditions (e.g. gradient), as a result of the correct rearrangement of temperature.  With the establishment of a correct profile, the temperature gradient automatically activates the energies required for the transport of such large volumes of water.  The build-up of energy required for sediment transport in the lower reaches takes place through the confluence of lower-temperature affluent streams with the main channel.
With current methods of river regulation, the outside influence inevitably becomes more and more direct and therefore increasingly apparent.  Peripheral vortices become stronger and the body of core-water surges ahead with greater force.  The critical velocity of the core water-masses will be exceeded on a larger scale through constant repetition.  Owing to the formation of pot-holes and striations the current axis will become increasingly ill-defined, the watercourse ever wider and the deposition of sediment greater.  Even the trout will only be able to obtain its food by changing its position more and more frequently, since this no longer travels as centrally as before.
   
Here too, in the same way as for humanity, hard labour for its daily bread begins for the fish.  With this further development, an increasingly futile struggle begins for its very existence.  Even for the otherwise peaceable trout, this untoward event initiates a battle for the survival of the fittest, affording an existence to several species of predator whose life-expectancy at this stage is also very limited, since the watercourse and the water in it are already diseased and in the process of drying up.
   
If one observes micro-organisms that evolve in the water just below a spring under the influence of light and the Sun (heat), then it also becomes be clear why fish seek out certain spots at the head-waters of a stream at spawning time.  It is becoming harder and harder for mother-fish to find a suitable place to lay their eggs, and where young-fry, left to fend for themselves, will have a chance to begin their lives.  The decline in the former abundance of fish is mainly attributable to the increasing scarcity of healthy water, which instead of gushing forth from noble, high-grade springs, laden with nutrients and trace-elements, trickles out of the Earth in empty seepage springs.  Already unhealthy at the spring itself, such water is unable to generate healthy drainage conditions downstream.  The core water-masses no longer surge ahead momentarily, and instead of a convergent (centripetal) movement of water-particles, the whole central body of water becomes turbulent.  Its energies are directed towards the banks because of accretions of river-gravel and sediment, resulting in breaches in the riverbank and the formation of islands.

At this point attention should be drawn to a major misconception.  This forward surge has so far been viewed as a process of continuous acceleration.  In reality, this supposed acceleration is precisely the precondition for its inner braking, through the incidence of increased turbulence where the flow-velocity is greatest.  Consequently, all mathematical calculations hitherto applied to this phenomenon must undoubtedly lead to exactly the opposite effect (a reaction effect).
   
Eventually a bend in a river is not only formed horizontally, but also the water actually begins to curl in upon itself.  Over-heated surface-water becomes turbulent and trails behind the deeper, colder water-strata, which continue to surge ahead, altering their consistency and eventually falling back themselves.  At certain velocities, by mechanical means, ripples are formed, which break backwards in an upstream direction, throwing the food floating on the surface upwards and towards the source.  Strong evaporation suffocates insects dancing above the steaming surface water, which then fall in, providing food for trout and swallows.

As long as healthy water conditions prevail, a trout enjoys great abundance and a wealth of choice.  In cold, clear water, the stationary trout easily espies every morsel of food floating towards it, alters course with a flick of its fins - and with an expert eye evades the angler's hook.  The small fish are the main ones that bite, because they swim outside the mainstream of the current and hungrily seize upon every scrap of food that deviates from its regular path.  If sultry weather conditions occur, and if temperatures rise in a sharp curve (negative temperature gradient), then the whole body of core-water becomes turbulent.  Now becoming hungry, the stationary trout nervously darts about, lunging at gnats dancing above the surface and becomes careless.  It falls easy prey to the angler, who is well aware that in such weather the large trout bite - but has no idea why.  The same naturally applies after a fall of rain, when newly-arrived water necessarily mixes with riverwater, which becomes strongly turbulent in the process - chaotic flow conditions arise, which make all orderly supply of food impossible, and the trout becomes ravenous.



The movement of trouts

The principle governing the movement of fish in water or birds in the air is the same, although there are obvious structural differences attributable to different properties of the respective media.  In its own way, each medium can be influenced by way of reaction phenomena in order to produce the desired effect - the most efficient forward motion.  Like the fish, the bird has the ability either to overcome resistances peculiar to the medium through physical (not mechanical) processes - and without any major expenditure of energy, or at least minimal expenditure at the right moment.  What has hitherto been held to be impossible - a large output with a minimal input - will be restored to the realm of fact, shaking the very foundations of current theory concerning energy and its conservation.
   
The various resistances and the friction which, following natural law, increase by the square of the starting velocity, will be neutralised in the same ratio by the physical factors mentioned above.  Consequently, by exploiting this new factor at the right moment, all that will remain to be overcome in practice is the resistance-less medium.  Once again, the most detailed analysis of the energy-forms here in question is necessary in order to replicate this ideal motion artificially in either medium to suit our purposes.
   
While it is quite remarkable that trout can move so rapidly upstream, in view of its relatively modest energies, at first view it is equally baffling that the trout is able to remain motionless without any appreciable effort in fast-flowing waters in which a human being can barely stand up.  In clear, cold, healthy mountain water, a stationary trout positions itself in the central axis of the current, where the water-filaments flow that most closely approximate +4?C.  The trout influences the velocity of water flowing past it with the smooth, slippery surface of its skin - at first with a purely mechanical energy-form.  Displaced by the mass of the trout's body, the water initially comes under pressure and slips past the slimy body with a greater velocity than water particles further removed from it.  The immediate effect is that the highest flow-velocity possible under the prevailing water temperature is exceeded, producing an increase in turbulence.  In the neutral zone created in this way by the counter-flow of the water, the trout is able to stand still without effort (see sketchHotwordStyle=BookDefault; ).

If the water becomes too warm as a result of external influences, then the reaction will also be weaker.  In particular motion and counter-motion will be thrown out of balance, and the trout will be pushed gently downstream.  Conversely, if the temperature suddenly drops, it will be propelled upstream.  The trout also quickly vacates places where changes in the unstable state of equilibrium are most extreme and seeks out a new position suited to the changed conditions, so as to re-establish the lively balance between water, reaction (counter-movement) and body-form.  The establishment of the state of equilibrium outlined above evolves purely and simply by mechanical means alone, due to an increase in turbulence.
   
By breathing through its gills and therefore by means of purely physical impulses, a trout is able to neutralise, not only the effects of rapid movement of water, but also smaller irregularities.  The effects triggered off are much larger than the trout's relatively minor applications of force, and because of this they can be raised to an unusually high level of efficiency.  A trout is forced backwards by flowing water the moment gill-breathing ceases.  When the trout swims rapidly upstream, then it breathes with greater intensity and rapidity and, in a manner of speaking, when it takes to its heels, its gills operate at full throttle.
   
These processes are explained as follows: the formation of counter-vortices described above provide the trout with its raw condition of equilibrium.  They evolve mechanically and are suited to the size of the body and form of movement.  The instability of the state of equilibrium, however, creates the possibility of increasing the velocity of the water by physical factors, through which increased turbulence is caused by pressure from the gills.  Breathing through the gills not only serves for the intake of oxygen, but also for forward motion - an arrangement which illustrates Natures absolute superiority.  The trout increases the velocity of water through deep and rapid breathing, to the extent necessary to conduct a correspondingly-larger volume of water (from which oxygen has been removed) through the gills and alongside the body.  In this way, vortices that have been intensified in a potential sense can now be generated in almost any desired form and strength, as counter-movements.  In this fashion counter-currents originally evolving through the mechanical formation of vortices will be multiplied and the trout needs only to redeploy its tail-fins in order to exploit the reactive effects.  The end-result is acceleration of the bodyHotwordStyle=BookDefault;  in the opposite direction to the draining water.  In the interval between breaths, mechanical vortices alone are active.  The gentle twisting movements of the fins destroy the vortices created mechanically (destruction of vortices by formation of vortices) and the trout moves backwards.  With the very first expulsion of breath the trout again stands still in the most torrential of flows.
   
The secret lies solely in the exploitation of hitherto-unknown laws of water movement.  Therefore, it will no longer sound strange when the assertion is now made, that not only are today's hydroelectric turbines both uneconomic and unreliable, but ships and aeroplanes are as well, since they operate contrary to laws prevailing in their respective medium of air or water. 



Aviation

One of the most immediate practical applications, achieved by influencing the medium artificially but according to natural law, will provide proof that it is possible to cause any propeller-driven aeroplane to nose-dive from any desired height.  The air-pockets and vertical wind-shear so feared in aviation which force aircraft into a vertical dive, are none other than the interaction between temperature gradients - which as a rule regularly reverse early in the morning or towards evening.  Inasmuch as air-crashes can be traced back to these causes, the majority always occur at such times.  The time of year also plays a major role.  These inversions in the temperature gradients can be engineered artificially by very simple means.  Moreover with the aid of this knowledge, one of the most recent and supposedly greatest achievements - air warfare - can be eliminated easily.
   
Even if here out of context, it will nevertheless be mentioned in passing, that present systems of powering aircraft with propellers operate against the laws of Nature, and that flying today is an exceptionally risky game of chance.  Indeed, it could almost be said that even one untoward ray of sunlight could bring it to an abrupt end.  The basis of this assertion, and the reason why glider pilots can remain aloft at certain hours only, will be addressed in subsequent chapters.   Since aviation is still in its infancy, and in view of the limited experience gained over the few years since its inception, this should not be taken as a reproach.



