Roman Engineering in Modern Life: Hypocaust

Hypocaust was the way to heat rooms and villas and in the public baths. A furnace outside of the building spewed hot air under the floors of the room. To do this, the floor was raised using mini columns. On of the challenges of creating this heated room was making sure the floor was thick enough to be walked on. The air would pass through box- like channels in the walls and leave through vents in the roof. The closer to the furnace, the hotter. Baths were usually the ones closest to the furnace. Today, our floors are heated and we have the luxury of air conditioning and heaters. The air conditioning and heaters use the same concept as hypocaust, cool or warm air in, and a vent to send other air out.The picture above is of the little columns used to raise the floor.

Picture Source:

Digital Image. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons, 15 Aug. 2009. Web. 21 Oct. 2009. http://coomons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%20Flavia_Solva_hypocaust.jpg

Information source:

Corbishley, Mike. "Hypocaust." The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2004. 75-75. Print.

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Roman Engineering in Modern Life: A Day at the Baths

The baths were considered a necessary part of Roman life. Each city or town had at least one public bath house. Pompeii had three and by the 4th century, Rome had close to 1,000 baths! It was almost like a health club where people could relax and enjoy a massage or perhaps to lift weights. Other people came to actually clean themselves using the three stages. In the first stage, you left your clothes in a locker or on a shelf, just like today. Then you entered the frigidarium, an unheated room and most likely took a dip in the cold pool. In the second stage, the Romans were slowly getting used to the heat by entering the tepidarium, this room was warmly heated. Last, they would enter the caldarium, a steam room, where there was a hot pool to bathe in and open your pores. To clean yourself, you or your slave or the baths slave attendant would rub olive oil over your body then scrape of the dirt with a curved tool called a strigilis. After this process, you could go backwards through the stages to close your pores in the first room or socialize with friends as well as get a snack or play a dice game. Some wealthy Romans could afford to install their own bath, especially at their expensive villas in the country.To get into the bath house, adults paid a cheap price, while children were free. Nowadays, children aren't really present in health clubs and we don't take public baths. The picture above is of the Great Roman Bath.

Works Cited:

Information was found in the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome.

Corbishley, Mike. "Baths." The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2004. 22-23. Print.

Roman Baths Picture:

Digital Image. Bath 360. Web. 21 Oct. 2009. http://www.bath360.co.uk/history-of-bath.html

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Roman Engineering in Modern Life: Plumbing

Romans were definitely not the first to use a type of water delivery system, but they did however influence one of the things we take for granted, plumbing. The Romans had a very advanced water supply system, in fact, the most advanced until the 19th century. The aqueducts supplied water to many water ducts such as public fountains. Public fountains were available for citizens to fetch water in buckets for homely purposes. Lead pipes were used to transport water to private houses using gravity. Lead pipes were later believed to be a contributing cause to the decline of the Roman empire. Today, we have adapted to the idea of plumbing and transporting water long distance like the Romans did. The picture above shows Roman lead pipes leading to the Roman baths.

Works Cited:

The Eyewitness Book: Ancient Rome supplied me with this information.

James, Simon. Ancient Rome. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. Print.

The picture was found on Wikipedia Commons.

Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons, 5 Apr. 2009. Web. 20 Oct. 2009. .

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