SUPPLY OF WATER-DRAINAGE-BATHS. 



AMONG the complicated arrangements of 

 civilised life, there are few of higher im- 

 portance than those which relate to the command 

 of water. Whether for dietetic and domestic pur- 

 poses, for the bath, or for carrying away the cor- 

 rupting refuse of our towns and cities, a liberal 

 supply of good and wholesome water is an indis- 

 pensable requisite. 



Water is one of the primary wants of human 

 life, no less essential than air and food ; hence the 

 great importance that has always been attached to 

 the means of its supply. In the earliest records 

 of civilisation, we read of the digging of wells, and 

 of quarrels about the possession of them. .The 

 ' Pools of Solomon/ near Bethlehem, which remain 

 now almost as perfect as when they were built, 

 were connected with a scheme for supplying Jeru- 

 salem with water. In Assyria and Persia, from 

 the earliest times, water has been conveyed to 

 towns from astonishing distances in open channels 

 or canals, and in subterranean tunnels or kanats. 

 In Egypt, also, and in China, gigantic works for 

 conveying water, both for domestic use and for 

 irrigation, have been in existence from remote 

 antiquity. Nor were these undertakings confined to 

 the eastern hemisphere ; we have evidence of the 

 existence of kindred works in pre-Christian Amer- 

 ica. The ancient city of Mexico, which was built 

 on several islands near the shore of the lake, was 

 connected with the mainland by four great cause- 

 ways or dikes, the remains of which still exist. 

 One of these supported the wooden aqueduct of 

 Chapoltepec, which was constructed by Monte- 

 zuma, and destroyed by the Spaniards when they 

 besieged the city. Hydraulic works on a great 

 scale had also been executed by the Incas of Peru. 



AQUEDUCTS. 



Of all the ancient nations, the Romans paid 

 the greatest attention to the supply of water, 

 and carried the construction of aqueducts to the 

 greatest perfection and magnificence. In the 

 original sense of the word (aqua ductus, a duct or 

 conductor of water), every leader or channel of 

 water would be an aqueduct ; and while, technically 

 speaking, the word is generally used to signify a 

 tunnel or culvert constructed of masonry or brick- 

 work, in which the water flows by a gradual 

 descent, and is distinguished on that account 

 from a pipe, in which the water can be led over 

 undulating country, still the word is generally 

 popularly applied more to bridges constructed for 

 the purpose of carrying canals and other waters 

 across valleys. 



Rome at first depended upon water drawn from 

 the Tiber and from wells ; it was to Appius 

 Claudius, about three hundred and twelve years 

 before the Christian era, that the Romans were 

 indebted for the improvement of bringing superior 

 water from a distance by means of aqueducts ; and 

 for several centuries after his time, additional 

 works were constructed, as the necessities and 

 32 



luxuries of the city demanded. The Aqua Appia 

 was only eleven miles long, but some of the sub- 

 sequent ones were about sixty miles : that built by 

 the Emperor Claudius (51 A.D.) was forty-six 

 miles, of which nine and a half were on arches ; 

 and it discharged 97,000,000 gallons in twenty-four 

 hours. One of these aqueducts was formed of 

 two channels, one above the other ; the most ele- 

 vated being supplied by the waters of the Tiverone 

 (Anio Novus), and the lower one by the Claudian 

 Water. It is represented by Pliny as the most 

 beautiful of all that had been built for the use of 

 Rome. The Aqua Marcia, Aqua Julia, and Aqua 

 Tepula entered Rome by one and the same aque- 

 duct, divided into three ranges or stories, each of 

 which supported its own independent channel- 

 way. 



In general, the conduits, or water-courses, were 

 built of stone, rough or hewn, and occasionally of 

 bricks, and in either case cemented by the finest- 

 tempered mortar. Some were of a square form, 

 paved, and covered with flagstone or tiles ; others 

 were arched over, as 

 shewn in the accompany- 

 ing cut ; and some were 

 throughout of an ellip- 

 tical form. This conduit, 

 or stone-pipe (c), if we 

 may apply such a term, 

 was conveyed through 

 hills by tunnels, and 

 across valleys upon ar- 

 cades, consisting some- 

 times of double and even 

 triple tiers of arches. In - 

 general, these arches sup- j^ 

 ported only one water- 

 course ; but occasionally 

 each tier had its own 

 conduit Having arrived Fig. i. 



at their destination, the 



waters were received in reservoirs, and conducted 

 by leaden pipes, or by stone grooves, into private 

 cisterns, or dispersed throughout die cities by 

 means of public fountains, which were often 

 adorned with all the magnificence and allegorical 

 allusion of ancient architecture. These structures 

 were under the charge of a public functionary ; 

 and it is from the treatise of Sextus Julius Fron- 

 tinus, who was inspector of the aqueducts of Rome 

 under the Emperor Nerva, that we derive most of 

 our information respecting the water-works of the 

 imperial city. 



About ico A.D. there were nine aqueducts, 

 which, 'it has been calculated, furnished Rome 

 with a supply of water equal to that carried down 

 Dy a river thirty feet broad by six deep, and flow- 

 ing at the rate of thirty inches a second;' which is 

 equal to a quantity of 27,000 cubic feet per minute, 

 or 243,000,000 gallons per day (Smith's Dictionary 

 of Greek and Roman Antiquities). Another calcu- 

 ation makes the daily supply 300,000,000 gallons. 

 The number of aqueducts was subsequently 



497 



