Water Gathering Devices

There were many ways to bring water into the city for people to use. Many great thinkers such as Archimedes, Hero, and Eupalinus discovered extraordinary ways to draw water more economically to the cities of Greece. Of all the many different inventions, there were three major inventions that made important contributions to the water supply of Greece. The three inventions are:

"Archimedes'" Screw

Archimedes, one of the greatest thinkers of ancient Greece, developed this invention. It was used to lift water from a lower elevation to a higher elevation by means of a tube that is internally threaded. The threads on the inside collect water and as the tube rotates, the water is brought up and put into a storage tank. This massive device was run by human power. The person running the screw, usually a slave, held onto a rail at the top and used his own muscle power to propel the water upward.

Aqueducts and Bridging

The Greeks also used techniques such as aqueducts and bridging valleys. They used these devices because the Greeks thought that the water could only be moved if it was moving downward or on a straight path. So in order to keep the water flowing they built aqueducts through mountains and built bridges over valleys. In the sixth century a Greek engineer by the name of Eupalinus of Megara built the aqueduct of Samos. This tunnel measured more than 3000 ft. long and it was started on opposite ends hoping to meet in the middle. When the two met, the tunnels were only fifteen ft. off from each other. On the average, aqueducts were about fourteen feet deep and they were completely lined with stone. The aqueducts were either single route or they branched off into many branches that supplied different areas with water. There was also a form of manhole covers that allowed the workers to access the aqueduct more easily if work needed to be done.

Siphon Principle

Hero, a Greek who lived after 150 B.C. was the first hydraulic engineer. He modernized the obtaining of water through a method known as the siphon principle. The siphon principle allows the pipes that carry the water to follow the terrain of the land and the aqueduct and bridging techniques were no longer used as often. For example, such a device was used for the citadel at Pergamon. The pipes that connected to the citadel had approximately 300 pounds of pressure per square inch and the pipes were most likely made of metal in order to withstand the pressure.
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