Plumbing in the Modern Age – What to Know
Although the fundamental driving force (gravity) hasn’t changed since the beginning of time, some of them methods used in plumbing have. For instance, where gravity was the only driving force in the early days of plumbing, we have since learned to utilize pumps to push or pull liquid and solid waste matter.
“The fundamentals are the same, but we use many different methods to achieve the end result”, said Jake, a plumber in Melbourne, FL. “great plumbing uses gravity as much as possible and uses pump everywhere that gravity cannot be used. For instance, to push or pull liquids sideways or even make it go up, against gravity, we will use pumps.”
We all know about the aqueducts from the Roman era used fairly elaborate pathways to bring water to their cities. But they were totally reliant on gravity as the driving force. Can you imagine how we would get water up to the 100th floor of a skyscraper using only gravity? It would be impossible.
In England, the first toilets appeared hundreds of years ago. Plumbing took its next evolution at this point. This is where the terms “water closet” and “the John” came from. Sir John Harington, an English courtier and writer, who described a working flush toilet in 1596, is believed to be the inventor (or at least perfector) of this commonly used appliance.
The future of plumbing will still involve pumps and gravity as its main driving force. Until some sort of machine that beams matter over the air (like Star Trek) is invented, we will rely on these two mechanisms. In fact, carrying water into space is so expensive, the only way colonization of the moon and Mars will be effective is if we convert other molecules into water, or discover water there. They are hoping that the dark side of the moon has frozen water and are currently exploring that possibility.
