Mystery contraption on roof!

Originally posted by letthereaderunderstand
I have to say that it is in bad taste to be showing these pictures without asking for permission from the person to do so, and I think you should state that in the title of the post, that the pics are not yours. Treat others as you would be treated. The poor guy/girl has already been judged without defense, not cool.That being said, I would have to say that the contraption will probably end up being some sort of "hoop house" (greenhouse), for horticulture. Peace

if you can see it out in public its not illegal to take this photo.
The rights are actually with the person who took the photo.

Aren't most drugs Legal in Amsterdam?

If this was drug related, having it out in the open might not be such a big deal.

Most of the components used appear to be 'made for' apparatus. They all seem to fit or form a purpose.

I would say an experiment of some type but based on the gear used, it would have to construed around an already existing plan of some sort.

The sprinkler system could be used to simulate 'rain' when needed, if a dry period occurs.

Off track a bit,

But I have to comment on all the 'poo flingers' about the OP's decision for posting the pics.

It would appear the 'device' is located in plain sight for all to see. By the looks of the pictures, nothing is being hidden.



Innuendos of possible illegal activities could be aimed at anyone for anything now a days, that's just the sign of the times.

I don't think its so much of 'worry' situation, more-so a 'curiosity' sitz.

I give the OP thumbs up, nice thread.

Something tells me if it looked like a UFO, nobody would ever think of denouncing the premise behind the thread, there would be kudos and slaps on the back

it looks like it might be part of one of those domino chain reaction things. Looks like the bucket things might swing round and knock something and then trigger the hose which could fill something until it tips over etc etc...

I've seen something close looking like this before. It's usually used to bring rainwater into the house. Usually brought through the heater first. But people stopped making those centuries ago. Have no clue why he has one up. Im not 100% positive it's that though. Just a theory.

does everything in the picture share a common purpose

i do not think they do

most items there are just ` incidentally there ` like the water sprinkler and weather vane

they are NOT part of a system

IMHO there are 2 seperat systems - one a water sterilizer using UV [ the 3 silver tubes ]

the second a water heating system [ the steel frame ] which is incomplete

After looking at the pics closely I have a few observations to add (make of them what you will). You will probably need to have the pics open in a seperate window to make any sense of this...

1. In the center pic there is a piece of white PVC which extends out from the center of the roof and ends a few inches past the lip at the edge of the roof. If you enlarge the pic there looks to be a stream of water exiting the pipe. Due to the angle of the pic, it's impossible to tell where the right hand end of the pipe terminates or what it is connected to. There must either be a drainpipe below the roof line or perhaps the water falls onto landscaping or a pond etc. in the yard below. Not sure what this means, it may be a clue or it may not be related at all...

2. Also in the center pic, If you look closely on the short leg (far side) of the stainless steel framework there looks to be two fairly beefy power cables plugged into the side. I've been working under the assumption that the grey cables are power leads (more on that in a moment) and that the blue lines are water lines. Now I was quite confident about the blue lines being for water supply until I noticed that on the center horizontal device (see the white line coming out and then it is spliced into the blue tube?) follow that same blue tubing on down to where it rests on the white block. If you enlarge the pic enough you can see a split in the tubing. It is either damaged or it is not actually a tube at all. The resolution is just to low to determine. The white part may actually be a sheath. Perhaps the blue tube is actually electrical as well, I just cant tell for sure without a higher resolution pic. I'm sticking with water supply line for now...

3. Bottom pic. Two of the grey 'power' cables enter from right side (notice how they are suspended to keep them out of any pooled water). One goes straight across to the the steel framework on the left of the pic. The other is plugged into the center contraption and above it, a 2nd plug also goes over the the same steel framework on the left of the pic. On this steel frame contraption at the far left, both of the grey power cables seem to be plugged into each other (WTH?) and a third yellow lead seems to be a ground of some sort with car battery type connectors at each end. You will notice a similar setup ar the far right in pic 1. (Really need an elecrician to sort some of this out).

4. There is also a fat black cable or tube running across underneath the grey cables. At first I figured this was a 220v power cable as it's about the right size but in the center pic it seems to have a T junction which leads me to believe this is actually the water supply line for this 'project'.

