Chapter X (1)

Modern and Recent Plumbing Fixtures—Passing of the Marble Lavatory—Public Wash Houses—Public Comfort Stations—Conclusion 119

List of Illustrations

Page

1 Rebekah at the Well 2

2 Well at the Rancho Chack 4

3 Ancient Roman Fountain at Corinth 6

4 The Cisterns at Carthage 7

5 Pole and Bucket for Raising Water 8

6 Ruins of Ancient Cisterns 8

7 Old Roman Water-Wheel 9

8 Water Carrier with Jar 9

9 Water Carrier with Goat-Skin Bag 11

10 Pool of Siloam 12

11 Pool of Solomon 13

12 Aqueduct near Tunis, Leading to Ancient Carthage 14

13 Ancient Roman Well 15

14 Ruins of a Roman Aqueduct 17

15 Distant View of the Claudia Aqueduct 18

16 Near View of the Claudia Aqueduct 19

17 Aqueduct in Ruins, Ephesus 20

18 Roman Aqueduct, Segovia, Spain 22

19 Water Tower and Roman Ruins, Chester, England 23

20 Roman Water Pipes, made of Bored-out Blocks of Stone 24

21 Trophies of Marius 25

22 Old Roman Lead and Terra Cotta Pipe 26

23 The Women's Baths, Pompeii 28

24 The Cloaca Maxima. From an old woodcut 31

25 The Cloaca Maxima. From a recent photograph 32

26 Egyptian Lady Having Head Sprayed, 1700 B. C. 33

27 Greek Women Bathing 34

28 Greek Bath Tubs 34

29 The Roman Aqueduct of Segovia, Spain 36

30 Mosaic from Floor of Baths of Caracalla 37

31 Ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, Rome 38

32 Interior of the Frigidarium, Caracalla 39

33 Outer Row of Baths, Caracalla, Rome 41

34 Thermæ of Titus at Rome 46

35 Clipeus. From an old woodcut 46

36 Floor Plan of the Baths of Pompeii 47

37 Frigidarium. From an old woodcut 48

38 Atlantes 50

39 Coppers for Heating Water in Roman Baths 52

40 Ground Plan of Thermæ of Caracalla 55

41 Hypocaust for Heating Water, Thermæ of Caracalla 57

42 Restoration of Thermæ of Titus. (Restored by Leclerc) 58

43 Plan of the Thermæ of Titus, Rome. (Restored by Leclerc) 59

44 Sectional Elevation, Thermæ of Titus, Rome 60

45 Frigidarium, Thermæ of Caracalla, Rome. (Restored by Viollet-le-Duc.) 61

46 Interior View of Aqueduct, Lisbon, Portugal 62

47 Destroyed Lead Font, Great Plumstead, Norfolk 64

48 Leaden Cup, of the time of Vespasian 65

49 Lead Pipehead and Pipe 66

50 Lead Cistern with the Arms of the Fishmongers' Company 67

51 Car of Juggernaut 68

52 Distant View of Zempoala Aqueduct, Queretaro, Mexico 70

53 Near View of Zempoala Aqueduct, Mexico 71

54 Zempoala Aqueduct. From an old print 72

55 The Oldest Bathroom in the World 76

56 Savery's Engine 77

57 Newcomen's Engine 78

58 Pump House, Philadelphia 79

59 Wooden Boilers used in Philadelphia Water Supply 80

60 Bored-out Log Pipe, used in British Columbia 81

61 Valve for Wooden Pipes used in Philadelphia Water Supply 82

62 Hydrant for Wooden Pipes used in Philadelphia Water Supply 82

63 Modern Vertical Triple-Expansion Pumping Engine 83

64 Aqueduct Crossing the Alcantara Valley 84

65 Bathing and Burning Hindu Dead at Benares 90

66 Map Showing Relation of Cholera and the Broad Street Pump 92

67 York Survey of the Broad Street Pump 101

68 The Fountain of Elisha 108

69 Map Showing Location of Cases of Cholera in Hamburg and Altona 110

70 New York Public Baths 118

71 Bathroom of the Early Seventies 119

72 One Stage in the Evolution of the Porcelain Enameled Bath 120

73 A Slop Sink of Long Ago 120

74 Bath Tub Encased in Woodwork 121

75 An Old Marble-Top Lavatory 121

76 A Modern Porcelain Enameled Lavatory 122

77 Present Stage in the Evolution of Porcelain Enameled Baths 123

78 A Twentieth Century Bathroom 124

STATVARY FOVND IN THE BATHS OF TITVS

This group of statuary is now in the Vatican, Rome]

SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER. Sanitation of Primitive Man—Early Wells—Rebekah at the Well—Joseph's Well—The Rancho Chack.

History repeats itself. The march of progress is onward, ever onward, but it moves in cycles. A center of civilization springs up, flourishes for a time then decays; and from the ashes of the perished civilization, phœnix-like, there springs a larger, grander, more enduring civilization. Nowhere in the cycle of progress is this more noticeable than in the history of sanitation. Centers of civilization, like Jerusalem, Athens, Rome and Carthage, arose to pre-eminence in sanitary matters, built sewers, constructed aqueducts and provided for the inhabitants magnificent baths the equal of which the world has never since seen. After the splendors of Carthage and Rome, darkness succeeded; a darkness from which we slowly emerged in the sixteenth century and are now speeding on to eclipse the sanitary splendors of even the old Roman empire.

