How did ancient Roman fountains work without electric pumps?

143 views

How did ancient Roman fountains work without electric pumps?

In: 5

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Romans were fucking AMAZING at architecture.

Rome was situated a few miles away from some natural springs up in the mountains that were naturally higher than Rome itself.

And they built aqueducts so well and so perfectly designed that the water naturally flowed at a good pace down from the mountains and down into the city itself, where it was directed to various fountains and bath houses.

Anonymous 0 Comments

You can use a gravity pump. The source of the water is at some higher location. The pressure of this high water presses down, which causes water at a lower level to shoot upwards in a fountain.

In the modern day, water towers can do the same thing. If for whatever reason the powered water pumps in the waterworks break down, they can still pump water to all the houses because of the pressure from the water up in the water towers.

Anonymous 0 Comments

They used height difference between a water source and the fountain.

Tap water is generally in the 1-4 bar pressure range.

10 meters of height difference provides 1 bar of pressure and is enough for a fountain to shoot a meter or two upwards.

It was generally advantageous to keep the water elevated in the city wherever possible so it would naturally flow into houses e.t.c. The water came from springs in the mountains via aqueducts.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I watched a vid on that recently, some nice info about water supply and aquaducts