Flowing Through Time: Plumbing Surrey Homes Have From Past to Present

Plumbing is nothing new to mankind, as shown by archeological evidence of ancient civilizations. Carrying a bucket of water from the nearby river may be considered the most primordial attempts at plumbing. Our present lifestyles may, in some way, owe a debt of gratitude to the ancient men and women who first brought water from a well or stream or river, prompting humankind to develop newer and more efficient methods of delivering water. If it weren’t for the following historical icons of plumbing, your Surrey plumbing in the house will most likely not be possible. Here are some of the ways in which their wisdom still continues to flow.

The Roman aqueduct

Water may be available at a river, but what if the nearest one is a long hike away? With remarkable ingenuity for the time, the Romans of antiquity devised means of conveying water from remote sources into settlements where it was needed through the aqueduct. One of these Roman aqueducts, the Pont du Gard, can still be visited in Nimes in southern France. The aqueduct relied on gravity to cause water to flow down from the elevated streams through the aqueducts into the Roman towns and cities. For the record, it surely beats walking for miles.

Ancient pipes: no steel yet

While the pipes for plumbing Surrey homes now use are made out of modern industrial materials, the conduits used by Ancient empires like Greece and Rome were merely canals formed out of rock to deliver the water where it was needed. Think of them as the downscaled version of the aqueducts, proving to be instrumental in sanitation for the cities and towns of the empires. On the other side of the world, the early Americans made their pipes out of the most abundant resource in the land: wood. They bore a small channel through the centers of logs, which 7 to 9 feet in length, to serve as pipes. Segments were connected using primitive adhesives such as animal fat. Steel piping wouldn’t arrive until the early 17th century.

Lesson learned the hard way

The Middle Ages were a nightmare for those who desperately need to use the restroom – if any even existed. Plagued by poor plumbing and inadequate facilities, Europe learned the hard way through an epidemic known as the bubonic plague. Unsanitary conditions led to the death of 25 million people between 1346 and 1360 at the hands of the Black Death. Point taken and lesson learned, people began devising inventions that would form the basis of modern plumbing Surrey BC residents now use. Such lessons will go on to educate the future.