In its broadest sense, a history of sanitation is a story of the world's struggle for an adequate supply of wholesome water, and its efforts to dispose of the resultant sewage without menace to health nor offence to the sense of sight or smell. In ancient as in modern times, water was the chief consideration of a community. Centers of population sprung up in localities where water was plentiful, and where for commercial, strategetic or other reasons, a city was built remote from a water course, great expenditures of labor and treasure were made constructing works to conduct water to the city from distant springs, lakes or water courses. Ruins—still standing—of some of those engineering works give us some idea of the magnitude of the water supply for ancient cities belonging to the Roman empire.

In the early days of primitive man, sanitation was among his least concerns. He obtained water from the most convenient source, and disposed of his sewage in the least laborious way. Those who lived in the vicinity of streams solved the problem by moving to the bank, where, like their more highly civilized descendants of to-day, they drew water from the up side of the stream and returned the sewage to the water to pollute and possibly contaminate it for their neighbors lower down.

Communities living remote from natural water courses soon learned the value of wells as a source of water supply. Many mentions of wells are made in the Book of Genesis, and it is affirmed by Blackstone that at that period wells were the cause of violent and frequent contention; that the exclusive property or title to a well appeared to be vested in the first digger or occupant, even in such places where the ground and herbage remained in common.

While this statement might be true of many instances, there can be no doubt that public wells were dug even in those remote times. Indeed, the first mention made of a well, in the Book of Genesis, would indicate that its waters were free to all. Abraham's oldest servant, Eliezer, had been entrusted with the duty of selecting a wife for Abraham's son, Isaac. The servant journeyed to the ancient city of Nahor, and there "he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening that women go out to draw water." And he said: "Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water, and let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camel drink also; Let the same be she that Thou hast appointed for thy servant, Isaac. And it came to pass that Rebekah came out, and the damsel was very fair to look upon, and she went down to the well and filled her pitcher, and the servant said, Let me I pray thee drink a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord, and when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camel also. And she hastened to empty her pitcher in the trough and ran again unto the well to draw water for all the camels."

In Assyria and Persia from earliest times, water has been conveyed to towns from astonishing distances in open channels, and in Egypt, also in China, gigantic works for conveying water both for domestic use and for irrigation have been in existence from remote antiquity. In China, a knowledge of the art of well drilling has existed for centuries. Travelers speak of wells drilled by Chinese, centuries ago, to a depth of 1,500 feet.

In the valley of the Nile are many famous wells. Joseph's Well[1] at Cairo, near the Pyramids, is perhaps the most famous of ancient wells. It is excavated in solid rock to a depth of 297 feet and consists of two stories or lifts. The upper shaft is 18 by 24 feet and 165 feet deep; the lower shaft is 9 by 15 feet and reaches to a further depth of 132 feet. Water is raised in two lifts by means of buckets on endless chains, those for the lower level being operated by mules in a chamber at the bottom of the upper shaft, to which access is had by means of a spiral stairway winding about the well.

In America, the use of wells as a means of water supply is of great antiquity, dating back to pre-historic races. In the United States, along the valley of the Mississippi, artificially walled wells have been found that are believed to have been built by a race of people who preceded the Indians. Primitive tribes that lived in the hills sometimes had their ingenuity taxed to provide a water supply. In the hills or mountains of Yucatan, at Santa Ana, in the Sierra de Yucatan, there exists a well of great antiquity that shows the difficulty under which the aborigines labored in their search for water. The well is located on the Rancho Chack. It is not known whether this well was constructed by hand labor or is one of the numerous caverns in the rock, fashioned by the boundless forces of nature, and with which the hills abound. Water is reached after descending by ladder a distance of over 100 feet and traversing a passage 2,700 feet long or about half a mile in length. The rocky sides of the tunnel are worn smooth by the friction of clothes or bodies brushing against the surface, and the roof of the tunnel is black from soot and smoke from countless torches that have lighted water bearers to the spot where a pool of clear, lukewarm water bars the passage. How many centuries this little subterranean pool has supplied water to the natives of this region there is no means of ascertaining. The well is used at the present time, and perhaps when Carthage was a village, Rome a wilderness, and Christianity unthought of, this little pool of water hidden in the bowels of the earth and accessible only after traversing a dark, slippery, perilous passage, was to the Indians of that locality what the old oaken bucket was to the New England villagers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

GREEK PEASANTS WASHING CLOTHES

From Stereograph, copyright 1908 by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.

(See page iv)]

SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER. Cisterns—Early Mention of Cisterns—Cisterns of Carthage—Early Methods of Raising Water—Water Carriers—Pool of Siloam—Pool of Solomon—Aqueducts—Carthagenian Aqueduct—Aqueducts of Rome—Aqueducts of Segovia, Spain—Trophies of Marius.

