The Romans have amazed this
generation and many more before with the marvels that they were able to
erect. The engineers of that day
established a cornerstone for all future engineering.
Water is a most important necessity
to support life. This is the largest and
most obvious reason for the need to build a large system to move water in a
city as large a Rome. Before the
aqueducts were built, people only had wells, springs, lakes, and rivers as a
source for water. When it comes to every
day activities, getting water would be difficult unless one lived near a river
or another source of water. There were
eleven major aqueducts during the Roman period.
The aqueducts helped
In order for an aqueduct or any
other project to be built there are four things that are needed: materials,
work force, tools, and money. Luckily
enough, the Romans had all of these things.
First trees were cut down and used to make beams for scaffolding or
props for arches that would be used throughout the course of the construction
of the aqueduct. They were also used in
foundations and making tools such as lifting devices. Stones of all kinds were used during the rise
of an aqueduct. Some stones were made
into transoms and others even made into bricks.
Another Roman concoction used was called “pozzuolana” which was a type
of concrete formed from limestone and volcanic ash. This pozzuolana was very strong but lacked
the tensile strength to be used in arcades and arches so it was used mainly in
the lining of siphons and pipes. Lime
was also used to make the mortar for these stones and as the lining of
underground pipes. The men that designed
these creations were engineers from the Roman army, but interestingly enough
they were not the people that built the structures. The people responsible for that were Roman
slaves. There were so many slaves used
that one could say that it was an “army of a work force”.
The first thing that the Romans did
when they where preparing to build was to measure the different levels of the
ground so they could determine which building techniques would best suit the
terrain. They did this by using “chorobates”
which measured level differences and a “dioptra” or “groama” to determine the
proper alignments. Tools are named after
a number of different things that are relevant at the time. The Romans showed this by naming a few of the
tools that they possessed after animals.
During the building process of the aqueducts there where obviously stones
and other objects of great weight which needed to be lifted to a number of different
heights. In order for this to be
accomplished the Romans had to develop a crude crane. The name of this Roman machine was the
‘goat’. The ‘goat’ was made up of a
number of pulleys that were attached to a large cylinder that was rotated to
pull the ropes that where attached to the load.
For a large load to be lifted or even moved there is a great deal of
energy required. This energy was
provided by slaves who walked inside the wheel.
It was somewhat like a gerbil on its toy wheel. Before the ‘goat’ was able to be used, a
platform was first needed so they could place the loads on once they lifted
them up. Therefore, posts needed to be
driven. The machine that enabled this
task to be done was called the ‘sheep’.
It consisted of a set of beams with a pulley attached to them with a
rope through it. A load of some sort,
stone or what not, hung from this rope.
Two men would pull the rope to lift the stone up and then they would
proceed to let go of it. The load would
then fall and begin to drive this post into the ground. This continued until the post was driven down
to a point of stability. After the tools
and machines were in place the actual building process could begin.
Solid ground is the foundation of
any structure. Without a solid foundation
a structure will crumble. There was even
a parable of Jesus that was based on that fact.
Jesus knew this and the Romans knew it as well. This can be seen when one when one learns
about a technique that the Romans used called ‘piloting’. If the ground was not level then the ‘sheep’
would be used to drive oak poles into the ground. Once these poles were in the ground a floor
was built on top that was made up of intertwined beams. This was the first step of building a
pillar. After the floor was in place the
next step was to build the outside four walls of the pillar. This task was accomplished by pie slice
shaped stones that were laid and held together by a lime mortar. The brick perimeter of the pillar was then
filled in with a combination of mortar and rubble that was continually packed
down until no more could be put inside the four walls. Next, the Romans would place a transom on top
of the pillar. This was the first step
of building the vault. A vault is an
arch that helps support an aqueduct. The
following step was to build a set of framework to help support the vault while
it was being built. The outside stones
would be set first with the final stone being the middle one. The middle stone helped support the rest of
the arch because it was able to keep all of the others in place. Once all of the work was completed and all of
the mortar was dried, then the workers would remove the supports and
framework. After building the pillars and the vaults the
channels were then built. These structures
are today commonly thought of being an aqueduct but there is much more to an
aqueduct than this. This part of the
aqueduct is called an arcade.
Many people with little knowledge
of aqueducts think that they are only the grand arches that are seen today in
the pictures of
The
‘goat’
The
‘sheep’
Works Cited
http://www.chez.com/siagnole/english.html
http://www.inforoma.it/aqueduct.htm
http://www.academic.bowdoin.edu/classics/research/moyer/index.shtml
http://www.teachingtools.com/Slinky/aqueduct.html
http://www.chuckiii.com/Reports/European_History/Roman_Aqueducts.shtml
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/ia57/jussy/netsco/English/accueil.htm