Fountain

Famous sculpture by Marcel Duchamp

This is a very famous piece of art. You have seen reproductions of it in many art books over the years. It consists of a standard urinal set sideways. It's signed by "R. Mutt". It was a time when Duchamp was becoming increasingly disenfranchised with painting per se. He settled on this particular piece by going to a hardware store and looking through the inventory until he found it.
It was submitted in 1917 to an exhibition of The New York Society of Independent Artists to test their sincerity in their pledge to accept ANY artwork into the exhibition. They failed the test, rejecting the piece. Fountain is essentially a urinal turned on it's side. This is an early example of what was later to be called Readymades. The original was lost, but some reproductions were approved by the artist and one now resides in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, another in the Tate Modern.
Other readymades include the Bicycle wheel, and L.H.O.O.Q.

Related nodes:

• The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even
• Nude Descending a Staircase
• Dada movement
• Conceptual Art
• Conceptualism

There are two major uses for fountains in NetHack: dipping things into them and quaffing from them. You can dip a potion into a fountain to dilute it. You can also dip scrolls or spellbooks into fountains to erase them. The problem with dipping things into fountains is that some of the bad random effects can still occur.

Quaffing from fountains gives a wide range of effects, a few of which are beneficial and the majority of which aren't so beneficial:

• "Wow, this makes you feel great!"
  Same effect as a blessed potion of restore ability.
• "The cool draught refreshes you."
  Gives 1-10 nutrition points and doesn't do anything bad.
• "You feel self-knowledgeable..."
  You get the enlightenment effect, that is, you are able to see information about yourself that is normally concealed (behavior, prayer status, luck, etc) momentarily.
• "This water is foul! You gag and vomit."
  You vomit, losing 1d20+11 nutrition points. Note that vomiting will save your life if you have food poisoning.
• "The water is contaminated!"
  Uh-oh. You lose 1d4+3 points of Strength and 1d10 hit points. If you die, the message is "killed by contaminated water". If you have poison resistance, you lose 1d4 hit points ("perhaps it is run-off from the nearby farm"), and if you die, the message is "killed by an unrefrigerated sip of juice." For crying out loud...
• "An endless stream of snakes pours forth!"
  "Endless" is an exaggeration, but it doesn't matter if you're low-level. Four water moccassins appear around you.
• "You unleash a water demon!"
  Again, this is a problem if you're not powerful enough to take him on. Very occasionally, the water demon will be grateful for his freedom and will grant you a wish (if you are chaotic).
• "This water's no good!"
  You lose 1d20+11 nutrition points, and there is a 1/6 chance per item in your inventory that it will become cursed.
• "You see an image of someone stalking you."
  You gain the see invisible intrinsic.
• "You sense the presence of monsters."
  You detect monsters on the level momentarily.
• "You find a gem in the sparkling waters!"
  Cute, but the gem is usually worthless.
• "You attract a water nymph!"
  Good luck.
• "This water gives you bad breath!"
  Monsters will flee from you for the next couple of turns. Not very useful, but it can be amusing if you drink from a fountain during combat and you happen to get this result.
• "Water gushes forth from the overflowing fountain!"
  A number of pools may or may not be created around you. If no pools are created, "Water sprays all over you." You can drown in the pools, which is pretty strange, but dangerous. Watch out for rusty gear after any of this happens.
• "The tepid water is tasteless."
  No effect.

An alternative name is the syke, used in families of the name of Sykes.

Foun"tain (foun"tin), n. [F. fontaine, LL. fontana, fr. L. fons, fontis. See 2d Fount.]

1.

A spring of water issuing from the earth.

2.

An artificially produced jet or stream of water; also, the structure or works in which such a jet or stream rises or flows; a basin built and constantly supplied with pure water for drinking and other useful purposes, or for ornament.

3.

A reservoir or chamber to contain a liquid which can be conducted or drawn off as needed for use; as, the ink fountain in a printing press, etc.

4.

The source from which anything proceeds, or from which anything is supplied continuously; origin; source.

Judea, the fountain of the gospel.
Fuller.

Author of all being,
Fountain of light, thyself invisible.
Milton.

Air fountain. See under Air. --
Fountain heead, primary source; original; first principle. Young. --
Fountain inkstand, an inkstand having a continual supply of ink, as from elevated reservoir. --
Fountain lamp, a lamp fed with oil from an elevated reservoir. --
Fountain pen, a pen with a reservoir in the handle which furnishes a supply of ink. --
Fountain pump.
(a) A structure for a fountain, having the form of a pump.
(b) A portable garden pump which throws a jet, for watering plants, etc. --
Fountain shell (Zoöl.), the large West Indian conch shell (Strombus gigas). --
Fountain of youth, a mythical fountain whose waters were fabled to have the property of renewing youth.

© Webster 1913