The storage of water in cisterns or reservoirs is by no means a modern practice. The earliest tribes of whom we have any traditions or records resorted to this method for providing a supply of water. In xi Kings, 18-31, the first mention is made of cisterns in "Drink ye every one the water of his cistern." The methods employed by the ancients to construct cisterns must have been laborious and unsatisfactory. Cement at that time was unknown and bricks were not made, so that the modern cistern, as we know it, could not have existed. No doubt in some localities where clay was plentiful the cisterns were scooped out of the earth and puddled with clay, just as many reservoirs of to-day are made. This method of constructing a cistern, however, would limit the form to a cup-shaped affair, which would be very difficult to roof over. If the cisterns were not covered, as much water might be lost by evaporation as would be used by the inhabitants, so that at its best a clay-puddled cistern must have been an unsatisfactory affair. In the locality of mountains and quarries, cisterns were hewn out of the solid rock. "They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water."—Jer. 2-3. Rock-hewn cisterns must have made ideal storage reservoirs for water. The darkness of the cavern would prevent the growth of vegetation, while the thick walls of rock, affording a shelter from the sun, would keep the water cool and refreshing.

It is worthy of noting here that the ancients seem to have been aware of the movement of ground water through the soil, a fact that was forgotten and rediscovered in comparatively recent times. In Prov. 5-15 the statement, "Drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well," would lead to this conclusion, unless, indeed, they classed a bubbling spring as a well.

The earliest known cistern or reservoir of which we have any authentic knowledge are the masonry cisterns or reservoirs that stored water for the supply of the ancient city of Carthage. These cisterns, which are wonderfully well preserved, are still to be seen on the site of the ancient Punic city, but outside of what was the walled city, before it was totally destroyed by the Romans.

These cisterns were originally covered with earth, and it is due to that fact, perhaps, that they escaped destruction when the Romans razed the city. It is easy to criticise the judgment of others, and no doubt if all the facts were known, there were good and sufficient reasons why the Roman general did not destroy the cisterns and cut off the supply of water from Carthage during the siege of that city. But in the light of our present knowledge of warfare, when a water supply is considered a vulnerable point, most carefully guarded by the besieged, and the point of most furious attack by the besiegers, when the fall of the city is considered almost accomplished when its water supply is taken, it seems an oversight on the part of the Romans not to have discovered and destroyed the cisterns, particularly as the destruction of everything in the city and environs was their mission at Carthage. It is an oversight, however, for which we may be thankful, since it preserved for future times an interesting engineering work of great magnitude for that period.

The cisterns of Carthage are eighteen in number, and each 100 feet long, 20 feet wide and nearly 20 feet deep. They lie in two long parallel rows and empty into a common gallery situated between the rows. From this center collecting gallery the water was delivered through conduits direct to the city of Carthage.

The earliest method of raising water from a well, cistern or other source of supply was by hand. This method, however, was laborious and unsatisfactory, particularly when necessary to raise large quantities of water for irrigation purposes, or to supply the inhabitants of a community at a great distance or high elevation, and it was not long before the mechanical ingenuity of our ancestors devised means for transferring this arduous duty to oxen, asses or other beasts of burden. Sometimes, as in the case of the Romans, this work is made a penal punishment, and persons found guilty of certain offenses were sentenced to the water-wheel.

About the earliest known device for raising small quantities of water was the pole and bucket, which was commonly employed in Italy, Greece and Egypt. The great antiquity of this method of raising water is proved by representations of it in Egyptian paintings. It consisted of a bucket attached to a pole that was suspended by trunnions so located that when the bucket was filled with water the thick end of the pole would just balance the combined weight of bucket and water. This permitted its use for many hours at a time, when raising water for irrigation without greatly fatiguing the operator.

The most ingenious and highly involved form of ancient water-raising machine was a water-wheel. The method of operating a water-wheel depended much on the region where used. In Egypt, along the Nile, oxen were employed for this purpose. In China, coolies were found more satisfactory even in raising large quantities of water for irrigation purposes, which they did by walking a simple form of treadmill on the outer edges of the water-wheel. The Romans, slow at originating, but, like the Japanese, quick to recognize the value of anything new and adapt it to their purposes, borrowed the idea of the water-wheel from the Greeks or Egyptians, but made it automatic when used in streams and rivers by adding paddles that dipped into the running water and were moved by the current of the stream. Water-wheels operated by oxen were in use at Cairo up to the twelfth century, where they raised water vertically a distance of 80 feet from the Nile to an aqueduct that supplied the citadel of Cairo.

Our present elaborate system of water distribution was of humble origin. It was not a rapid growth, but a gradual evolution. Its four principal stages were: First, distribution from natural sources by water carriers; second, aqueducts conveying water to communities where a system of sub-conduits or aqueducts conveyed the water from the main aqueduct to reservoirs at different points in a city; third, a system of distributing mains through which water was furnished to householders at certain hours only during the day; and fourth, our present system of continuous supply at all hours of the day and night. In the first stages of water distribution, water was carried on the backs of water carriers in earthenware jars constructed especially for the purpose, or in goat or other animal skins properly tanned and sewed to hold water. While this method of water distribution is of great antiquity, it is still practiced in most tropical countries, and to this day water carriers, some with the burdens on their backs, others with goatskins of water on donkeys' backs or with jars of water in two-wheeled carts, may be seen plying their trade in Mexican and Egyptian cities.

The earliest record we have of any effort to supply a community with water conveyed in tunnels or aqueducts from a great distance, dates from the year 727 B. C. King Hezekiah or Ezekias, who reigned in Jerusalem at that time, was much troubled over the poor quality of water furnished to the city and undertook to provide a better supply.