The rafting of timber

If, on the other hand, we examine what is perhaps the most ancient of technologies, the rafting of timber, and if we also consider that this method of timber transportation is still practised today in spite of the destruction and incalculable damage it has wrought, then no word is strong enough to criticise this unbelievable thoughtlessness.
   
Through the removal of forest, the means of transportation - water - is laid bare to the elements.  The inevitable outcome of this is the destruction of the channel.  With the channel in such a condition, the controller of rafting operations adds to the problem by releasing even more water from holding basins.  What is thus achieved is precisely what was not wanted, or should be avoided.  Instead of being carried forward, logs will be thrown broadside to the current and stranded.  To guard against this, the forester then creates his embankment works, which incidentally were also adopted by river engineers later on.  Revetments, stone encasements, guideways, groins and transverse barriers are now supposed to hold the timber away from the bank.
   
Briefly the effect is as follows: in company with the water, timber flows along the now smooth, steeply raking embankment wall in similar fashion to water sliding along the slippery body of the fish.  Significantly larger turbulences are created.  The encased-stone wall will quickly be undermined following Nature's hydraulic laws, and collapses after a short time.  As long as these wall-surfaces hold out, the turbulent water-masses will be forced into a completely unnatural flow-form.  Because of this, the timber surges ahead too rapidly, and all means of controlling the water are lost.  Intensified in this process, counter-forces flow around the end of the reconstructed embankment and demolish it.  Having passed the revetment, the accumulated energies attack the now-unprotected bank with increased force and destroy it altogether.
   
This makes further bank stabilisation imperative.  Thus an endless string of revetments are built at enormous cost, which not only make all useful floatation of timber impossible, but also are precisely the most dangerous flow-guides in time of flood.  Potential forces are generated and accumulated at these guiding structures.  Far below in the valley, where no dangers existed previously, destructive effects will suddenly be unleashed which act equally as unexpectedly as they do abnormally, laying valuable farmland to waste, which is scarce enough anyway without this forest-destroying technology.
   
In fact, because of these measures, a stage has already been reached where, almost without exception, all the once-healthy alpine streams, abounding in fish, are now in a positively ruinous condition and devoid of fish-life.  In time of flood these waterway ruins convey vast quantities of sediment down into the valley, causing unparalleled havoc, only to dry up again during normal times.  Hydro-electric plants being built today are responsible for all the rest of the damage.  If our hydraulic engineers continue with their present methods, and should they eventually seize upon the last high-lying healthy reserves of water, then in a few decades we will live to see the day when all the power-stations, built at vast expense, stand empty.  In the process we shall also lose the last vestiges of fertile soil which today, even if already in short supply, is nevertheless still available to us.
   
As long as the forester remains within the bounds of practicability, the stream that flows out of almost every forest will deliver the accrued interest, the timber, almost without cost.  If the forester (already a forest-despoiler) continues to employ his present methods, altering the fundamental form in which forest flourishes (by clear-felling), then Nature will protect herself.  The wholesale clearing of forest very quickly leads to the destruction of watercourses and to the ruination of a previously-profitable means of transport.  The felling of a forest with limited access to water is no longer worthwhile, even if the distance to the water is slight, and the forest is thereby saved at humanity's expense.  Alternative systems of transport such as forest railways have seldom proved economic in the long run, because they require extremely large quantities of timber in order to bring in a return on capital outlay.  In such cases the efforts of entrepreneurs to balance books through rigorous exploitation of forest has introduced such dangers the national economy - that once a government becomes truly aware of the seriousness of the situation, it will have to enact the harshest of restrictive measures.

It is unthinkable that water should be controlled by mathematical formulae alone.  The proper management of water above all demands a sense of commitment and great sensitivity, similar to that of a good doctor.
There are unmistakable symptoms in relation to the management of water which should once more be summarised briefly.  As long as a waterway can transport timber unaided and therefore free of charge, the forester may use his axe.  The deterioration of waterways warns of the dangers which, without exaggeration, most seriously threaten our own existence.
   
As long as the trout continues to stand motionless in the water because food flows unaided into its jaws, then favourable conditions will also exist for humanity and for the economy.  If water exhibits destructive phenomena, if the trout becomes agitated and the timber begins to strand, then in the same ratio that the creatures in the water decline in quality, the conditions for all life will begin to disappear, conditions that those closely bound to their native soil can now no longer overlook.  Contemporary methods of torrent-limitation, river regulation and hydro-electric power generation in general will have to be changed radically.
   
The increasing karst development in the upper reaches due to the continued sinking of the groundwater table, the destruction and devastation of the cultivable land in the lower reaches, the unruly and undisciplined discharge of catastrophic floodwaters into the valley, the increasing development of swamps in low-lying areas, the constant increase in the severity of so-called natural disasters occurring locally from year to year, the decline of agriculture and so on, in many instances can also be put down to the totally unnatural systems applied to the regulation of rivers.
   
Large-scale regulatory works have been put in hand without even the vaguest idea of the energetic principles governing Nature's processes and without an inkling of the most fundamental laws of the movement of water,.  These have radically altered the natural scheme of things and acted in glaring contravention of the laws here prevailing.  Instead of bearing in mind the obvious fact that forest and high-altitude vegetation are just as essential as the skin on the body, everything possible has been done to destroy Nature's truly marvellous interdependencies, which otherwise are almost indestructible.
   
In the belief that forest exists to be exploited for every conceivable purpose, every effort has been made not only to plunder what Nature needs for life and for the maintenance of the soil as objects for vulgar speculation, but on top of everything, to destroy them through totally perverse practices. The most discouraging aspect is that in spite of all the bad experiences, these absurd methods of regulation and forest management are still followed today.  Through such methods the forest, the prime necessity for culture of any kind, must demonstrably die as a result of measures presently applied by the responsible authorities.  In no single instance can it be demonstrated that the regulation of even a small stream was carried out without fault.
   
Millions of people are already unemployed.  Thousands of farms are in danger of collapse.  Even very ingeniously-constructed machines are no longer able to work the exhausted soil in such a way that the energy expended is in proportion to the yield.  Through devastation of forest and misguided regulation of our rivers the state of equilibrium in Nature's household has been disturbed.  Such a crisis in agriculture and forestry, directly responsible for all other economic upsets, could never have occurred had forest and water been treated even half-way intelligently.  In every way the hydraulic engineer has treated the waterways no better than the forester the forest.  In view of the close connection between forest and water, it therefore comes as no surprise that channels are in an even more disproportionately dismal state than the forest.
   
Even at a time when thousands are destitute for lack of work, it is almost pointless to wait and see whether humanity, who has already lost all connection with Nature, will not only continue to destroy all further existence, but also shatter the very last hope of recovery.  In reality, twice as many are required to arrest the total economic collapse that threatens us, which can only happen, if the mistakes that have been made so far are rectified as fast as humanly possible.  This depends on whether the forest can be built up again as it once was and must always be, and if the channels are brought into balance once more through the construction of suitably designed reservoirs, so that at the very least they can keep to a tolerably regular course for the time being and generate healthy water again in order that healthy blood can once more be supplied to flora and fauna alike.

[lltfdaniel1]

TEMPERATURE AND THE MOVEMENT OF WATER V

The influence of temperature and water movement on Forestry, Water Resources Management and the Formation of Structures

An article by Viktor Schauberger published in "Die Wasserwirtschaft",
the Austrian Journal of Hydrology.
Vol. 3, 1931

Contents
The Formation of Structures
The Dying ForestHotwordStyle=BookDefault;
   
The safe lifetime, therefore the stability, of a dam is not only a question of correct static calculation.  Rather, it is dependent on the influences of temperature exerted on the wall by the surrounding air and water strata (see "Temperature and the movement of water" 7HotwordStyle=BookDefault; ).  If through outside influences, a negative temperature-gradient is established in a dam wall, or if the temperature of water-particles in it diverges from +4?C (+39.2?F), then a cavitating action (as differentiated from a sedimentating action) takes place.  The latter occurs in the wall when the water-particles present in it approach a temperature of +4?C (positive temperature-gradient).  Cavitating action is the enlargement of pores and thus the loosening of the wall-structure through dissolution and leaching of certain salts at certain temperatures. Whereas, sedimentating action is the sealing of the wall-structure (pores and voids) through internal deposition of certain salts due to a particular movement of temperature.
   
Degradation or amelioration of the wall-structure is thus dependent on the relative proportions between periods of positive and negative temperature-gradients inside the dam wall.  The type and duration of the respective movements of temperature is a question of location, general climatic conditions and principally, the orientation of the wall (direct or indirect influence of the Sun).  In the dam wall, therefore, the very same phenomena are manifested that occur in Nature, for instance in the erosion of mountains under the Sun's influence (negative temperature-gradient), and their reformation with the exclusion of the Sun and under the influence of the low temperatures.  To a certain extent these are present in the oceans and in the Earth's interior (positive temperature-gradient).
   