5. Someone mentioned earlier that the 3 steel pipes may be a UV water filter. It's quite possible but a water filter needs at least one inlet and one outlet. As near as I can tell, there are no exit lines attatched. Each one of these tubes has a ringed structure on the top side though which seem to house a glass 'beaker' for each of the three tubes (perhaps this part of the project is not finished)? This would easily explain the osilating sprinkler, as it would simulate rain. Eh.....perhaps he is attempting to capture some chemtrail residue? (please leave it at that OzWeatherman, lets keep this thread on topic)

6. The red weather vane at the left in the center pic looks to have a small pump motor at it's base. Not sure what this means but it would seem to be a part of the installation.

Now for some speculation on possible uses:

1. This may be a prototype test for a water sculpture. I had my own metal art business for a number of years and over that time I made a few funky water features. The all had steel, power, pumps and water tubing. I would definitely not be welding something like this on a roof top but it may have been the only place to set it up and test it before taking it to wherever it would be installed. It was most likelly constructed elswhere and then set up for testing here. I keep going back the the weathervane, its not something one would generally use for weather monitoring and judging by the amount of stainless steel present, this guy has quite a few bucks to throw at the project (stainless is EXPENSIVE to work with). Further, just visible in the background is a reddish brown structure which reminds me of one of those fake rocks used in landscaping sometimes. Its possible (though a bit of a stretch) that it may actually be a cover for most of the base of the contraption which would help to blend it into a garden setting. Then again it may be completely unrelated. This theory is quite appealing to me but I feel it may ultimately be incorrect.

2. Those glass vials on top of the tubes may be to capture rainwater samples (not big enough to be collecting water for storage but for testing would work). The 3 glass beakers would make sense. But then why such an elaborate setup? Possible but very odd as a rainwater test platform. Also, the 2 pots hanging do not seem to be connected by any water tubes or pipes, if they are piped internally through the supports that would be an incredible amount of work to construct when a simple exposed tubing would work.

3. This is a mad scientist chasing a wacked out dream that only he himself will ever understand. Projects like that are more commmon than you will ever know.

---------------

Ok, now after all of that I feel extremely confident in stating that:

I have absolutely no F'N idea what the hell this thing is and I really hope the person who took the pics will just grow some nads and ask the guy. Hell, he would probably love to talk about it. If not, oh well, he will just say no comment. If it were something shady, he would obviously have made an effort to block it's view from the neighbors window.

OP: Higher res pics from different angles and some zooms would be swell, any chance of that?


[edit on 25-6-2008 by SystemiK]

Strange isn't it! Location Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

First thing that springs to mind, some sort of heating or power equipment for the lighting of a weed farm?

Originally posted by Illahee
reply to post by Pjotr

 

Garden hose + electricity= Nut Job or Felony enterprise. A 'well person visit' is in order either way.

Best case, the cops have to listen to a couple hours of worm holes and hyper galactic drives.....

Great... Tell on your neighbors is the way to go... Why encourage something like that? Are we too stupid here that we can't figure it out? To me it doesn't look like anything more than an elaborate irrigation contraption but by all means call the cops on the guy...

Originally posted by ignorant_ape
does everything in the picture share a common purpose

i do not think they do

most items there are just ` incidentally there ` like the water sprinkler and weather vane

they are NOT part of a system

IMHO there are 2 seperat systems - one a water sterilizer using UV [ the 3 silver tubes ]

the second a water heating system [ the steel frame ] which is incomplete

I think you are quite right with the direction that there seem to different purposes for different items.

The sprinkler I saw as a warning signal. I could not find another reason than fire-precaution but in fact NOW I think that is pretty lame as a fire precaution. It could be a simple cooling device but I guess now it is a testdevice. When I am making a rainwaterwhatever device and I want to test it. What do I do. I put a sprinkler next to it and see if it works correctly. Isn't it?

Further : I detect an elephant in the below the branches...that is nothing off course.



[edit on 25-6-2008 by Pjotr]

well, I used to operate a hydroponic supply store, so I can absolutely assure you it isnt a Hydroponic system, or any type of gardening system.
Im very familiar with the latest and greatest of growing methods and equipment and that isnt a garden.