He had built at the gates of the city a vast reservoir, the "Pool of Siloam," but when it was completed, found that a sufficient quantity of water could not be had without conveying it from a distant source on the easterly side of a range of hills of solid rock, over which it would be impossible to convey it. In no way daunted he set to work to pierce the hills with a tunnel or aqueduct, capable of supplying the city with water. Work was commenced simultaneously at both ends of the tunnel and progressed uninterruptedly until the workmen met in the center under the mountain or hill. An inscription in old Hebrew characters, found close to Jerusalem and preserved in the Constantinople Museum, throws some interesting light on this, for that period, remarkable engineering work. Translated, the inscription reads: "The piercing is terminated. When the pick of one had not yet struck against the pick of the other, and while there was yet a distance of 3 ells, it was possible to hear the voice of one man calling to another across the rock separating them, and the last day of the piercing, the miner's pick met against pick. The height of rock above the heads of the miners was 100 ells. Then the water flowed into the reservoir over a length of 1,200 ells." This tunnel was cut through a mountain of solid rock. The tunnel varied in dimensions from ⅝ of a yard to a yard in width, and from 1 to 3 yards in height, according to the hardness of the rock.

The magnitude of this undertaking can be realized only when it is considered that the tunnel was constructed without the aid of blasting agents, machine drills, steam, electricity or any of the great forces or devices now controlled by man and used in modern engineering construction.

At a later period in the world's history, Roman engineers, tunneling through the rock, used fire as well as chisels to disintegrate the rock. The usual method of procedure was to build an intensely hot fire against the rock, and when the rock had been heated to the right temperature it was drenched with cold water to crack and disintegrate it. According to Pliny, vinegar was sometimes used instead of water, under the impression that it was more effective in disintegrating rock.

It is doubtful if this method was used in constructing the tunnel at Jerusalem. In fact it can be stated with considerable assurance that the entire tunnel was cut by drilling and chiseling, as the tool marks are plainly discernible. It further is evident that, as stated in the tablet found near Jerusalem, the tunnel was worked from both ends until the miners met in the center. This is evidenced by the direction of the tool marks, which plainly show that the cutting on each side of the center was done in different directions.

Prior to the construction of the tunnel, the ancient city of Jerusalem was supplied with water through two aqueducts, one of which supplied water from the famous pools of Solomon, to the south of the city, and the other poured its contents into the pools of Hezekiah, outside the walls of the city.

The Greeks were the next in point of time to construct tunnels in connection with the building of aqueducts. In 625 B. C. the Greek engineer Eupalinus constructed a tunnel 8 feet broad by 8 feet high and 4,200 feet long, through which was built a channel to supply the city of Athens with water.

This period marks the beginning in Greece and Rome of a school of architects and engineers whose works have left a lasting impression on art and engineering science, and to this day are monuments of proportion and beauty of design that are studied by all students of architecture and engineering. It is quite probable that Greece supplied the first engineers that constructed aqueducts in Carthage and Rome. The similarity in design of these various works points forcibly to the conclusion that they were all designed by disciples of one school.

Whether the first aqueducts were built in Carthage or in Rome is a matter of some uncertainty, although the fact that an aqueduct supplied Carthage with water at the time it was destroyed by the Romans would point to the Carthagenian aqueduct as the prior. The first Roman aqueduct was built in the year 312 B. C., and the city of Carthage, which, after a protracted struggle of 118 years, from 265 B. C. to 147 B. C., was finally conquered and destroyed by the Romans, was at that time supplied with water from distant springs through an aqueduct.

It is quite probable that Carthage was supplied with water from two different sources. The cisterns already mentioned provided a supply of rain water for industrial and most domestic uses, while the aqueduct, the channel of which had a cross-section of 10 inches square, brought drinking water from springs in the Zaghorn Mountains, some 60 kilometers distant. The aqueduct contoured the hillside for a considerable distance, at times went under ground, and on approaching the city was carried on arches of magnitude seemingly out of proportion to the size of the channel. At present it is suffering the fate of most ancient ruins. It is used as a quarry from which stones are taken to construct buildings in nearby towns and villages.

While the ruins of aqueducts and tunnels at Jerusalem, Athens and Carthage give some idea of the skill and knowledge of hydraulic and sanitary matters possessed by the engineers of that period, we must turn to Rome and study their system of water supply, drains for sewage and the ruins of their magnificent baths to form a true conception of the skill of the early school of Roman engineers and the lavish expenditures of treasure by the inhabitants to secure an adequate water supply for Rome. No aqueducts were built in Rome before the year 312 B. C. Prior to that time the inhabitants supplied themselves with water from the Tiber or from wells, cisterns or springs. The first aqueduct was begun by Appius Claudius, the censor, and was named after him the Aqua Appia. This aqueduct had an extreme length of 11 miles, and almost all of the work was entirely under ground. Remains of this work no longer exist. After the Aqua Appia was completed the building of aqueducts seems to have become almost a habit of the Romans, and it was not long—272 B. C.—before M. Aurius Dentatus began a second one called the Anio Vetus, which brought water from the river Anio, a distance of 43 miles. This aqueduct was constructed of stone and the water channel was lined with a thick coat of cement—no doubt Pozzolana cement—made from rock of volcanic origin, which, upon being pulverized and mixed with lime, possessed the hydraulic property of setting under water. Indeed, there can be but little doubt that were it not for this natural cement the construction of Roman aqueducts would have been more difficult to accomplish.

