July 2005 Edition
A new take on the Flat Earth Society
Many examples of Roman
engineering have survived
over two millennia
yet remain impressive
even to sophisticated contemporary
engineers. Aqueducts carrying water
from the mountains to the Eternal City
can still arouse admiration for the way
the Romans achieved their goals by
surmounting grades and valleys without
the advantage of electric pumping
systems. Admittedly they used slave
labour, when such brutality was commonplace.
Roman engineers endowed their
projects with artistry as well as engineering
ingenuity. The English city of
Bath is a precise adjectival reminder
that Roman engineering can still
impress and indeed, endure for centuries.
The Roman baths in that city are
still in use providing millions annually
in tourist dollars, pounds and euros. A
Scottish engineer once told me that
some of the famous Roman fountains,
still in use, were also pressure-relief
devices as well as sculptural masterpieces.
Most ancient projects themselves
are admired mainly for their
artistry with little understanding of the
benefits conferred by the engineering
of roads, aqueducts, bridges, stadiums
and water infrastructure.
See Tom's full commentary
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