Coming-into-being and passing away are therefore a question of a hitherto-ignored, unrecognised form of temperature movement in bodies.  This movement is the legitimate consequence of the anomalous character of water, whose significance has still not been evaluated.  The formation and destruction of rock (walls and suchlike), however, is not the only area in which this plays a major role.  Because of the anomalous condition of water, the organic or inorganic development of the structure will either be changed or altogether created.  Thus, both the lifetime of a dam wall and even the possibility for Life itself will be influenced through the correct formation of the respective structure.  This includes the plant kingdom too and the reproductive capacity of living things.
   
The existence or non-existence of all bodies and products of Nature is hence a question of the way in which water moves; whether it is a correct form of movement according to natural principles or an incorrect form that takes place in its inner circulation through the Earth.  Thus the energy-form A of water movement, which in one instance represents the affirmation of Life and in the other its negation, is a function f of the water's hitherto neglected temperature-gradient tg.

                    A = f(tg)
   
It is well-known that water is the carrier of certain nutrient salts.  At certain water temperatures, but under one particular temperature-gradient, these salts will be dissolved, under another transported and under a third deposited.  The type of temperature movement, the temperature-gradient, and hence the effect of the energy of the water in the Earth, the body or the living creature, plays a greater role than has been so far assumed in relation to vegetation and the essential supply of nutritive material from the Earth's interior.  Logically, the form of temperature movement of water within the Earth and other bodies, however, is once again merely a question of the possibilities for direct or indirect radiation by the Sun.  Therefore it is a question of associated climatic conditions and this naturally encompasses the disposition of mountain ranges and intervening valleys.
   
The temperature-associated processes mentioned above are responsible for the supply of nutrients to the Earth's surface, through which the very existence of any vegetation is made possible.  Once established, vegetation is then able to moderate extremes (direct solar radiation) at any given altitude, through low temperatures caused by strong evapo-transpiration.  In the mountains, where the need is greatest, this counterbalancing function and the especially important retention of groundwater on steep slopes can only be achieved by a healthy forest, appropriately graduated according to altitude, area, age and species.  Without these preconditions and without taking the overall climatic conditions, the situation and state of the forest into account, there can be no healthy condition of water or its orderly distribution.  Hence there can be no profitable use of upland areas for agricultural purposes.  This problem will naturally be all the more critical, the higher the situation and the more extreme the climate.
             
In these locations hard winters with deeply permeating belts of frost make essential maintenance of high internal ground-temperatures possible.  Contrasting conditions of temperature come into being, creating stresses in the ground.  Water will be forced upwards by an extremely simple process of densation, which in spring necessarily intensifies in the process of rising.  In summer it is the turn of properly graduated forest, which through its low ground temperatures retains water closer to the surface, thereby maintaining nutrients in proximity to a naturalesque distribution of root systems.
   
Up to now the forestry industry has regrettably paid no attention to this process of Nature.  Through the very antithesis of proper management practices (clear-felling operations), a reduction in potential differences in the ground inevitably occurs through the break in forest cover, which also results in water sinking.  Instead of an increase in cultivable land, a decrease ensues as a direct consequence of such systems of forest management.  Instead of these systems building up the forest (this primary and most important precondition for culture), they qualitatively mismanage it to death.  The main reasons for our cultural decline are:

1) Contemporary administration of forest resources, centralised in large   industrial complexes, which is not only self-destructive but also destroys other cultivable land;
2) Totally faulty river regulation and torrent confinement;
3) Misguided and arbitrary management of the hydroelectric power industry



The Dying Forest
   
For decades vigorous generations of young trees once lived in equable conditions of temperature, humidity and illumination under the protection of mother-trees in healthy, natural forests untouched by humanity and its science.  It was only through the death of the mother-trees that the majority of the young tree population, having meanwhile come of age, were able to attain the enjoyment of direct light and heat.  In other words, not before the period of infancy had passed; a period during which trees react to extreme environmental conditions with very wide annual rings (see fig. 20).  The naturally-ordained increase in light and heat not only promotes well-balanced further development, but also gives  a necessary and beneficial impetus to reproduction.  It is to be emphasised that under these conditions the trunk itself will still remain shielded from direct sunlight and only the crown of the tree will be exposed.  The enormous importance attaching to this sequence of events will become apparent in what follows.

The forester, who naturally could not fail to notice the phenomenon of so-called light-induced growth, saw in this the possibility for the scientific manipulation of growth and the opportunity it offered him to correct Nature.  Even if contrary to the natural order, he advanced new, and in his opinion, better and more appropriate laws.  For his new plantation forests he exploited this factor at the very moment when a young tree reacts to an excess of light and heat with lateral expansion - with excessive growth of its annual rings.  Furthermore, by concentrating the areas of work, this newly adopted method now made clear-felling and a supposedly more rational management possible.  Even when this system was first introduced, the disappearance of certain types of understorey was already evident.  This was not perceived as a disadvantage, however, but rather as an advantage, because the unnecessary over-consumption of the soil's water and nutrients by unprofitable undergrowth was thus averted.
   
Inevitably this new system of forestry also caused premature exposure to the elements of frost-sensitive, shade-demanding species of timber, the pine for example, which under natural processes of regeneration congregate under the protection of older trees.  If a larger number of these young trees subsequently die of frost, then as a result the remainder exhibit an increase in light-induced growth that almost leaps to the eye.  However, the annual rings put on by pines, due to this sudden exposure are often a centimetre-wide and produce a spongy timber of inferior consistency at these locations.

After felling and even in standing timber, it often splits in an annular fashion (producing ring-shakes).  In the process of drying out, these spongy sections do not contract in the same way as healthily grown timber and its commercial use is naturally out of the question.
   
The pernicious effects of this well-known ring-shake proneness of pine, and the internal sickening it creates are transmitted to the rising generation, which is badly mistreated too. On qualitative grounds alone this must lead, even if imperceptibly, to the slow but sure dying out of this species of timber, which is necessary for the whole existence of the forest in those regions where pine grows naturally.  The decline of the pines, which the forester cannot fail to see, could be tolerated in his view, because the pine produces an inferior wood, not especially sought after commercially, which can be far better replaced by spruce or fir.  This opinion, however, is a common and unfortunately even more far-reaching misconception than the previuosly mentioned `light-induced growth`, which must lead to the extinction of certain species of timber, based as it is on unhealthy methods of regeneration.
   
It is well-known that the most qualitatively valuable timber to be found in our region [Austria], so-called resonant timber, disappeared almost overnight when the principles of scientific forest management were introduced.  This timber was rarely to be found even in primeval forest but it was not merely dependent on the very extensive protection of the mother-tree.  It could only grow in trough-like depressions under extremely sheltered environmental conditions, where it was immune to all outside influences.  Here, in really poor soil conditions, it grows up in deep shade under precisely the opposite conditions to those created by contemporary systems of forestry.  In contrast to the timber grown rapidly using modern methods, this slow-growing timber exhibits annual rings that can barely be distinguished by the naked eye.  Moreover its organic structure displays a truly remarkable uniformity.
   
Resonant timber (such as hazelspruce and silver fir) is mainly used in the manufacture of musical instruments.  The marvellous tone colour of the instruments made from such wood (Stradivarius fashioned his famous violins with it) is not only indicative of the healthiest and therefore the most natural growth and development, but also of an almost unlimited durability.  If we now compares the structure of the timber produced by modern forestry with the high-quality timber, now almost legendary in our indigenous forests, then for the first time we become fully conscious of the well-nigh irretrievable loss we have suffered; largely through the failure to appreciate the facts of the matter cited above.
   
In answer to possible objections that the other great advantages accruing from modern forest management cannot be sacrificed merely for the sake of a few rare resonant timbers, it is to be stressed that the above example was only used to highlight the qualitative differences between naturally and artificially grown and regenerated timber.  In the very near future the increasingly noticeable deterioration in the quality of timber from decade to decade and the escalating problems of extending the upper limits of plantation on steep southerly slopes, should indeed provoke an urgent question.  Is it, for the sake of relatively poor-quality light-induced growth, actually worth accepting the catastrophic loss in quality already evident after barely a century's operation of modern forestry, and therefore to put the very existence of our high forests at risk through such practices?

A more detailed study and above all a return to natural processes, which will become all the more urgent in the near future, will reveal that the forest is not merely an object for exploitation, but an absolutely indispensable precondition for all forms of cultivation, particularly in mountainous areas.  Also ever-increasing social privation is the result of the current destruction of the forest. What therefore appeared to be a great advantage at first view, indeed a real scientific achievement, in practice reveals itself as a perhaps totally irremediable disadvantage, a cultural decline.
   
The forester believed he could outdo Nature.  What he achieved was the death and extinction of certain species of timber through the untimely application of a physical influence (sunlight), unknown in its actual effects.  Through the forester's erroneous conduct of affairs outlined above, sunlight affects the structure of the timber and hence its organic development in the most detrimental fashion imaginable.  The gross errors of contemporary clear-felling methods unfortunately have even graver consequences, which will now be addressed in greater detail.

The mixture of species in undisturbed virgin forests is, and most certainly was, never accidental.  In its existing proportion each variety of timber was necessary for the other.  The maintenance of the forest is not only a question of its above-ground composition, but also a matter of the distribution of species according to their root-systems.  This question becomes all the more important the higher the elevation of the forest (in mountainous regions).
   
