EPCOT Technology: The Laminar Flow Filter

Now that the kids are back in school and the initial drama of getting everybody resettled has been resolved, I can finally update this blog again (it's been, what, a month?).  Just because I haven't been blogging doesn't mean I haven't been EPCOT House-ing, however.  I scored the supplies for two installations (the Radok-block-inspired wall art and the revival of the Rainbow Tunnel--yes!), and over August, I fiddled with the technology that creates laminar flow.

Laminar flow, in a nutshell, is water that's had a lot of the turbulence removed from it, so it flows more smoothly and uniformly.  When water is soothed like this, it can do things like this:

I have no plans to recreate the leaping fountains, trust, but I was curious about how WED did it, so I fell down the Google rabbit hole and discovered that the concept-- and the technology--is actually very simple, easy and--hooray-- inexpensive to do.  MAKE magazine (if you aren't familiar with MAKE, please go get acquainted) has a great tutorial online on how to build a pretty nice laminar filter for around $15 in materials.  You will need some comfort with drills and saws, but it's still a novice-level build.

I work with a nationally-known youth organization and I thought the kids would find laminar flow interesting, so my initial plan was to have them collaborate on building a filter ($15 is cheap, but if you do $15 per child, it adds up fast, and we don't have an insane budget).  I did some more looking, however, and found this.

I played with the materials and made up this:

It was very easy.  I cut the bottles with good scissors (I started the hole with a small hacksaw) and drilled out the cap with a large drill bit (I have to check the specs, but I think it's a 1/2").  Buy the straws, fill the bottle, insert the pot scrubber, and wrap it all in duct tape, et voila-- EPCOT technology!  And it WORKS.  When you pour the water out, it's like glass and it's really very impressive, especially if you demonstrate a before and after.

One challenge is finding drinking straws that work, actually.  You need NON-BENDY straws and ALL the straws these days have bendy bits.  I went to a restaurant supply place and found basic, unwrapped, straight straws.  I think the filter cost around $5 to make.  I omitted the cheesecloth and it worked fine without it.

I did the filter activity with the kids last week and they really liked it!  I did the sawing and drilling ahead of time, so all they had to do was assemble it.  It was a good lesson on how special effects oftentimes take advantage of some pretty simple scientific principles and gadgets, and that it's all accessible.

I wouldn't use the repurposed bottle filter as part of any kind of yard install-- it does screw onto the hose, but the water pressure is too intense for it.  I would go with the MAKE version if you wanted to take it full-scale.