OK, if weed is ever legalized(or you live in a country where it already is), then this could potentially be built...
A big dome, several meters in diameter. On the topmost point of the dome, a giant glass bowl rests atop a gasket on a pipe leading into the dome. The pipe goes somewhere near the bottom of the dome, but is not blocked.
The glass bowl has many small perforations on the area that is connected to the pipe.
The dome is filled up to a point with water, but not to the top.
In the non-water-filled part, two or three big flexible pipes lead out from the dome to the atmosphere.
Now, the big pipe with the bowl on top has a fan blowing into the dome, bubbling the water. It is turned on as the giant bowl is lit with a flamethrower(alcohol powered, so as not to make toxic fumes) carried by a guy with a jetpack flying over the dome in a ceremonial fashion.
Here's the cool part... the part of the dome to which the outgoing pipes are attached is spun, so as to cause the "tentacles" to wave around, spewing smoke outwards, onto a roaring crowd.
It could have funky lights on it too!
Oh, by the way, I am aware that this resembles a hookah more than a bong, but I didn't notice a hookah section(fairly similar anyways).
Alternatively, if spinning it is too complicated, fans could also be installed on the three or two pipes out, blowing the smoke around. The incoming pipe could also end under the water in a diffuser grille to make more bubbles.
Or, the three outgoing pipes could be replaced with another grille around the dome to just spew smoke all around the dome, like fog or something.-- Crazy Bastard, May 10 2002 [AfroAssault]?
Instead of blowing air in, why not suck it out (letting the incoming, pot-laden air replace it?) I like the image of the tentacles waving about - like one of those childrens' water toys.-- phoenix, May 10 2002 I like the idea but, why not just build a massive bonfire out of ganja? Much easier!-- ferret, May 10 2002 Ah, cause then the smoke just goes up, since it's so much hotter than the surrounding air :)
Well, you could of course have it suck the air out, but then you need to mount fans in the spinning dome, which would complicate things... If it's already spinning, I'm not exactly an expert on fluid mechanics, but the motion of the air past the ends of the hoses(relative to the moving hoses) might invoke the (Bernoulli?) effect, whereby moving air has lower pressure, thus sucking air out of the cavity on its own. The smoke is also cooled by the water as it's purified, and spread around the crowd.
Of course, if the spinning is too hard to do, then yes, you could mount fans at the beginnings of the hoses, and suck air out that way.
One problem though: where to dump all that nasty bongwater?-- Crazy Bastard, May 11 2002 What the hell is a hookah?
(Have I been away from college that long? sheesh!)-- globaltourniquet, May 11 2002 Sort of like a giant tea-brewer (samovar?) that hosts air and smoke instead of water and steeped leaves.-- reensure, May 11 2002 Hahaha, that's a great analogy! That's very much like what it is!!!-- Crazy Bastard, May 15 2002 Yah, hookah generally *is* a bit samovar-shaped, with a big fat bowl at the top for smokeage of choice, at the bottom you have a chamber with water and a stem from the bowl leading down, then in the air-ed part you have one or more hoses leading to a mouthpiece... kinda like a multi-bong, but without the rush type effect.-- Crazy Bastard, May 15 2002 The Idea is wonderful! But a small slot should be added in the wall, just big enough to slide in a pizza box and some beer. And a Frisbee would be nice too.-- em-tae, May 15 2002 Haha... the bongtender would live in there :)-- Crazy Bastard, May 16 2002 Hm. This is an understandable precaution, as we are to light the bowl, and not the crowd... This seems like something that Phish would have at their shows.-- Crazy Bastard, May 24 2002 This sounds a lot like an earth bong, which is actually made in the ground.-- AfroAssault, Aug 24 2002 Now that weed is now effectively legal in the UK again, why not use the millenium dome in Greenwich? its the perfect site for it. the structure is already there and its not being used for anything useful. It could be promoted in a similar way as the Oktoberfest bier festie in Germany and would generate huge income to the local take-away food industry. The problem of bong-water disposal is neatly taken care of by dumping it periodicaly into the thames. All thats needed is some fairly simple plumbing , some nice comfy sofas and bean bags, a name and a slogan and you're off. i reckon it would be a damn fine way of bringing the communities of the Eurozone together under one roof and having a right good giggle, wich is a lot more productive than all the political summits in the world would ever be.-- briandamage, Aug 24 2002 random, halfbakery