The water furnished by the Anio Vetus was of such poor quality that it was almost unfit for drinking. A further supply being found indispensable, the Senate commissioned Quintus Marcius Rex, the man who had superintended the repairs of the two already built, to undertake a third, which was called after him the Aqua Marcia. This was the most pretentious aqueduct undertaken. It was 61 miles long, about 7 of which were above ground, carried on arches, and of such height that water could be delivered to the loftiest part of Capitoline Mount. A considerable number of the arches of this aqueduct are still standing. Remains are also standing of the Aqueduct Tepula (127 B. C.) and the Aqua Julia (35 B. C.), which, if we except the Herculea branch, are next in point of date. Near the city of Rome the three aqueducts were united in one line of structure, forming three separate water courses, one above another, the lowermost of which formed the channel of the Aqua Marcia and the uppermost that of the Aqua Julia.

Thirteen years after the Julia, the Virgo aqueduct was built. This aqueduct was 14 miles long and is said to be so named because the spring from which it is supplied was first pointed out by a girl to some soldiers who were in search of water. This aqueduct still exists entire, having been partly restored by Nicholas V and the work completed by Pope Pius IV in 1568.

In the tenth year of the Christian era, the Augusta aqueduct was built. This aqueduct was only 6 miles long, and the water that it brought from Lake Aluetimus was of such bad quality as to be scarcely fit for drinking, on which account it is supposed that the founder, Augustus, intended it chiefly for his naumachia.

It might be interesting at this point to deviate a little from the history of the Roman aqueducts and draw aside the curtain to catch a glimpse of the aquatic sports or pastimes of a Roman emperor of that period. The naumachia of Augustus was a rectangular basin 1,800 feet long by 1,200 feet wide, in which actual sea fights between rival fleets were held for the amusement of the emperor and his friends. The combatants in these sea fights were usually captives, or criminals condemned to death, who fought as in gladiatorial combats, until one party was killed, unless saved by the clemency of the emperor. The vessels engaged in the sea fight were divided into two parties, called respectively by names of different maritime nations, as Persians and Athenians. The sea fights were conducted on the same magnificent scale and with the same disregard of life as characterized the gladiatorial combats and other public games of the Romans held in the Colosseum. In Nero's naumachia, sea monsters were swimming around in the artificial lake to make short work of any poor unfortunate that was unlucky enough to go overboard.

In some of the sea fights exhibited by different emperors, the ships were almost equal in number to real fleets. In one battle there were 19,000 combatants and 50 ships on each side.

It was for the purpose then of supplying one of these artificial lakes with water that the Augusta aqueduct was constructed.

Perhaps the best known aqueducts of Rome are the Claudia and the Anio Novus. The completion of these waterways, which was accomplished respectively in 50 and 52 A. D., doubled the supply of water to Rome. The Claudia aqueduct was 46 miles in length and the Anio Novus 58 miles in length. The Claudia was commenced by Caligula in the year 38, but was completed, as was the Anio Novus, by the Emperor Claudius.

Many other aqueducts besides those mentioned were built at different periods to add to the water supply of Rome. A table is given below showing the date of the constructions and their lengths.

The magnificence displayed by the Romans in the construction of aqueducts was not confined to the capital. Wherever Roman colonies were established, it would appear that vast sums were expended in providing the community with a suitable supply of water. Ruins of aqueducts built by the Romans may still be seen at many points in Spain, France, Africa, Greece, and even England can point to the ruins of a water tower built by this prolific school of Roman engineers. At the present time there are probably one hundred or more structures of this kind in existence, some of which are in daily use, supplying water to inhabitants of communities for whose ancestors they were built centuries ago.

ROMAN AQUEDUCTS, ARRANGED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

Name of Date of Length
Aqueduct Construction Miles

Appia 313 B. C. 11
Anio Vetus 273 B. C. 43
Marcia 145 B. C. 61
Herculea branch 3
Tepula 127 B. C. 13
Julia 35 B. C. 15
Virgo 21 B. C. 14
Augusta 10 A. D. 6
Absietina 10 A. D. 22
Claudia 50 A. D. 46
Anio Novus 52 A. D. 58
Neronian branch 97 A. D. 2
Trajana 111 A. D. 42
Hadriana 117-1585 A. D. 15
Aurelia 162 A. D. 16
Severiana 200 A. D. 10
Antoniniana branch 212 A. D. 3
Sabina-Augusta 130-300 A. D. 15
Alexandrina 230 A. D. 15
Jova 300 A. D.

(The miles above given are Roman miles, of 4,854 feet. The
entire length of aqueduct in English miles would be 398.)

The aqueduct of Segovia, Spain, is one of the most perfect and magnificent works of the kind remaining. It is built without mortar, is entirely of stone and of great solidity. The piers are 8 feet wide by 11 feet deep, and where the aqueduct approaches the city it attains a height of about 100 feet. This aqueduct is over 2,400 feet long, is built in two tiers of arches and although almost eighteen hundred years old, still supplies water to the city. Of the 109 arches, however, 30 are of modern construction, being reproductions of the ancient arches.

