At the Liquid Potion Lounge in Evanston, IL, fish are not on the menu; they’re all over the place. A fantastic aquarium setup served as one of the star attractions of the (now closed) coffee shop, whose owner obviously had a bit of a fish obsession. Here’s a possible breakdown of the setup, courtesy of Evan Ackerman of OhGizmo!:
This fish pipeline connects two fish tanks over a respectable distance (looks to be several tens of feet), allowing fish to travel from one tank, up and over the floor of a coffee shop, into the other tank….One observer says: “They would often go up the tubes, but they’d rarely make it all the way to the other fish tank. I remember it being days before I finally saw a fish make it all the way across. Looked really cool though.”
So, how does it work? From what I can tell, air gets pumped out of the top of the pipeline, drawing water up out of the tanks until the pipeline is full. Vacuum pressure then keeps the water from draining out.
What do you think, facility managers? Would you want to be responsible for maintaining a space that included a setup like this? Just imagine the impression it would make on visitor, and the distraction it would create for employees! Sounds perfect for the folks at Google, perhaps…
Or instead of a way to build a better mousetrap, is there a way to build a better fish ramp?