Euler and the fountains of Sanssouci (Q1862867)

It is well known that Euler was engaged by Frederick the Great to calculate the hydraulics for a fountain envisioned at Sanssouci. However, the project was never completed because Euler's theory did not seem up to the task. Historians of physics and technology (as late as 1999) have cited this failure as a proof that Euler was a poor physicist, or of the divide between theory and practice. Frederick even wrote a letter in 1778 (29 years later) to Voltaire essentially making this charge. The author examines this charge and demonstrates not only its falsity (Euler was far from an incompetent physicist of his day), but also that the cause of the failure at Sanssouci was the inexperience of the people put in charge of it (for example, the attempted use of wooden instead of metal pipes), and the king's wellknown stinginess with funds and lack of understanding of the technology of his day. In addition there was the failure to make preliminary experiments with the strength of the pipes. The fountain was eventually constructed in 1841, nearly a hundred years after it had been envisioned.