Thorough observation cannot fail to register the fact that the dying out of one variety of timber creates a void in the nutritive medium (the soil) and therefore the elimination of one variety of tree results in the disappearance of another.  It is the disruption of water supply and hence the supply of nutrients that we are concerned with here.  The principles applied to silviculture by forestry today, such as clear-felling and artificial systems of regeneration, lead to a qualitative and therefore general deterioration.
   
Instead of the former coniferous old-growth forest, the undiminished natural force of which provided for its continued existence without human assistance, we are today presented with that woeful product of industrialisation, the timber of our modern forest industry.  As quality timber it will be unusable after one further rotation and moreover, according to all prognoses, its seeds may well become infertile.
   
The recent protest (early 1931) against the import duty on fine Polish timber for the manufacture of pianos and violins, indeed the very objection to the use of native timbers for the fabrication of better furniture, demonstrates the severity of the decline.  Through the continuation of current systems of management, this decline must lead to the total collapse of this income-earning area of employment, so vital to the national economy.  We therefore stand literally before a dying forest, and the recent rebuttals to the warnings of the agronomist, Dr Kaltenbrunner, emanating from forestry circles, are irrelevant inasmuch as the decisive factor here is not the quantity of the miscellaneous remnants of old-growth forest, but the quality of artificially-replanted young stands of timber, which will eventually become mother-trees.  If the fir disappears, then in this part of the world the beech will become the most important species to suffer next.
   
Although it lies beyond the scope of the present theme, an explanation of the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of springs in beech forests should nevertheless be provided, if only briefly.  An example of the adverse effect of temperature-influenced water movement, which is not conducive to the organic development of a body, is the appearance of tuberculosis in humans and animals in the vicinity of large beech forests with water-abundant soils.  This is to be attributed to the abnormal evolution of chemically-pure water-vapour, which is nutrient-less water.
   
At certain temperatures chemically-pure water has the property of greedily absorbing nutritive substances.  In this process the structure of respiratory organs will be attacked, thus creating preconditions for this dangerous scourge in the lungs.  This phenomenon naturally first makes its appearance in those humans and animals, whose organic constitution (structure of the respiratory organs) is not accustomed to such an abnormal intake of water-vapour.  The enormous number of fatalities due to tuberculosis and internal haemorrhaging amongst black soldiers transported to Western Europe from hot climates during World War 1 cannot just be traced back to this phenomenon on its own, but also to the sick forest which created it.  A sick forest does not die alone, but in dying also kills its destroyer - humanity.
   
At this point, attention should also be drawn to the tuberculosis prevalent in large enclosed beech reserves.  If their stay in these areas is too prolonged, young forest workers, transferred from coniferous districts, fall victim to this affliction.  Similar, but more severe effects than those in the respiratory organs appear in the stomach and digestive tract, if chemically-pure water (tank or snow water) of less than +4?C (+39.2?F) or if +4?C springwater is drunk continually.
   
In common with animals and humans, plants too are adapted to their own individual temperature, which precisely corresponds to their species and the climatic conditions of their natural habitat.  Here they are able to live unimpeded, maintaining and reproducing themselves to their full capacity.  However the maintenance of the proper internal temperature is not only a question of habitat.  More importantly, it is a question of the formation of the structure in which water is always found, even though it may differ in form and composition.

Once again, it is due to the irregularity, the anomalous condition of water, that under certain specific conditions even one ray of sunlight is sufficent to alter the state of equilibrium between the body and the water.  This in turn leads to a movement induced by a change in the causes of motion (change in ambient temperature), to a pulsation and hence to an autonomous circulation, i.e. to life itself.  Therefore, the more direct the Sun's influence, the more irregular the process of development as a result of the more marked alternation between day, night and the seasons, and the greater the demand for water becomes.  The structure will become coarser and in the same measure the quality of the timber will also deteriorate.
   
Under the protection of mother-trees (natural regeneration), a moderate heat influence (indirect sunlight) leads to the formation of a close-knit and uniform structure throughout the whole period of growth.  Quality timber can thus thrive only in the way Nature intended, in the sheltered environment of the mother-trees.  The earlier the young shade-loving plant is exposed to direct sunlight and the greater the frequency of exposure, the sooner its structural formation must deteriorate qualitatively as a result of unnatural growth.
   
This is why all varieties of light-demanding timber protect their internal growth processes from the Sun by forming a thick layer of bark, which is not the case with shade-demanding species, however.  The pine therefore will be the first to perish at the hands of contemporary forestry.  For the same reason even the spruce, which is equipped with a thicker formation of bark, will be beyond all help and in the end must also die, although more slowly than the pine.  Naturally, the disappearance of the spruce first occurs on higher southerly slopes.  Here, owing to the pine's departure and because of the strong sunlight, this flat-rooted tree is no longer able to draw up and retain the water it needs due to its enlarged structure.
   
Spruce that grows in good soil but under unrestricted light conditions, once again produces such spongy, soft wood, that red rot is already evident in the felled timber after it has been stored for barely a year.  Indeed this even occurs in standing timber to some extent.  The quality of such wood in its finished state is at best mediocre and naturally its use cannot be considered for the manufacture of high quality products, let alone for export.
   
The manipulation of the forces of Nature through conventional systems of forestry has in any case achieved only very short-term and therefore illusory successes.  Nature legitimately reacts with an appreciable decline in quality, so that we will certainly witness the strenuous efforts of our rather more far-sighted entrepreneurs to preserve the right to import foreign high-grade timber, obtained from forest reserves where modern forestry has so far had no such drastic effect, as is unfortunately already the case locally.

In the construction of dams, under certain preconditions derived from inattention to the important form of temperature movement (temperature-gradient) in the wall, a really dreadful danger can be created for those living below.  Moreover, changes in the ground-temperature resulting from an incorrect temperature-gradient in the impounded water can cause a shift in the climatic conditions.  As everything in Nature, this is not immediately apparent, but will manifest itself later in a far more severe form.
   
The consequences of massive intrusions by forestry into Nature have now become evident after barely one full rotation.  This can only be rectified at enormous cost, if it is not already too late.  There is an increasingly persistent irregularity in the distribution of water in recent years.  Flood catastrophes, droughts, landslides, even the emission of poisonous gases or `Death Fogs` from the Earth, and the upsurge in illnesses when warm vapours rise from the ground in winter, together with the constantly strengthening negative temperature-gradient, are the legitimate reactive symptoms of our present utterly faulty management of water resources.  The principal mistakes in such management are solely to be traced back to the contemporary administration of the forests.
   
Without exaggeration, modern forestry can be described as one of the greatest threats to culture.  If the widespread cultural decline already evident is to be arrested, we will have to revert immediately to natural methods of regeneration, to the ways of the former natural forest.  Such natural forest never evolved simply by the juxtaposition of species, but developed over millions of years through their superimposition and replacement.
   
A few vestiges of this natural forest can still be found on smaller landholdings, where clear-cutting and the large-scale methods of regeneration associated with it were always impracticable, because of their limited surface area.  In this natural forest, apparently in the most haphazard and colourful array, age-group upon age-group (overstorey and understorey) and species next to species grow up under the shelter of mother-trees.  In supposedly cultivated and improved forest, the individual species and age-groups appear as a uniform mass (in clear-felling systems) and are ranged alongside each other (horizontal instead of superimposed development) without regard to either climate or altitude.  To put it mildly, this unnatural treatment of the forest (systematic concatenation of one denuded surface after another) leads, through the redistribution of ground temperatures, to a systematic and progressive reduction of potential differences in the ground.
   
The inevitable sequel to this systematic neutralisation of contrasting temperatures in the Earth's interior is the now incipient sinking of the groundwater table on the slopes and the increasing swamp development on more level terrain.  As will be seen later, these differences in temperature are absolutely essential for a flourishing vegetation.  Their elimination signals the termination of the hitherto unknown supply of nutritive material from the Earth's interior, which again is exclusively a function of the temperature-gradient.  The importance of this is still unrecognised today.
   
The temperature-gradient can be described as a properly ordered or functionally-graduated energy-form of water as it moves in its internal cycle.  It is the necessary precondition for a supply of nutrients to the root-zone of the plants.  The disturbance of the water cycle and consequent breakdown in nutrient supply from the inner regions of the Earth, foreshadows the decline of the vegetation, leading to a reduction in cultivation and the demise of agriculture.  No machine in the world and no rationalisation can prevent this, but even at this late hour such a demise may yet be arrested by an immediate and properly instituted management of water resources.

[lltfdaniel1]

TEMPERATURE AND THE MOVEMENT OF WATER VI

The Circulation of water inside the earth and the Associated Supply of Nutritive Matter to the Vegetation

An article by Viktor Schauberger in "Die Wasserwirtschaft",
the Austrian Journal of Hydrology.
Vol 5, 1931

If we consider the consequences that have arisen through disregarding effects of temperature in the field of forestry, now evident after barely one rotation, then the question arises as to whether a condition analogous to the structural deterioration of the tree will sooner or later be found in dams and dam walls made of mass-concrete.

