Arrange for a fountain to emit a single jet of water so that the water lands on a collection of little tinkly bells tuned to slightly different notes. Arrange for a positive charge to be applied to the jet of water and a negative charge to the tinkly bells. The positive jet will be attracted to the negative tinkly bells and if only one is made negative at any one moment the water will tend to tinkle that bell most.

Now arrange for the tinkly bells to be made negative in a sequence corresponding to a musical arrangement and hey presto - a lovely tune.

As an added bonus, at night there might even be sparks as the water hits the bells.
-- DenholmRicshaw, Apr 30 2002

Nifty. Not sure I comprehend how much of a charge this would take. It would seem like a simple thing to mechanically direct the water to tinkle the bells.

This could become a new expression of surprise or disbelief: "Well ring my tinkly bells with a positively charged stream of water." OK. Maybe not.

(later) - Enhanced to be more halfbakery relevant: "Well ring my tinkly bells with a positively charged stream of water, slap me sideways and call me Shirley"
-- half, Apr 30 2002


"I gotta go ring the tinkly bell" sounds like a handy expression too... (someone shoot me if I ever use it though).
-- spartanica, May 01 2002


I'd prefer it if [hippo] could develop some silent dodgy positively charged stream of water-powered tinkly bells.
-- angel, May 01 2002


I'm sure mechanical direction of the water has already been done and anyway the parts would wear out and you wouldn't get the chance of sparks.

I'm hoping for huge charges using Van De Graaf generators so that there is the potential (ho ho) for large sparks.

One interesting side effect could be that highly charged water droplets might escape and strike other negatively charged objects with gratifying results. For example my great aunt Flo after she has induced a static electrical charge on herself from rubbing her nylon blouse.
-- DenholmRicshaw, May 01 2002


Very nice. I'd like to see a massive version involving high powered hoses, huge arcs of electricity and bells the size of Big Ben. Would be great if installed on a rocky tower just offshore.

Thinking about it: electrical charge + bells - could you work some sort of thunder-storm warning aspect into this? You could have the bells ring out [insert amusingly appropriate popular tune here].
-- Saveloy, May 01 2002


And speaking of "ringing the tinkly bell" - there's got to be some toilet based application in there somewhere....
-- Saveloy, May 01 2002


[Saveloy] - I like it - think big.

In contrast to big - a toilet based application would involve peeing positively into the bowl's negative water. No matter where you aimed you would always hit the target. Unfortunately though, the risk of third degree burns on the end of the member is probably too great.
-- DenholmRicshaw, May 02 2002


Then just "remember" what you lost.
-- FarmerJohn, May 02 2002



random, halfbakery