A Tale of Three Thirsty Cities: The Innovative Water Supply Systems of Toledo, London and Paris in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century(14 Technology and Change in History)

In A Tale of Three Thirsty Cities: The Innovative Water Supply Systems of Toledo, London and Paris in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century, Chaim Shulman presents an analysis of three projects of urban water supply systems carried out between 1560s–1610s. The technical and economic differences between these projects resulted from external conditions not directly related to the water supply problem. Although the same basic technology was apparently available at the time in all cases, the geographical, engineering, entrepreneurial and cultural nature of each region differed. The inhabitants’ wellbeing improvement achieved varied accordingly. Much broader insights are drawn on the policies of the three monarchies regarding the initiative of and support for grand scale public works in general.

Table of Contents:
Abbreviations, Date Conventions and Notes List of Figures Included in the Text Introduction  The Subject of Our Research  Mechanical’ Engineers and Know-How Migration 1 Human Water Consumption in England, France and Spain in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 2 Water-lifting Technology in the Graeco-Roman World and Its Development through the Renaissance  The Invention of Water-lifting Devices  The Use of Water-lifting Devices in the Roman Era  Islamic Technological Influence  The Diffusion of the Waterwheel in Europe  The Improvement of Water Lifting Technology in Europe, Evolution or Quantum Leaps?  Basic Water Raising Technologies  Direct Water-lifting with Compartmented Waterwheels  Archimedean Screws  Ctesibius’ Double-Acting Force Pumps  Theatres of Machines  Complex Water Lifting Configurations Relevant to the Present Study  Water-Raising Machines at Atmospheric Pressure  Transmission of Power through Distances  Waterwheels Sensitivity to Variations in the Level of the River Flow  Piping Networks  The Diffusion of False Know-How  The Italian Strategy—Gravity Based Solutions 3 Toledo  Spain and Toledo in the 1560s  Early Attempts to Supply Water to Toledo  Water Supply to Toledo in the Sixteenth Century  Juanelo Turriano  The Artificio  Iconographic Representations and Exact Location of the Artificio Building  The Artificio’s Technology—The Operational Principle  Escosura y Beck—The Inclined Plane Theory  The Vertical Solution, Proposed by Ladislao Reti  Juan Luis Peces Ventas’ Improvement of the Inclined Plane Theory  Nicolás García Tapia’s Proposition  Francesc Xavier Jufre García’s Concept: Operating Valturio Scales  Unanswered Technical Questions  Technical Conclusions  The Artificio, as Seen by Contemporary Writers  The Ingenio of Juan Fernández del Castillo  Land Reclamation and Sewerage in Spain  The Spanish Attitude Towards Science and Technology during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 4 London  Tudor London in the 1580s  Early Attempts to Provide the City with a Water Supply System  The Elizabethan Patent System  Peter Morris  The London Bridge Waterworks in Contemporary Sources  Technical Operation  Supporting Evidence for Bate’s Interpretation of Morris’ Operational Principle  The External Appearance of the London Waterworks  The Consequences of the Installation of Waterwheels on the London Bridge  The Later Development of the London Bridge Waterworks  Other Initiatives  The New River  Competition between the Different Water Suppliers  Land Reclamation and Sewerage in England 5 Paris  Government and Municipal Authorities—Paris Administration and Development in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries  History of Former Water Supply Undertakings  La Samaritaine  The Operational Principle of La Samaritaine  Description of the Original Samaritaine Building in Contemporary Travelogues  Depictions of the Original Building of La Samaritaine in Maps and Views of Paris  The Samaritaine Building after its Renovation in 1714  Additional Initiatives to Solve the Water Problem in the Seventeenth Century  Pumps at Pont Notre Dame  The Machine at Marly  Land Reclamation and Sewerage in France 6 Conclusions Sources and Bibliography  Sources  Studies  Websites  Online Sources for Retrieved Images

About the Author :
Jaime-Chaim Shulman, Ph.D. (History, 2015), Tel-Aviv University, is a graduate of Harvard Business School and an Electromechanical engineer from Buenos Aires University. As an accomplished businessman and executive, he contributes a fresh approach to the study of urban public works.

Review :
"One of the strengths of Shulman’s study is his meticulous reconstruction of how these engines worked, who funded them, how they functioned over time and their impact, if any, on the development of water-supply technology in general. For this purpose, in an exemplary manner the author combines written, printed, and beautifully reproduced pictorial sources." - Karel Davids, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, in: Technology and Culture, July 2020, Vol. 61, pp. 953-955 "[...] readers may enjoy the technical discussions of these machines’ creation and functioning, the tracing of their intellectual roots, and the financial and political intricacies that both promoted and undermined their accomplishments." - G. Geltner, University of Amsterdam, ​​​​​​​in: Renaissance Quarterly LXXI I , No. 4: 1471-1472 [DOI: 10.1017/rqx.2019.415]