Measurements recorded so far have furnished proof that here too, especially in structures of a certain size, processes similar to those in the tree or inside the Earth take place.  Under certain conditions of temperature and in conformity with natural law these must lead to signs of decay in both instances. On the other hand, it is equally evident that certain other movements of temperature can undoubtedly give rise to outward signs of consolidation instead of decomposition, of formation instead of disintegration.  If the wall-structure and therefore the wall itself deteriorates, or if the decline of vegetation becomes apparent, this then provides indisputable proof that the error, with all its ramifications, lies unequivocally in the neglect of temperature-gradient.
   
In forestry the effect of short-sighted practices can already be seen.  In the construction of dams, a correctly positioned thermometer indicates immediately whether disintegration or consolidation will take place.  In the case of disintegration, this simple instrument can be used to determine whether a catastrophe is to be expected.  Should it now be argued that a number of dams already exist and successfully fulfil their function, then it is to be pointed out that it is totally irrelevant when the catastrophe actually happens.  As soon as the inbuilt thermometer registers the energy-form of disintegration, the dam is already in a condition to fall victim to the often rapidly-fluctuating temperatures in the next largish flood.
   
The question as to whether the authorities can assume responsibility for such a construction, faced with the knowledge that such a humanly uncontrollable catastrophe is legitimately to be expected, and whether the population to be protected from such an event (and therefore imperilled by it) will give its consent, is hardly to be answered in the affirmative.  The same is equally applicable to forestry.  So the justifiable question arises:  Has research so far pursued the right course, or did it consciously or unconsciously go astray through inattention to the critical factor of the effect of temperature?
   
If we proceed on the basis that social and economic development, therefore the culture of a nation, is inextricably connected with its reserves of forest, then in view of the mistakes that have been made, we should no longer be surprised at our social, economic and therefore cultural collapse.  If temperature were shown to have such grave consequences in the above two instances, then it now becomes all the more imperative to base subsequent investigations in all other areas on the experience gained here.
   
Current theories and doctrines concerning the movement of water and the associated supply of nutrients from the Earth's interior to the root-zone of the plants, tend to arrive at a point where the causes of this phenomena cannot be further explained.  The discussions terminate with the statement, "cause not known with certainty", or "cause unresearched".  Should the sequence of events leading to the developments outlined above now be analysed, then, as practical observations clearly show, a fork is reached where theory has taken precisely the wrong turn.
   
The influence of this form of energy or temperature-movement, which in water continually varies in step with fluctuations in external temperature, is a factor that has always existed.  It appears new now only because it has hitherto been consistently disregarded.  If at this juncture this additional factor is introduced, we then not only arrive effortlessly at the goal of our research, but completely new findings also come to light.  Quite frankly these are in stark contrast to conventional theories.
   
One of the questions still not clarified today is the movement of water in plants.  The obvious course of action is to include this new factor in all future observations of Nature.  Powerful forces, whose origins are still unknown, create steady flows of water with relatively high velocities from the finest roots right up to the leaves and needles of the high forest.  While it is essential to understand what forces perform this work, it is equally important to understand how this supply of water is regulated, such that each leaf and every needle receives as much water as it needs.
   
Ultimately the cardinal question arises as to the cause of this mass-transport of water, which increases or decreases according to the time of year.  If present assumptions, in some cases completely unfounded, are set aside for the moment, and the generally well-known processes of temperature are adopted instead, then to some extent many hitherto unresolved questions already solve themselves.  However, we can go a step further and observe the way energies change according to the type of temperature-movement and how, with and without the influence of light and air (oxygen), the energy-forms of water continually readjust themselves to suit the constant fluctuations in external temperature.  It then becomes apparent that present explanations are highly inadequate.  Moreover, any practical endeavour undertaken without considering these important natural processes not only results in wasted effort, but also in the decline of vegetation, achieved with a great deal of trouble, labour and expense, and in consequence the failure of every attempt at cultivation.
   
Simple observations and measurements show that the uptake of water (or more accurately, the velocity of the rising water-masses in plants) varies continually not only according to season, but even with diurnal fluctuations in temperature.  A further phenomenon is that the rate of flow actually varies according to location, climate and altitude with respect to the seasonal maxima and minima.  If this change in velocity is already noticeable during the day (due to the position of the Sun), then it is all the more evident with the alternation of the seasons.  The hotter the time of day and the time of year, the greater the velocity of rising sap.  The difference between the state of rest in winter and the strongest sap-flow in summer is in excess of 3m (10ft) per hour.
   
Curiously enough, with very particular species of timber, a reversal in the direction of movement occurs at a certain temperature.  In high summer, for example, sap flows in the opposite direction from the crown towards the roots, when too much heat becomes bound through the process of evaporation and low temperatures become established below the crown-closure.  It rises upwards shortly thereafter when this excessive evaporative process has ceased and temperatures have once again reversed.

If one reflects on the fact that water is raised to any given height through the Sun's influence, then it is only one small step to understanding that this hitherto inexplicable phenomenon is in part a process of evaporation, determined by the effective surface area of the tree's crown.  The quantities of water evaporating from leaf-surfaces will be replaced by the upward movement of water-particles in the countless feeder vessels - again a function of temperature.  This movement will also be assisted by bubbles of carbonic acid gas rising with them.  The proper structural formation of the plant and its importance for this vital assistance will be addressed in more detail later.
   
As the Sun's heat becomes stronger (at the turn of the year), the velocity and kinetic energy of ascending water-masses also increase, resulting in a simultaneous rise in the supply of nutrient salts required for further growth and development.  If the process of autonomous development prevailing throughout Nature (in trees this is growth in height but not artificially induced growth in girth) is to be realised, it is of supreme importance that the extraction (solution) and supply of nutrient salts from the Earth's interior should keep pace in the same ratio that the uptake of water in the plants is increased through the effects of temperature.
   
The nutrient supply and with it the biological structure of the plants, therefore, is primarily a question of temperature.  At the same time, temperature is also the regulator of the water and nutrient supply, since the energy-forms of water are continually modified by climate and altitude.  With the proviso that nutritive substances are actually present in the soil, an improved capacity to dissolve and to rise upwards inevitably occurs with higher temperature.  Conversely, with a decrease in temperature in the shade of a properly-formed crown or, in the case of light-demanding timbers, under the protection of the bark, the deposition of the widest variety of salts proceeds from the top of the tree downwards.  This explains the degeneration in the growth of shade-demanding timbers, which have to congregate in dense stands for their mutual protection against direct sunlight.  If their crowns are damaged or if they are suddenly exposed to light and the elements, degeneration sets in.  This degeneration can neither be checked by the thickening of the bark (even if this occurs immediately) nor arrested through the rapid growth of protective lower branches.
   
We are now confronted by a new question concerning the origin of nutrient salts required for plant growth and by the even more complex problem of their extraction, transportation and proper distribution.  How these processes actually take place will be discussed later, where it should be noted that methods of nutrient supply will be described in general without reference to other processes in the plants themselves.
   
If, after infiltrating into the ground through clefts and fissures by virtue of its weight and often immense head of pressure, water penetrates the important thermal zones existing in the interior of the Earth, and if it encounters the carbones (residues of vegetable matter) present there, then a material transformation takes place in the substances that have come in contact with the water.  In principle the process is summarised by the equation:
     
C          +                        H2O        =           CO             +        H2
(coal,  actually) (water-vapour)         (carbon monoxide)        (hydrogen gas)

In this processHotwordStyle=BookDefault;  oxygen will be dissociated from hydrogen.  The renewed rise in temperature indirectly ensuing from this forces the humid water-gas up towards the surface under enormous pressure.  This new substance releases carbonic acid into the suffused soil, resulting in the dissolution of salts, which at these high temperatures can not only be held in suspension, but also transported.

Under conditions of powerful alternating pressure the following occurs: 
1.  Influx of water
2. Super-heating (a reaction due to the process of decomposition), which further leads to:
3. The shutting off of the water supply.  The repetition of these processes will pump this new mixture, the atmosphere, as it were, in the Earth's interior and required by the vegetation, in a three-stroke rhythm towards the surface, dissolving salts en route.
   
As a result of this pressure, the salts destined for vegetation are deposited along their prescribed pathways in the upper strata of the Earth.  This process of deposition takes place under a very specific temperature-gradient through a filtering action of the soil (to be described later); an action which becomes all the more effective the further removed these vapours are from the heat source in the innermost regions of the Earth - in other words, the more they cool off.
   
At the same time the salts are also graded according to quality.  The hard-to-dissolve salts (rare salts) are deposited earlier, the more inferior salts dissolved later, due to the effect of lower temperatures in the ground strata lying closer to the surface.  Hence we also find that the first genera of plants are mosses and algae - those plants first able to take root and flourish on soil thus prepared.
   
As long as the Earth's surface was devoid of vegetation, the Sun's heat could penetrate to a certain depth.  On the other hand, in the Earth's core we also find a heat source which radiates heat towards the surface and in the process of rising - of moving away from the centre - this naturally decreases in strength.  Somewhere below the surface we therefore find a zone where the temperatures induced by the Sun and the Earth's core meet.
   
