If you have a lawn and when it gets really hot and dry at some point during summer, pulling out the lawn sprinkler becomes imperative. A lawn sprinkler one of the most common sprinklers around. It sprays out a fan-shaped curtain of water and the metal arm oscillates back and forward to cover a rectangular area approximately 20 feet by 30 feet (6 meters by 9 meters) in area.

The Basics of a Lawn Sprinkler:

Attach the hose to a connector on the right-hand side. There is often a knob that allows the adjustment of the spray pattern (full, center, left or right).A small arm is connected to the knob that gets pushed and pulled by a heart-shaped cam. When the sprinkler is working, the cam rotates slowly, at a rough speed of 1 revolution per minute (rpm) - this is what causes the arm to oscillate back and forward. The spray arm is a hollow aluminum tube with holes in it while on some sprinklers there are nozzles on this tube. The spray arm also has a ferrule and an O-ring seal on it and it screws into the body of the sprinkler. A lawn sprinkler is an incredibly simple device at the core. Water flows into the spray arm or the aluminum tube and it sprays out through the holes or the nozzles. The cam pushes the spray arm back and forward. It has a heart-shaped cam instead of a simple little crankshaft because a circular crankshaft would cause both ends of the spray pattern to get a lot more water than the center of the spray pattern

Spinning the Cam of the Lawn Sprinkler:

One way of rotating the cam would be to use a small electric motor. But for that you would need to replace the batteries repeatedly. You have a built-in power source: the running water that flows right through the sprinkler. You might as well use it in the same way that a hydro-electric dam uses water to spin its turbines. If you cut open the body of the sprinkler there is a small turbine or water wheel. If you look down the tube where the hose is attached, there is a small restrictor that allows some water to flow straight ahead and forces some water to shoot to the left. The water shooting to the left spins the turbine. The gear train provides a reduction in speed so the cam spins at about 1 rpm.

Many types of lawn sprinklers use water power in the same way. Some are jet-powered while others are turbine-powered but they all use the force of moving water to create linear or rotational motion.

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