Ancient Roman Valves (2013)

The sophistication of Roman plumbing technology is not that surprising.<p>The existence of &quot;Valve Magazine&quot; is slightly more so.

The reason why I found and submitted this story is because I came across this image of a Roman valve that was dug up in Pompeii:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;gX26IYG.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;gX26IYG.jpg</a><p>I found it to be absolutely amazing so I had to find out more about it.

That&#x27;s a nicely built valve. Looks like something from 1890.<p>If the Romans had discovered the Bessemer process for making steel in quantity, the industrial revolution might have happened two thousand years sooner. They had a &quot;steel industry&quot;, but could only make enough for swords and such. A Bessemer converter is much simpler than that valve. Would have changed history. The railroad era might have started around 150AD.

It&#x27;s striking how wealthy Romans had running water in their homes, 2000 years ago, when my parents in rural Belgium (!), some sixty years ago, had to make do with wells and rain water. Even today, millions (billions?) of people don&#x27;t have access to clean drinking water, let alone running water. We&#x27;ve come so far, yet not.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Valves

In many aspects ancient Roman technology was not superseded until the 1800s. 1500 years of unnecessary inferiority.

Looks like the site got hugged to death. Does anyone have an archive link?

The plug insert looks remarkably well made. It looks to have been turned in a rather precise, if crude, lathe (look at the the detail of the groove). This is even more impressive if you think that the first real modern lathes only date from the late 18th century. The plug insert could&#x27;ve been moulded by some sort of near net shape method, but I doubt it (the top part of the plug seems to be much more rougher in nature). The pics are too low resolution to make a definitive judgement.