Naturally the line of demarcation between respective temperatures is neither sharp nor uniform, but will and can be of various dimensions and hence at different depths, according to the composition of the geological strata and the energetic influences of both sources of heat.  The alternation between night and day (as well as the seasons) gives rise to a constant fluctuation in the intensity of the Sun's radiation.  At the same time the strength of the heat source inside the Earth will be affected by the supply of combustible material and the influx of water, resulting in the continual upward and downward displacement of the deposition zone due to the distribution between the respective forces of the heat sources.
   
In this zone, which naturally has a relatively lower temperature, the mixture of rising gases condenses in conjunction with the simultaneous influx of oxygen from the surface regions.  This condensation process inevitably results in the deposition of nutrient salts, which can only be dissolved in the oxygen-deficient, vaporous form described earlier.  They are now put to their intended use; the constitution (chemical composition) and hardening of the groundwater.
   
The above processes in the interior of the Earth form the basis for production and supply of nutrients needed by vegetation.  Though perhaps sparse in the beginning, this primitive vegetation provides the bare ground with a protective cover against the effects of direct radiation.  This cover, however, already reduces the power of the Sun's rays quite considerably, so that shade, coolness and humidity are created in the immediate vicinity of the root-zone of the plants.  As a result the heat source of the Earth's core is also able to exert an influence on higher-lying strata, due to the resulting shift in the distribution of forces.  This has the effect of raising the deposition zone of nutrient salts, thus displacing the zone containing hard-to-dissolve (rare) salts, whose deposition occurs with only a slight increase in temperature, within reach of the roots.

At this juncture, particular attention should be drawn to the fact that the ground will also be warmed by the rising heat from below.  The groundwater and its content of dissolved nutritive matter will be forced towards the surface without the traversed ground-strata acting as a filter.  In the opposite case, when the ground surface cools off (night cooling), the groundwater sinks because of its increasing weight and because of the simultaneous reduction in the upward force of the counter-influence, namely the heat from below.
   
The ground strata cool off and the groundwater, which also sinks under these conditions, will be filtered for the first time; nutrient salts will be deposited and remain behind in the root-zone of the plants, despite further subsidence of the water.  The now nutrient-less water retreats into the Earth in order to begin the whole process anew as the warmth of the rising Sun begins to take effect.  Since the world began, this constantly self-repeating process has given rise to the creation of a nutrient dep?t just below the ground surface.  Once this dep?t is saturated, the surplus automatically migrates towards higher and more sparsely vegetated strata, due to the difference in the prevailing temperatures of the respective locations, thus enabling the development of a more advanced form of vegetation at higher altitudes.  The qualitative improvement and increasing luxuriance of the vegetation creates a consistently denser and thicker green mantle over the surface of the Earth, offering an ever greater impediment to the intrusive effect of direct radiation from the Sun.
   
The root-systems of plants will be more ramified and extend to greater depths.  The potential for the uptake of nutrients will be greatly enhanced, stimulating further growth and development of plants.  The increasing overall depth of the dep?t-zone (groundwater) thus brought about, results in a reduction of the space available to water-vapours.  As the volume of this space decreases, the pressure in it increases, through which, upon the lowering of the boiling point, the pressure further intensifies, leading to a revitalised supply of nutritive material.  The more luxuriant the vegetation, the greater the detention of surface run-off, which the ground is now in a condition to absorb.  The over-charging of the subterranean retention basin thus created leads to the rise of often-mighty underground rivers, through which large quantities of water will be conducted back into the interior of the Earth, thus completing the final phase in the Earth's internal water cycle.  These processes again result in an increased supply of fresh nutrients by virtue of the Earth's internal circulation, whose significance has so far remained unrecognised.
   
The aforementioned processes that take place within the Earth and latterly at the surface, first began during its earliest evolutionary period and in our era are only operative in regions of evergreen vegetation.  At higher latitudes and in regions with more extreme climates (mountains, etc.), these processes do not take place in such a simple fashion and we find that the influence of the heat source in the Earth's interior is insufficient to displace the dep?t-zone towards the surface.  Here Nature invokes the aid of another factor;  she plays off one opposite against the other and with the coming of winter, she temporarily suspends the growth of the otherwise evergreen vegetation.  The onset of cold causes the water in the ground to freeze to a certain depth, which in keeping with the anomalous condition of water, gives rise to the progressive development of a hermetic seal from the outside inwards in the form of a belt of frost.  Snow-cover lying above this cannot be pierced by the Sun, which by this time has suffered a considerable loss in power due to the advance of the season.
   
Whereas under the protection of this double outer covering paralysis and peace prevail, inside the Earth heat and nutritive material begins to accumulate.  The stronger the influence of cold from outside, the more hermetic the seal and the greater the internal accumulation.  The pressure-induced lowering of the boiling point enables the superheat radiating from the Earth's interior to have an increasingly stronger effect at higher and higher levels.  Above, the power of the Sun grows with the advent of Spring.  The outer covering of frost becomes thinner, ultimately to be breached by the forces emanating from below.  Once freed, the heat streams upwards, breaking up the soil, and encounters the `aggressive` meltwater approaching from above.  Having a temperature of about +4?C (+39.2?F), this water hungrily ingests the rising nutrients and in the interim, having come under pressure from below itself, it is now in a position to carry nutrients upwards via the roots of vegetation.
   
The supply of nutrient salts and their deposition in plants naturally proceeds in a similar fashion to that described above and the explanations relating to this will follow in the forthcoming chapter concerning the laws of movement of water.
   
To summarise briefly, the following interdependencies come to light.  As mentioned above, the vegetation cover, originally consisting of primitive plants, already enables an improvement in the nutrient supply.  On its part, increased nutrient supply creates preconditions for the evolution of plants of a higher order, which in turn leads to an enhanced influx of nutrients.  From this the mutual interdependence between vegetation and nutrient supply would appear to be established, giving rise to the unavoidable conclusion that the removal (clear-cutting) of one type of vegetation suited to the respective altitude results in a disturbance in the nutrient supply and hence to a further decline in the vegetation as a whole.
   
Through the clearing of previously forested areas or with the extinction of certain species of timber, a reduction of potential differences in the ground is caused by inhibiting the build-up of the respective counter-temperatures. These are, in varying degrees according to altitude, essential for an undisturbed supply of nutrients.  Due to the now direct radiation from the Sun, the denuded surfaces heat up to such an extent that the condensation process takes place at far deeper levels.  Because of this, the deposition of noble salts (rare salts) once more (as was once the case long ago) occurs at such a depth that the roots of the plants can no longer reach them. 

Contemporary forestry has sanctioned the clearing of one area after another.  Larger and larger surfaces have been laid bare without regard to the height and position of the Sun.  As a result, the area of receding groundwater expands, the distance between root-zone and nutrient dep?t constantly increases and the supply of nutrient salts becomes increasingly scarce.  In short, the decline of the vegetation has occurred and the development of karst begins.
   
For example, if potential differences in the ground are reduced by clear-felling; if ground temperatures change; if the groundwater table sinks, and if the nutrient dep?t withdraws from the root-zone; then water, at best still available through atmospheric precipitation and therefore almost devoid of nutrients, will be absorbed and drawn upwards by plants at appropriate temperatures.  Spongy, coarse-grained wood and the dying out of certain species of timber and plants are the inevitable sequel.  In addition to this, however, there are a whole series of factors which immediately lead to the further degeneration of the vegetation.
   
Through the extinction of certain varieties of timber, the continuity of the crown-closure is broken.  The Sun penetrates more and more strongly and directly.  The uptake of water becomes stronger, the ground temperatures change, the dep?t-zone of nutrient salts subsides and their supply decreases at the same rate as the uptake of water increases.  The excessive uptake of empty, content-less water loosens and coarsens the structure and thus the profiles of the rising sap-vessels become enlarged.  The relative thermal influences from the leaf-surfaces becomes all the more negligible, the greater the increase in the amount of water in the supply vessels.  Furthermore, owing to the subsidence of the nutrient-salt zone, the uptake of nutrients and the concentration of carbonic acid closely connected with it decreases in the rising water.
   
If on the one hand it now becomes impossible for the Sun, with the aid of leaf- or needle-surfaces, to influence and therefore to draw an ever-larger column of water up the widening rising-ducts, then because of this and also due to the simultaneous decrease in the concentration of carbonic acid, bubbles of carbonic acid gas will become smaller and smaller.  Finally, due to the constant dilation of the profile resulting from the excessive uptake of water and insufficient nutrient content, bubbles of carbonic acid gas (CO2) can no longer totally fill the rising duct.  Instead of continuing to rise like corks, which previously completely filled the profile and pushed the water upwards, the carbonic acid gases now ascend in bead-like form without raising water.  The death of the vegetation and the demise of any form of culture is the natural and inevitable consequence.
   
As long as the correct temperature influences prevailed, the regular supply of water and nutrient salts and the proper profiling of the supply vessels (capillaries) could also proceed without interruption.  As long as this mutual interdependency continued to exist in its proper proportions, the process of biological growth could also proceed correctly according to natural law; water and nutrient salts took the shortest and straightest route and the water rose vertically (plumb).  The structure was built up in parallel, closely packed layers (viz. resonant timber).  Under these conditions of correct, naturally ordained growth, a tree-trunk necessarily assumes a cylindrical form.  Such trees exhibit extremely narrow annual rings and a tall, branchless (therefore knot-free) and fully lignified trunk.
   
