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| History : |
The water tower located at the old Fletcher Jones factory site at Pleasant Hill was designed and supervised by Ralph Jones Construction Engineering Services between 1965-1967. The design of the water tower was based on illustrations as shown in an advertising pamphlet ‘Elevated Steel Tanks’ of Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Company. One of these illustrations showed a ball supported on tripod legs – further investigations revealed that structural steel members attached to the inside surface of the ball not visible from outside, transferred the loads to the tripod legs in the manner covered by the US Patent shown in these records.
Although the outside appearance of the FJ ball as viewed from the gardens looks the same, the construction inside the ball is quite different as detailed in these records and covered by a new (1968) Australian Patent 408,197, since lapsed. Correspondence shows the decision to support the water tower tripod legs on a concrete base was made because of space restrictions at the site. Darby Boucher designed the heritage listed Pleasant Hill gardens in the years after 1945 for the staff who worked at the factory.” |
| Activities/Occupation: |
Engineers |
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