permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

Any love for Vicktor Schauberger?
<http://www.reddit.com/r/Permaculture/comments/2v7k6l/any_love_for_vicktor_schauberger/>
(self.Permaculture <http://www.reddit.com/r/Permaculture/>)
http://www.reddit.com/r/Permaculture/comments/2v7k6l/any_love_for_vicktor_schauberger/

Any love for Vicktor Schauberger?
<http://www.reddit.com/r/Permaculture/comments/2v7k6l/any_love_for_vicktor_schauberger/>
(self.Permaculture <http://www.reddit.com/r/Permaculture/>)

submitted 13 hours ago * by iofthebeholder
<http://www.reddit.com/user/iofthebeholder>

Recently I've been reading through Bill Mollison's *Permaculture Designers
Manual* and Dave Jacke's *Edible Forest Gardens*, awesome stuff. Very many
of the concepts and diagrams strongly remind me of the theories and work of
Vicktor Schhauberger, just wondering if others here in /r/permaculture
<http://www.reddit.com/r/permaculture> are aware of Schauberger's works?

I read a book called *Hidden Nature : The Startling Insights of Vicktor
Schauberger* by Alick Bartholomew, which described Schauberger's theories
and the technological devices he designed and demonstrated in some detail.
Quite frankly the content of this book blew my mind repeatedly with
unconventional yet self-evidently intuitive insights about natural systems.
Much of the work comes down to the idea that a vortex (rotational spinning
+ directionality) is synergistically more than the sum of it's parts, how
human technology channeling water into vortex shaped paths can perform the
exact same functions as combustion-based technology while actually
invigorating nature rather than destroying it.

I intend to read some more books about Schauberger to refresh my memory,
but some things I do recollect :

• Schauberger wasn't just some crackpot theorist, he actually worked for
the Prussian government as a senior hydro-engineer and several times
humiliated the academics of his day who regarded him as a kook by
demonstrating devices that simply worked as he described, despite this
running contrary to mainstream thought.

• For example : when water flows across a downward sloping surface, why
does it form standing ripples instead of flowing smoothly at a constant
depth? Schauberger believed water desires to breathe, pulse, and swirl in
vortexes, and that human plumbing and hydrological constructions could be
improved by taking this into account. Contemporary scientists ridiculed him
for this, but he got the last laugh when he invited them to a public
demonstration of a new type of water pipe he invented. Rather than the
standard cylindrical shape, Schauberger's pipe rhythmically expanded and
contracted in diameter down it's entire length and had spiral grooves
etched into the narrowest points, so the water was encouraged to pulse and
spin in vortexes as it flowed through. Newspapers reported scientists in
attendance begrudgingly admitted that although they could not explain why,
it indeed seemed Schauberger's pipe reduced friction drag in the pipe to
zero, a measurably better performance than typical cylindrical pipe.

• Schauberger was highly critical of combustion-based technologies, on the
grounds it's counterproductive to intentionally move from a highly ordered
state (ancient petroleum at rest) to a chaotically disordered one (waste
heat and unstable gases). He believed nature by contrast works almost
exclusively through processes that are silent and highly efficient, which
build complexity by moving in spirals. He believed humanity should abandon
combustion to mimic nature's methods instead, and demonstrated functional
work-performing engines operating via principles of implosion, vacuum, and
cooling vortexes. He believed if human civilization continued to use
destructive energy sources like fossil fuels + combustion engines there was
simply no way to avoid manifesting an inherently destructive civilization
that would damage the natural world it existed in.

• 39 degrees. One interesting aspect of water : it reaches peak volumetric
density at 39 degrees fahrenheit, physically expanding from there in either
direction whether cooling or warming. Modern hydrological engineering
doesn't take much account of water temperature, but Schauberger believed
water will naturally move toward 39 degrees in any circumstance and that
subtle temperature gradients have a significant hydro-siphon effect. This
for example explains why building a shade structure over a natural spring
keeps the water flowing and will even make dried up springs flow again if
shade had previously been removed, whereas exposure to wind and sunlight
can discourage water from surfacing and cause a spring to dry up.

• So, so much more. I remember some deep insight into the role played by
trees in the planetary water cycle as well, and lots of other concepts that
seemed intuitively self-evident, major "ah ha!" moments.

In the end WWII came along and Schauberger (an Austrian) was forcibly
conscripted by the Nazis to develop war technology. He evidently worked on
UFO saucer type vehicles operating on vortex principles, of which some
drawings and technical diagrams survive. Near the end when the Russian army
approached the German commander of the facility where Schauberger labored
decided to destroy the facility and retreat rather than let anything fall
into enemy hands. After the war Schauberger was maligned as a Nazi
sympathizer (he was actually a spiritualist whose convictions ran totally
contrary to Nazi ideology) and never received the kind of major funding
Kaiser Wilhelm's government had previously granted him again. Some
"investors" claiming an interest in commercially developing his patents
lured him to Houston, TX and made a deal for ownership of the associated
intellectual property. The ideas were never commercially developed, but
fortunately many of Schauberger's technical drawings, writings, and notes
have survived and a few authors have attempted to draw attention to them.

Anyways I remember feeling super inspired by the wisdom and knowledge
Schauberger expressed. I think his ideas and inventions dovetail perfectly
with Permacultural concepts and it seems long overdue they should receive
wider recognition. Would love to see him more visibly celebrated as an
eco-technology pioneer so his theories and designs can play a more
significant role in curbing humanity's destructiveness and elevating
civilization to conscious partnership with the living world. Anyone else
out there inspired by Schauberger's insights or incorporating them into
their permacultural designs?