However the manipulated exploitation of light-induced growth by forestry (clear-felling operations) has been carried out with the aim of reducing the period of rotation, so as to make the greatest possible use of forest areas.  Whilst this undeniably leads to an increase in quantity, it also results in a simultaneous drop in quality.  With excessive illumination, too much water enters the supply vessels, the dep?t of nutrient substances sinks because the ground temperatures have been altered significantly, the uptake of nutrient salts is reduced and the rising ducts can no longer lignify themselves as fully as before. 
   
The excessive influence of temperature - too meagre a crown-closure in the case of shade-demanding timbers during their youth, or too thin a bark in the case of light-demanding timbers - overheats the ascending water in the rising ducts, which then inevitably dilate as a result of the temperature-induced increase in the volume of water.  The Sun not only loses the ability to draw up an increasing amount of water in these enlarged rising ducts, but the support from below provided by ascending carbonic acid gases (CO2) is also absent.  These ascending gases, in the form of increasingly buoyant bubbles that progressively expand with warming, normally fill the rising ducts like corks and thrust the water ahead of them.  Clearly evident here is the necessity for the proper interaction between the forces of traction (suction) and pressure, which are brought into being exclusively by inversions in the movement of temperature in the water.
   
Now, how does this affect the uptake and processing of nutrient salts?  We have stated that the nutrient dep?t has subsided owing to the sinking of the groundwater table.  A fresh supply of nutrients for plants is therefore out of the question.  All that remains is the small quantity left behind in the soil after the retreat of the dep?t.  In point of fact, these residual salts will be dissolved by atmospheric water and eventually taken up by the plants, but because of the above shift in the forces, they are no longer able to benefit the whole plant and in the main are actually left lying in its lower portions.  A more detailed examination of such a tree unquestionably shows us that in the lower parts, even if lignification has occurred, it cannot be described as being of high-quality.  Whereas towards the crown growth becomes increasingly disorderly and malformed (as though mauled by wild animals!).  The very outward appearance of such a tree proves the accuracy of this assertion.  From the lower portions of the trunk the branches spread far out.  The closer to the crown, the more slender the branches become, due to poorer nutrition.  In short, the tree becomes what is commonly described as a beautiful Christmas tree (cone-shaped structure, full of branches, a typical plantation tree), but cannot be described as a high-quality forest tree.
   
What does the structure of such a tree look like?  Since with the exclusion of air (oxygen), deposition always occurs at the location of the lowest temperature (to differentiate from the processes of deposition under the influence of air), alternating influences of light and shade (alternation between direct and indirect solar influences) give rise to an irregular deposition of salts over the full height of the tree.  When the tree-trunk is exposed in this way, the supply of nutrients by the most natural and optimal route (shortest and straightest) will be broken off and the supply vessels will be forced to adopt a serpentine or spiral-like conformation for lack of the requisite forces.  We also find a phenomenon identical to that in the tree on the surface of the Earth, in the curvilinear form of brooks, streams and rivers, the only difference being that here the deposition of suspended matter does not occur at low temperatures, but under the influence of heat.
   
For a further example of processes of deposition taking place with the exclusion of light and air, the reader is referred to the instances of sedimentation and disintegration in mass-concrete dam walls discussed elsewhere.  Even if slightly out of context here, attention should nevertheless be drawn to the processes of deposition in the human body, i.e. to arterio-sclerosis!
   
In the light of all these explanations let us now ask ourselves:  What does the forester desire and what has he achieved?  He sought a more rapid turnover, because from his point of view Mother Nature's tempo was too slow.  In the exploitation of light and heat, his purported science saw a way of achieving a quantitative increase in growth.  He applied this here in ignorance of the prevailing laws and it was thus inevitable that his science should become an unprecedented fallacy.
   
Superficially, more timber can actually be seen and also measured.  Indeed the amount felled might also be increased temporarily.  However, in reality the decline and destruction of our former high forest was perpetrated with singular thoroughness.  The forest is now in the direst of straits and the moment has arrived when, as a matter of course, help is normally extended to those in crisis.  Hundreds of thousands of people are without bread and the forest owner is destitute.
   
From what has already been stated, it should be quite superfluous to make a more detailed analysis of the present lamentable decline in the state of agriculture.  There is essentially no difference in the growth of plants, whether it be tree, bush, cereal, grass, or vegetation of a lower order.  It would be a grievous error, if remedial measures other than those now essential for forestry were to be applied to a foundering agriculture. 
   
In Nature a law of growth and synthesis prevails, just as does a law of decay and disintegration.  Whether growth or decline takes place is exclusively a question of temperature, which hitherto has been so grossly neglected.  It endows water with its utterly essential energy form.
   
In one case this signifies growth or life, and in the other, decline or death.  Forest science unfortunately chose the latter, and in accordance with the laws of Nature, the consequences have already become well and truly evident after just one full rotation.

The movement of temperature in water not only plays the principal role in the supply of nutrients, primarily in the circulation of water through the interior of the Earth, but also in all other areas of water resources management, such as river engeneering, water supply and most particularly, in the hydro-power industry.

[lltfdaniel1]

TEMPERATURE AND THE MOVEMENT OF WATER VII

The movement of temperature in mass-concrete dam-walls

An article by Viktor Schauberger published in "Die Wasserwirtschaft",
the Austrian Journal of Hydrology.
Vol. 35, 1930

The fact that increased attention is being given today (1930) to measurement of internal temperatures of large, mass-concrete dam-walls demonstrates the importance attached to these often high internal temperatures and their effect on the strength of the material, on shrinkage cracks and other structural factors.
   
Temperature surveys at various dams with inbuilt thermometers show that in concrete walls the temperature rises to about 22?C above the ambient temperature within a few weeks, due to the generation of curing heatName=curing heat; HotwordStyle=BookDefault; .  In many dams adjustment to the mean ambient temperature takes place more rapidly than in others (Jogne Dam - 1.5 years, Arrow Rock Dam - 5 years).  After this has occurred, and with a certain time-lag, internal temperatures follow external temperatures, but in a more or less attenuated form.  This phenomenon will now be examined with regard to its effect on the structure of the dam-wall, with the main emphasis on two aspects: 
   
1) the cavitating, or sedimentating action of water
2) temperature-induced stresses inside the dam-wall 
   
Regarding 1):  with a simultaneous decrease in temperature towards +4?C during flow (positive temperature-gradient), water penetrating into the dam-wall loses its ability to dissolve salts and other substances, or to retain its already-dissolved or otherwise-transported matter in suspension.  The tendency to deposit or precipitate these substances will be enhanced by the natural filtering action of the wall-structure, in whose pores the water deposits its dissolved salts as well as some of the accompanying suspended matter (sedimentating action of waterHotwordStyle=BookDefault; ).

Water increases its capacity to dissolve matter and to maintain this in solution (the cavitating action of water), if its temperature diverges from +4?C in the direction of flow (negative temperature-gradient) as it infiltrates into the dam-wall.  Water flowing under a negative temperature-gradient and isolated from light and air liberates soluble acids from suffused substances, resulting in a substantial increase in aggressivity and hence in its cavitating action.  Before going further, the course of such internal temperatures should be studied using data from the Waldecker DamName=Waldecker Dam; HotwordStyle=BookDefault;  in which measurements of temperature were carried out systematically.  In this dam remote-controlled thermometersHotwordStyle=BookDefault;  were installed in two different cross-sections about half way up the wall  .
   
The thickness of the wall at the height of the thermometers is 15.3m (50ft) The results of measurement published by Prof Th?rnau extend over the period 1914-1918.  These begin at the point where temperatures arising from the curing process of the concrete have subsided, so that changes in external temperatures (air and water temperatures) were reflected inside the wall without distortion.


In fig. 2 HotwordStyle=BookDefault; the course of the external (air) temperatures for the year 1917 are reproduced.  In fig. 2aHotwordStyle=BookDefault;  the progress of the internal wall temperatures determined by the thermometers I, II, III & V are shown.  The temperature graph for thermometer IV was omitted, since its curve followed that of thermometer III almost exactly.  The course of the temperature curves furnishes clear evidence of the relation between external and internal temperatures, wherein the wave-forms follow each other chronologically.  TV (temperature graph of thermometer V) follows the curve of the external temperature with only a slight time-lag.  TI, TIII and TIV follow the profile of TV with a lag of about two months, whereas TII exhibits a phase-shift of about 4 months in relation to TV.

In figs. 3a and 3bHotwordStyle=BookDefault;  the temperature distribution for various days of the year are indicated, from which it can be inferred that from 5th October 1916 the temperature-gradient from W (water-side) to TII (water-side to thermometer II) is positive.  In the middle of December it levels out to zero and remains negative from then until about mid-July 1917 (greatest amplitude about 2nd May 1917), and then from here until about the middle of November 1917 it becomes positive again.  Over the section between TII and A (air-side) the reversed process occurs. 