Im leaning towards weather station.
I will forward these pics to a friend who is a Meteorology buff, and get his thoughts.

reply to post by brendhan


Maybe the neighbor is building it in the hopes that someone will take pictures of his crazy contraption and post it on ATS.

Originally posted by SystemiK......

3. This is a mad scientist chasing a wacked out dream that only he himself will ever understand. Projects like that are more commmon than you will ever know.

---------------

Ok, now after all of that I feel extremely confident in stating that:

I have absolutely no F'N idea what the hell this thing is and I really hope the person who took the pics will just grow some nads and ask the guy. Hell, he would probably love to talk about it. If not, oh well, he will just say no comment. If it were something shady, he would obviously have made an effort to block it's view from the neighbors window.

OP: Higher res pics from different angles and some zooms would be swell, any chance of that?


[edit on 25-6-2008 by SystemiK]

Thanks, good analysis. We seem to come to the same conclusion. Parts are recognizable, the whole is a mystery. Where you saw water coming out I see more powerlines.. i think. I did put up a highres on a my own website for you
HIGHRES

I also got some additional information after I asked for the address and that is that this set up has been there for quit some time and did not change, so it seems to be finished and the house that belongs to is not lived in.

I put the question out to some technicians and waiting for an answer.

[edit on 25-6-2008 by Pjotr]

reply to post by Pjotr


Wow, now THATS a nice high res pic to work with!

On further inspection, I do agree that the blue cabling seems to be power. I noticed a few other things as well.

1. The white PVC may not be spouting water at all as it appeared to me in the low res pic, it could be a conduit for the blue cabling (still hard to tell for sure what is exiting the pipe at that end).

2. The large black piping looks to be a sump system which would drain the water accumulation from the rooftop in 3 locations.

3. Part of the steel framework at far left appears to be a ladder. It's design allows it to slide out into the yard and then fold down for access. When it is not in use it stows away on the rooftop. Surprised I did not catch that before as I have built many of this type of ladder back in my fabrication days.

4. The four supports for the grey power cables are very curious. There are some kind of sheath/connectors at each one and a loop of black cable.

5. Did you notice the feet of the guy in the doorway in the yard below?

At any rate, forget the water sculpture theory I posited before...

I think the sprinkler was used to check for leaks in the roof. With all the pentrations made for water lines & electrical cables it would have been a good idea to check for leaks before a heavy rain.

Just a guess though,

It looks like an abandoned project that had some strange concepts. The way the lines are ran, with the effort to maintain a distance from each other, and what looks like some heavy duty bonding in the first structure, and the way the three stainless steel tubes are wired makes me think of the way power poles are wired here in the states for 12 Kilo volts power. Then the hanging pots and the strange looking tower structure really throw me off.

Water filters would be plumbed completely different. Heating elements maybe, or large inductors, with the what appears to be plumbing for water cooling. Maybe the pots are capacitors?

Then again, maybe it was planned to be a boiler installation, the tubes are water condensers, the pots are expansion valves, but of a make I have never seen. That would be my best guess.

Originally posted by Ninja-san
well, I used to operate a hydroponic supply store, so I can absolutely assure you it isnt a Hydroponic system, or any type of gardening system.
Im very familiar with the latest and greatest of growing methods and equipment and that isnt a garden.

I have been around a lot of hydroponics systems, and I have to agree with Ninja-san.

[edit on 25-6-2008 by Sanitys Last Day]

At first glance I'd say prototype electrical and control setup for an overhead crane.

Amsterdam container terminal is a world centre of lifting and straddle crane innovation.

Is the blue thing at the base of the weather vane a capacitor or some kind of water pump?

reply to post by Pjotr


I was kind of on the same wavelength as letterreader, in the sense that if this is private property, and this is the builder-of-the-contraption's house/shed, then it would stand to reason that the right thing to do is to get his permission to take photos. But, if this is not private land, then no harm done. I guess the culture in the Netherlands either does not look down upon the infringement of privacy, or this is not a private house/shed/yard/etc. Then again, I have been known to infringe a bit myself, so no stones lest my house crack...

Anyway, if the device is causing alarm for the safety of the community, someone should definitely investigate, privately or with the help of authorities.

That being said, it appears to be an irrigation system or a collector of some kind.