The constructive details of these old water courses are as interesting as are their general design. At the mouth of each aqueduct there generally was constructed a reservoir in which to collect water from the springs or streams that supplied it, and in which impurities could settle before the clarified water was delivered into the channel. The water channel was usually formed either of stone or brick coated on the inside with cement to make it water-tight. It was arched over on top, and at certain intervals vent holes were provided through which access could be had to the channel to make repairs. When two or more channels were carried one above another, the vent holes of the lower ones were placed in the sides. When possible, aqueducts were carried in a direct line, but frequently they were given a tortuous course either to avoid boring through hills, where their construction would have entailed too great expense, or else to avoid very deep valleys or soft marshy ground. In every aqueduct, besides the principal reservoirs at its mouth and terminal, there were intermediate ones at certain distances along its course, in which any remaining sediment might be deposited. In addition to serving as sediment basins, these reservoirs made it more easy to superintend and keep in repair the different sections, and provided service reservoirs to furnish irrigation water for fields and gardens and water for stock. The principal reservoir was that in which the aqueduct terminated. This reservoir or castella, as it was called, far exceeded any of the others in grandeur of architecture, or in magnitude and solidity of construction. The ruins of a work of this kind that still exist on the Esquiline Hill at Rome, are about 200 feet long by 130 feet wide, and had a vaulted roof that rested on 48 immense pillars disposed to form rows so as to form 5 aisles and 75 arches. From the description of this interesting reservoir, the interior must have greatly resembled many of the covered slow-sand fillers recently constructed in this country, in which elliptical groined arches form the roof, which is carried on brick columns spaced as in the reservoirs at Rome, about 15 feet from center to center. Judging from the fact that not only the aqueducts but also the reservoirs were covered to exclude light, it seems reasonable to conclude that Roman engineers were aware that absence of light prevented or altogether checked the growth of algæ and other objectionable forms of water vegetation. Nowhere in the writings of the early historians is any mention made of trouble due to this cause, but as the water supply of Rome was obtained from both ground (spring) and surface sources, which in many cases were mixed together, the resultant mixture would have furnished the best possible soil for algæ, the ground water providing the necessary mineral food and the surface water furnishing the seed. It is quite probable, therefore, that the aqueducts and reservoirs were covered to prevent such growths.

Besides the principal reservoir, each aqueduct had a number of smaller ones at different points in the sections they supplied, to provide that neighborhood with water. It is estimated that all told there were 247 of the auxiliary public reservoirs scattered throughout the city. These reservoirs were supplied from the principal reservoir through pipes of lead, burned earthenware, and in some cases bored out blocks of stone. Burned earthenware pipes were generally used not only on account of their greater cheapness, but because the Romans were aware of the injurious effect of lead poisoning, and looked with suspicion on water that had been conducted through lead pipes.

When a number of individuals living in the same neighborhood had obtained a grant of water, they clubbed together and built a private reservoir into which the whole quantity allotted to them collectively was transmitted from the public reservoir. The object of private reservoirs was to facilitate the distribution of the proper amount of water to each person and to avoid puncturing the main aqueduct in too many places. When a supply of water from the aqueduct was first granted for private use, each householder granted the privilege obtained his quantity by tapping a branch supply pipe into the main aqueduct, and conducting the branch to a domestic reservoir within his own house. Later when the system of private reservoirs was adopted, each domestic supply of water was obtained from the private reservoir and piped to the domestic reservoir which was made of lead.

The façade of an aqueduct reservoir known as the "Trophies of Marius" may be seen in the accompanying reproduction of a woodcut made in the sixteenth century. The ground plan shows part of the internal construction. The stream of water is first divided by the round projecting buttress into two courses which are again sub-divided into five minor streams that discharge into the reservoir as indicated in the cut.

The quantity of water supplied to Rome compared favorably with the per capita allowance of water provided at the present time for the principal cities of the United States, and was far in excess of the water supplied at the present time to British and European cities. According to Clemens Herschel, however, Rome, with a population of 1,000,000 people, had a daily water supply of only 32,000,000 U. S. gallons. In estimating the quantity of water brought to the city by the system of aqueducts, Mr. Herschel makes due allowance for and deducts what he thinks might be lost by leakage, theft, water supplied to artificial lakes for sea fights, and also assumes that a certain percentage of the channels at all times were cut out of service for repairs. He makes no allowance, however, for water obtained from different sources, such as wells, springs and the Tiber River, from which, no doubt, many of the inhabitants obtained their entire supply of water. Indeed, in the year 35 B. C., M. Agrippa, as the head of the water supply system of Rome, in addition to repairing the Aqua Julia and Marcia aqueduct, supplied the city with 700 wells and 150 springs.

There is no reason to believe that conditions in Rome were different from those existing to-day in our large cities, and it is more than probable that the poor people of Rome were but scantily supplied with water from the aqueducts. The supply obtained by them from ground sources should therefore be added to that supplied by the aqueducts, and it would then be found, as most writers assert, that the per capita daily supply of water to Rome was equal to about 100 U. S. gallons.

Such enormous quantities of water could not be poured daily into a limited area without material and physical injury resulting if provision were not made to dispose of the surplus. Hence it was that a system of drains was evolved in Rome, which, while not the first in point of time, nevertheless were the only ones known to have been constructed by the ancients, until within a comparatively recent date ruins of sewerage systems were unearthed in Bismya, an ancient Symerian or pre-Babylonian city.

SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER. Early Sewage Disposal—Removal of Offensive Materials from Temples of Jerusalem—Sewage System of a Pre-Babylonian City—Sewers of Rome—The Cloaca Maxima—The Dejecti Effusive Act.

Before describing the sewerage system of Rome, it might be interesting to glance backward at the efforts made prior to that time to dispose of excreta and household wastes.

It is in Deuteronomy, one of the Books of Moses, that first mention is made of the disposal of excreta: "Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad.

"And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shall turn back and cover that which cometh from thee."

No doubt the object of Moses in promulgating that law was to preserve cleanliness about camp and to hide offensive matter from sight in the least odorous way. Nevertheless no more sanitary method could have been adopted. Deposited as the soil was, in small quantities, just underneath the surface of the ground it was soon reduced to harmless compounds by the teeming bacteria in the living earth.

Recent explorations in Jerusalem have brought to light extensive drains for the removal from the vicinity of the temples of offensive matters peculiar to the bloody sacrifices of that ancient people; and in an August, 1905, issue of the _Scientific American_, Edgar James Banks, field director of the Babylonian expedition of the University of Chicago, gives an interesting description of house drains and sewage disposal wells constructed at Bismya some 4,500 years ago. The following account is abstracted from that article:

"Babylonia is perfectly level. From Bagdad to the Persian Gulf there is not the slightest elevation save for the artificial mounds or an occasional changing sand drift. In most places there is a crust of hard clay upon the surface, baked by the hot sun of summer time so hard that it resembles stone. Beneath the crust, which at Bismya is seldom more than 4 feet in thickness and in places entirely lacking, is loose caving sand reaching to an unknown depth.

"Drainage in such a country, without sloping hills or streams of running water, might tax the ingenuity of the modern builder. In constructing a house, the ancient Sumerian of more than 6,000 years ago first dug a hole into the sand to a considerable depth. At Bismya several instances were found where the shaft had reached the depth of 45 feet beneath the foundation of the house. From the bottom he built up a vertical drain of large cylindrical terra cotta sections, each of which is provided with grooved flanges to receive the one above. The sections of one drain were about 19 inches in diameter and 23½ inches in height; others were larger and much shorter. The thickness of the wall was about 1.06 inches. The tiles were punctured at intervals with small holes of about ¾ inch in diameter. The section at the top of the drain was semi-spherical, fitting over it like a cap and provided with an opening to receive the water from above. Sand and potsherds were then filled in about the drain and it was ready for use. The water pouring into it was rapidly absorbed by the sand at the bottom, and if there it became clogged the water escaped through the holes in the sides of the tiles.

"The temple at Bismya was provided with several such drains. One palace was discovered with four. A large bath resembling a modern Turkish bath and provided with bitumen floor, sloping to one corner, emptied its waste water into one. The toilets in the private houses of 6,000 years ago were almost identical with those of the modern Arab house—a small oblong hole in the floor, without a seat. Several found in Bismya were provided with vertical drains beneath.

"In clearing out the drains a few of them whose openings had been exposed were filled with the drifting sand. Others were half full of the filth of long past ages. In one at the temple we removed dozens of shallow terra cotta drinking cups not unlike a large saucer in shape and size. Evidently it received the waste water of the drinking fountain and the cups had accidentally dropped within.

"In the Bismya temple platform, constructed about 2750 B. C., we discovered a horizontal drain of tile, each of which was about 3 feet long and 6 inches in diameter and not unlike in shape those at present employed. It conducted the rain water from the platform to one of the vertical drains. One tile was so well constructed that for a long time it served as a chimney for our house, until my Turkish overseer suggested that its dark, smoked end project from the battlements of the house to convince the Arabs that we were well fortified; thus it served as a gun until the close of the excavations."

The first sewers of Rome were built between 800 and 735 B. C., and therefore antedate the first aqueduct by between 440 and 487 years. It is evident, therefore, that as originally planned the sewers of Rome were intended to carry off the surface water and in other ways serve to drain the site of the ancient city. Indeed, the Cloaca Maxima, which was constructed during the period of the Kings, from 735 to 510 B. C., was intended to drain the marshy hollow between the Capitoline, Palatine and Esquiline hills, and afterwards, by a process of development, became part of a combined sewage system for the city.

That the engineers who designed the sewerage system of Rome had a clear conception of the service expected of such drains, is evidenced by the manner in which the system was proportioned. The pipes gradually enlarged from their extremities in the buildings through all the ramifications of the system until they finally reached the outlet at a bulkhead or quay-wall in the Tiber. It is stated by early writers that so complete was this system of sewers that every street in the ancient city was drained by a branch into the Tiber.

The Cloaca Maxima was one of the largest and most celebrated of the ancient sewers. The solidity of this structure can be judged by the fact that it has been in uninterrupted service for over 2,400 years, and at the present time is still in use, with no signs of immediate failure. The arches were made of neatly jointed stones fitted together without cement. It is stated by Pliny that a cart loaded with hay could pass down the Cloaca Maxima. It should be borne in mind, however, that a Roman cart and load of hay were of smaller dimensions than a modern one. The actual dimensions of the mouth of the sewer are 11 feet wide by 12 feet high. The lateral branches of the main sewer were of a size in proportion with their requirements and in proportion to the main or trunk sewer. The dimensions of these sewers are evidenced by the service they performed for Nero, who threw into them the unfortunate victims of his nightly riots.