From 5th October 1916 through to 2nd May 1917, the temperature-gradient over this section is positive, and from here until the middle of October 1917 it becomes negative.  It can be seen that the temperature-gradient inside the wall fluctuates markedly, and that in one part of the year (under conditions of a negative temperature-gradient) a cavitating action of the water will set in, and in the other part of the year (under a positive temperature-gradient) a sedimentating action will be established.  It therefore depends entirely on the conditions of locality, climate and the orientation of the dam-wall, whether the former or the latter action of the water prevails.  For example, in north-south oriented walls or in walls exposed to the air on the southern side (east-west wall direction), the cavitating activity (negative temperature-gradient) will predominate, as a result of more intensive or more sustained solar irradiation of the air-side of the wall, whereas when the air-side faces north (east-west wall direction) an equalisation of temperatures is also possible.
   
A wall in which cavitation predominates will exhibit premature signs of old age, which manifest themselves as cracks, increased seepage, and so on.  In any event the life-span of such a wall will be significantly shorter than a wall in which progressive consolidation is induced through the predominance of sedimentation.  This latter case can also be engineered under the most unfavourable local, climatic and site conditions if water is trickled over the full outer face of the dam-wall during the period in question.  In this case it is important that the colder bottom-water and not the surface water of the dam is used for the purposes of over-trickling (cooling by trickling of water), roughly according to the very schematic arrangement in fig. 4HotwordStyle=BookDefault; .  With regard to this new type of dam-wall (over-trickling of mass-concrete dam-walls), without going into more detailed explanations, even a lay-person can at least understand the purpose and proper arrangement of this over-trickling process, which is required for a few months only.

The over-trickling has nothing whatever to do with the concept of the internal or external stability of the wall as normally construed today.  Dams built according to this system will only be placed under water (as are all other walls) when the concrete has cured sufficiently and the wall is stable. The aim of over-trickling is to place a film of water between the external temperature and the air-side of the wall, in the process of which, due to evaporation of water, the wall on the air-side will exhibit lower temperatures than if the Sun were to shine directly onto its unprotected surface.
   
Through the out-take of cold bottom-water by means of suitably arranged sluices and conduits, water-masses remaining in the storage basin will automatically be maintained at a higher temperature than the quantities of bottom-water channelled over the external face of the wall.  The residual warmer dam-water, in accordance with natural principles, can now readily infiltrate into the unrendered wall.  The outcome of this procedure is the creation of a positive temperature gradient in the wall - the water passing through the wall approaches +4?C en route from the water-side towards the air-side.  As this water infiltrates and becomes increasingly colder with further penetration, the molecules of the wall contract.  Becoming enlarged in this process, the wall-pores (voids between the wall-molecules) will be traversed by the water in a positive direction (positive temperature-gradient) and according to natural law it precipitates its dissolved matter.  Starting at the air-side, because of the lower temperatures on the external face, with progressive deposition towards the water-side the water blocks up the pores (sedimentation).
   
If at the same time the wall-molecules are reduced to their smallest volume, artificially-enlarged voids are silted up through deposition.  If as a result no pores exist in the wall (for all practical purposes), then the presence of any water is also impossible.  Signs of fatigue, stresses and temperatures which are mutually intensified by pressure and tension are now also no longer possible.  The dam-wall is now immune to the effects of temperature. 
We are here concerned with similar conditions that can still be found today in the structures of the ancient Egyptians - poreless stones that have remained unchanged for thousands of years, for there too all water and therefore every possibility for movement in the wall have been eliminated.

In fig. 2HotwordStyle=BookDefault;  the broken line indicates that over-trickling ought to have taken place from about mid-April to mid-November 1917.  In this way the air-side of the wall can be insulated from temperatures above about 6?-7?C, and only minor fluctuations in the internal wall-temperatures can be achieved throughout the whole year, which will approximately follow those in fig. 3bHotwordStyle=BookDefault; . Over the greater part of the year the temperature-gradient will be positive and during the remainder only very weakly negative.  In this case greater fluctuations in temperature-gradient, roughly akin to fig. 3aHotwordStyle=BookDefault; , are completely eliminated.  Therefore the condition where the water's sedimentating action predominates can always be engineered artificially - and through this the progressive consolidation of the wall.
   
The constant maintenance of a cool exterior wall-surface through over-trickling offers even further advantages: residual curing temperatures of the concrete can be eliminated in a relatively short time.  Variations in temperature at the outer, air-side of the wall - often in excess of 40?C (104?F) during the year - will be prevented, hence averting the formation of surface hair-cracks, which foster the destructive action of frost.
   
Regarding 2): As is commonly known, the action of frost on rocks and wall-structures is based on the fact that the volume of water is least at +4?C.  With the onset of frost, the formation of ice (0?C) hence triggers off strong tensile stresses in surrounding rock, owing to the increase in volume associated with 0?C water, which can lead to the fragmentation of the rock itself.
   
Changes in the volume of water under temperatures other than 0?C also play a role, however, when it is remembered that water's spacial coefficient of expansion is about 4.5 times greater than concrete.  The effects of these changes in volume are not as obvious as those of ice, and naturally take effect more weakly and over longer periods of time.  In the following, a few observations on this aspect are worthy of note.
   
If a body can expand freely, then its particles of mass as well as the pores between them increase in size.  If the body's free expansion is impeded, then in conjunction with the increase in volume of individual particles of mass, a decrease in volume of pores also takes place.  This latter case exists in dam-walls, since the particles of mass in the core of the wall will be prevented from expanding freely due to the weight of the overlying sections of the wall (see fig. 5HotwordStyle=BookDefault; ).

In fig. 6HotwordStyle=BookDefault;  a series of mass-particles inside the wall are shown.  For the time being it is to be assumed that the temperature of the wall increases in the direction of flow (from the water-side to the air-side) - t1<t2<t3 and t4<t5<t6HotwordStyle=BookDefault;  (negative temperature-gradient).  The water-particles flowing across horizon a-a therefore experience a rise in temperature from t1 to t3 over the distance d, wherein temperatures t1 to t3 are created through the reciprocal action between wall and water temperatures.  An analogous process occurs at horizon b-b where generally speaking the existing temperatures t4 to t6 will differ from those of horizon a-a, albeit minutely.  This is because the processes of friction between the water and the wall in horizon b-b during flow will generally speaking be different to those in horizon a-a, due to the inhomogeneity of the wall structure. 

The wall-particle m (see fig. 6HotwordStyle=BookDefault; ), for example, is therefore affected by the various temperatures (t1, t2, t4, t5) and its self-temperature tm will experience a small change tm.  However, if tm is positive, then the particle will expand and, due to its position in the wall, will do so at the expense of the spacial volume of the pores.  The water present in the surrounding pores cannot flow away as fast, as this expansive movement occurs, and the water comes under pressure (the later flow of water from the water-side to the air-side becoming restricted owing to the increase in the volume of water-particles associated with the rise in temperatureHotwordStyle=BookDefault; ).
   
If the same process occurs with a greater number of neighbouring wall-particles simultaneously, then to a certain extent the sum total of these events can eventually lead to tensile stresses in the wall.  The constant repetition and intensification of this process during the period of a negative temperature-gradient can give rise to unwelcome stresses and signs of fatigue in the wall-structure (for example, in the above example of the Waldecker Dam in the section TII to A: May-October).
   
If on the other hand temperature decreases in the direction of flow (t1>t2>t3 or t4>t5>t6 - positive temperature-gradient), then tm will generally speaking be negative.  The volume of wall-particle m, for example, will be reduced, and since the previously-described increase in volume occurred at the expense of the pore-volumina, the latter will become larger again.  Furthermore, because they are flowing under a positive temperature-gradient - their temperature is reducing - water-particles themselves assume a smaller volume.  Thus with a positive temperature-gradient the conditions are eliminated that could lead to stress-differentials in the wall-structure.
   
Once again, the way to reduce the previously-described harmful, internal temperature-stresses to a minimum is to over-trickle the air-side of the wall in question, through which high external temperatures can be prevented from reaching the interior of the wall-structure.  In this way large variations in temperature within a given cross-section (see fig. 15a for example) can virtually be reduced to zero.  As a result, the phenomenon clearly apparent in fig. 14a will also be avoided, since during the period of maximum (or minimum) external temperature, the internal temperature of the wall will nearly be at its minimum (or maximum).
   
The extraordinarily favourable effect of over-trickling the air-side of the wall during the hotter part of the year should well be evident from the above explanations, since it affects not only the consolidation of the wall through sedimentation, but also insulates it from larger variations in temperature.  The increased cost of equipping a dam with an over-trickling system is minimal in relation to the overall cost of construction, and is economic to the extent that it can actually offset the costs of waterproofing the dam-wall.
   
The possibility that over-trickling may entail unwanted losses of water is of minor importance since, firstly, such losses are only minimal, secondly, the efficacy and lifetime of the installation will be substantially increased, and finally, over-trickling is only necessary until such time as complete self-sealing of the wall through sedimentation has occurred.  It should be noted that over-trickling is a one-off affair and is required only during the period in which consolidation of the wall proceeds.  The duration of over-trickling should at most amount to six months.  Premature removal of this curtain of water or its aeration is out of the question, since only very small quantities of water are involved and furthermore, over-trickling naturally will only be carried out when a sufficient surplus of water is available.
   
The type of out-take (see fig. 4HotwordStyle=BookDefault; ) suggested by the author offers an further advantage:  by mixing bottom and surface water, water of the appropriate temperature can be released as required for the long-range further regulation of the downstream flow-regime.