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From tunnel to tower: The transfer of hydraulic expertise from mines to cities in early modern Europe

par Martino, Davide
Référence Renaissance Society of America (RSA) Virtual 2021 (13-15/04/2021: online)
Publication Non publié, 2021-04-13

Communication à un colloque

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Résumé :

Since antiquity, the necessity to keep mines dry has led to the development of hydraulic machines designed to raise water out of depths. In early modern Europe a series of technological innovations, such as suction-lift pumps, were pioneered underground. Mines were a fertile ground for experimentation: they were lucrative operations but also clusters of expertise, whose workforce included carpenters, smiths, and ropemakers. The new hydraulic technologies they developed were then exported to the continent’s surface and deployed in the water supply systems of many European cities. As this paper will explain, urban water was pumped to reservoirs situated on top of towers, and thence distributed through an underground network of tunnels cut in the rock, or wooden pipes. Thus, machines that were first developed to keep mines dry by bringing water above ground could be used to prevent a city from running dry by forcing water underground.