While each street in Rome was provided with an adequate sewer, it is more than probable that only a small percentage of the population had branches extending into their houses. In those that had, the latrines were located adjacent to the kitchen, where through the untrapped end of the sewer noxious gases were continually arising to vitiate the surrounding air. The only ventilation the sewers of Rome had was through these untrapped ends.

Many of the houses of Rome were lofty and inhabited near the top by the poor, who—drainage systems not extending above the first floor—had very imperfect means for carrying off rubbish and other accumulations. A practice seems to have grown up then of throwing such liquid and solid matter from the windows, sometimes to the discomfort or injury of hapless pedestrians.

To provide against accidents due to this cause, the Dejecti Effusive Act was passed, which gave damages against a person who threw or poured out anything from a place or upper chamber upon a road frequented by passersby, or on a place where people used to stand. The act, however, gave damages only when the person was injured, but nothing was recoverable if the wearing apparel was damaged. A strange provision of this act was that it applied only in the daytime and not to the night, which, however, was the most dangerous time for passersby.

(See page iv)]

SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER. Origin of Bathing—Early Greek Baths—Roman Private Baths—Public Baths of Rome—Ruins of Baths of Caracalla—Description of the Thermæ—The Thermæ of Titus at Rome—Baths of Pompeii—Heating Water for Roman Baths—Thermæ of Titus Restored.

The value of bathing for pleasure, cleanliness and health was early realized by the ancients, who in many cases made the daily bath part of their religious ritual, with the hope of thus inducing a practice that would, from constant observance, become a habit not easy to overcome, and which would be a lasting benefit to the health of the individual and a safeguard to the community.

It perhaps was among the Greeks that bath tubs were first introduced. The early Greek bathing vessels (see preceding woodcuts) were made of polished marble, shaped something like a punch bowl, stood about 30 inches high, and were not occupied by the bather as in a modern bath tub, but served only to hold the water which was applied to the bather by an attendant, who dashed or poured, as circumstances required, a vessel full of water on his head or body. Both woodcuts shown were reproduced from ancient Greek vases and convey a fair idea of the way these baths were used. One of the bathers is shown with an iron, bone, bronze or ivory instrument called a _strigilis_, in his hand, which was used to scrape off perspiration when the bather emerged from the hot room, or induced a flow by exercising in the gymnasium, which was generally connected with the baths. The inscription on the woodcut, representing men bathing, shows that this was a public bath, and is probably the earliest picture of a bathing establishment extant. The women's bath bowl differed but slightly from the men's. It was a trifle lower and considerably deeper, but the method of using was the same as for the men.

While the Greeks were prior to the Romans in the use of the bath, they considered it effeminate to use warm water, and consequently their bathing establishments never attained the luxury and splendor that later marked the Roman baths. When bath tubs were first introduced into Rome, the wealthy inhabitants fitted up their houses with a bathroom much as do the people of our own time. As the luxury, pleasure and benefit of the bath became better known, more elaborate bathing facilities similar to a modern Turkish bath were installed. In some houses several rooms were devoted to this purpose. The anointment of the body with oils was one of the characteristics of a Roman bath. The practice was indulged in by people of both sexes, and the time when applied depended much on the treatment the bather was taking. For instance, most bathers anointed the body as the finishing touch of the bath, while some bathers applied the oil before going to the hot or sweat room.

No luxury can be monopolized by the rich, and it was not long before public bathing establishments, in which a small entrance fee was charged, were built by private capital. Following quickly on the heels of these private enterprises, came the establishment of public baths, then, according to the authority of Pliny, for 600 years Rome needed no medicine but the public baths.

When the public baths were first instituted they were only for the lower classes, who alone bathed in public. The people of wealth and those who held positions of state bathed in their own homes. But this monopoly of the poor was not long enjoyed. In the process of time even the emperors bathed in public among their subjects, and we read of the abandoned Gallienus amusing himself by bathing in the midst of the young and old of both sexes, men, women and children.

In the earlier stages of Roman history a much greater delicacy was observed with respect to promiscuous bathing, even among men, than obtained at a later period. Virtue passed away as wealth increased, and the public baths became places of meeting and amusement where not only did men bathe together in numbers, but even men and women stripped and bathed promiscuously in the same bath.

Some idea of the magnitude of the baths at Rome can be gained from a statement of the number of bathers they could accommodate at one time. The baths of Diocletian, which were perhaps the most commodious of them all, could accommodate at one time 3,200 bathers. One hall of this famous bathing institution was at a later date converted by Michael Angelo into the church of St. Marie de gli Angeli.

The baths of Caracalla, built A. D. 212, were perhaps the most famous of the baths of Rome. They were not as commodious however as many other baths, and they had accommodations at one time for only 1,600 bathers, or just one-half that could be accommodated by the baths of Diocletian.

The following description of the Roman baths, together with the historical sketch of the people of that period who indulged in the luxury, is abstracted from an old dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities, published in London, England, almost a century ago. The illustrations are from woodcuts appearing in the article.