What are some important architectural and engineering achievements of the ancient romans?

Answer 1

Historians have coined the term Roman architectural revolution or concrete revolution. This involved the extensive use of concrete, the barrel arch and the vaulted arch. These three elements enabled the Romans to go beyond the use of Greek methods of enclosing space by the use of cut-stone and post-and-beam or post-and-lintel structures. They became essential for large buildings and roofs. The Romans were the first who made large scale use of concrete. Concrete had technical and practical advantages. It was exceptionally strong and could span great distances when shaped into arches, vaults and domes as it could be moulded. It was layered into a formwork and it took the shape of its container. It did not require skilled labour and therefore was cheaper. It was much faster for construction than laborious masonry walls. It was safer because concrete vaulted roofing was fireproof, unlike the wooden-beamed roofs of traditional construction methods. Roman concrete was as resistant as modern concrete and also set underwater (this enabled them to build much bigger docks for ports). However, it was not as fluid as modern concrete and had to be layered by hand.

With this revolution the potential of the previously little used arch and the vault arch (or vault) was fully exploited for the first time. The Etruscans are said to have invented the simple (barrel) arch. The oldest example of the vaulted arch has been found in the Greek city of Pergamon (in western Turkey). The vaulted arch came into two forms: the groin arch was formed with two to four intersecting barrel arches and the rib arch, where the intersecting barrels were not of the same diameter. The Romans were first to fully appreciate the advantages of the arch and the vault. The arch has a strong load- bearing capacity. The vault has an even greater load bearing capacity and its structure is suited to support large roofs. Their construction in concrete made them easier to build and even stronger. This led to the building of larger and monumental arches. Arches and vaults were used on a grand scale. However, the Romans did not abandon masonry arches and vaults.

The arch, the vault and concrete were what made the construction of such a massive structure as the Colosseum possible. Concrete was also used to build domes, public buildings, military facilities (forts and fortifications) warehouses, amphitheatres, theatres, temples and public baths, aqueducts and dams.

The Romans invented segmental arch, which were flatter, as they realised that an arch did not have to be a full semicircle.

The Romans perfected the dome. The Pantheon (a temple which has been turned into a church) in Rome is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world.

This revolution enabled the Romans to build bridges which were much longer than ever before and could cross much wider rivers and valleys. Trajan's' bridge crossed the River Danube. It was 1,135 m (3,724 ft.) long and the longest bridge in the world for more than 1,000 years.

The Romans built great aqueducts. Most were underground conduits. To channel water down very deep or long depressions, the Romans invented a system of inverted siphons for their aqueducts. Water was led to a tank at a slightly lower elevation and passed on to other conduits which led to other tanks and conduits also at slightly lower elevations. This was done to maintain a mild gradient to avoid an excessive build-up of water pressure. When valleys had to be crossed or when a gradient had to be to keep a gradient to keep the water moving, the conduits were placed on top of bridgework. The Romans were also the first to use bridgework for the water conduits of the aqueducts. They were built when the aqueducts had to cross rivers or valleys or in the plain when the conduit had to be kept a gradient to make the water move by gravity. If the bridge needed to be high, two or three tiers of arches were built to reach the desired height. The most famous example is the Pont du Gard in France, a bridge for an aqueduct which supplied Nimes, in southern France It has three tiers of recessed arches with the main piers in line one above the other. and is 48.8 m (160 ft.) high. The first two tiers have very high and wide arches and a third tier has low and narrow arches. The lower tier is 142 metres (466 feet) long and has six aches with a height of 22metres (72 ft.). The second tier is 242 metres (794 ft.) long and has eleven arches 20 metres (66 ft.) high. The upper tier is 275 metre (902 ft.) long. It originally had 47 arches (only 35 have survived) 7 metres (23 ft.) high. The width of the first pier is 6 metres (20th.), that of the second pier is 4 metres (13 ft.) and that of the third pier is 3 metres (23 ft.)

With the development of much better aqueducts, the Romans developed water wheel technology to a high level. They were used to power flourmills. At Barbegal, in France, there were sixteen wheels which went down a hill in two parallel lines, feeding each other. They took water downhill form an aqueduct to power a complex of flourmills further down the hill which produced enough flour to make the amount of bread needed to feed the town of Arelates (Arles). Water wheels were also used to power saw mills. One such mill at Heliapolis (in today's Turkey) is the earliest known system which combined a crank with a connecting rod. The waterwheel powered two frame saws through a gear train. It was used to saw stone into rectangular blocks for construction. There were several such mills with crank and connecting rod without a gear train around the Roman Empire.

The Romans were the first to use the power of water for mining. Aqueducts took water to the mines. In opencast mines water from a tank was poured to scour away the soil and expose the veins in the bedrock. Water was also used to remove waste rock or to extinguish rocks which were exposed to fire to weaken them. For deep level mines they invented a system of reverse overshot water-wheels to take underground water to the surface. In a copper mine in Spain a set of sixteen such wheels has been found.

The Romans invented the famous stone-paved roads. This was made possible by learning how to cut stones into slabs, and the invention of Roman concrete. A ditch was ploughed down to the firmest layer of ground that was found. The ditch was filled with rubble from local materials or sand (when it could be found) up to one metre from the surface level. A flat floor of compressed gravel was then made. Then a surface was made by embedding the stones in concrete to create the paving. The concrete was laid in two thin layers. The bottom one had coarse concrete and the top one had fine concrete.

The Romans invented the amphitheatre, which was an arena for the gladiatorial games. They took the Greek idea of theatres with semi-circular seating and they extended it to a full circle or, more usually an elliptic shape. The Colosseum and the arena of Verona are the two most famous amphitheatres.

The Romans adopted the cranes of the Greeks and massively improved on them. The simplest one was the trispastos, which had of a single-beam, a winch, a rope, and a block with three pulleys. It had had a mechanical advantage of 3:1, and single man operating the winch could raise 150 kg. The pentaspastos had five pulleys and the polyspastos had a set of three by five pulleys with two, three or four masts. The latter was worked by four men at both sides of the winch and could lift 3,000 kg. When the winch was replaced by a treadwheel, the load could be doubled to 6,000 kg with only half the crew, because the treadwheel had a larger diameter and thus a much bigger mechanical advantage.

The Romans improved on the ballista which was a Greek weapon which launched a large projectile at a distant target using two levers with torsion springs. The springs consisted of several loops of twisted ropes. The Manuballista was a handheld version of the traditional Ballista. The Carroballista was a cart-mounted version. The ancient sources said that the Romans developed the polybolos, a repeating' ballista' which shot 11 shots a minute. This was at least four times the rate of an ordinary ballista. However, none has been found by archaeologists.

The Romans invented the hypocaust, which was an underfloor heating system for heating houses and the baths using hot air. The floor was raised above the ground by pillars which left a space inside that was filled with hot air from a furnace. The heat from the underfloor heated the air in the room. Passages boxed by ceramic tiles were put inside the walls to move the air to flues on the roof and to heat the walls.

Answer 2

The use of the arch and the dome were both used in architectural and engineering projects, such as innovative buildings and bridges and above ground aqueducts.