this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2024
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Illustrations of history

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This magazine is for sharing artwork of historical events, places, personages, etc. Scale models and the like also welcome!

Generally speaking, actual photos of a historical item should go to !historyartifacts@lemmy.world

Photos of ruins should go to !historyruins@lemmy.world

Photos of the past should go to !HistoryPorn@lemmy.world

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[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 50 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The Romans had some really ingenious devices for lifting large loads!

Run by slaves.

[–] Oisteink@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Why they make that many house if relly ingenious?? Force is the same, so they could have a really large one at the bottom and save slaves for stuff like the feeding of grapes wile laying on sofa

[–] gnu@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 month ago

Without modern metallurgy and and the associated industrial manufacturing base it's a lot harder to build a single mill to effectively use all the potential energy. A multiple mill setup like this allows you to extract most of the energy without reaching the limits of how much force you can put through machinery made of wood (the shafts and bearings are likely also wood, not just the wheel buckets), stone, and low strength metals.

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Overshot wheels, as the ones displayed in the reconstruction, are more efficient. Theoretically, I suppose, they could have made it one massive structure like a modern dam, but that would have been a lot of architectural effort for no real increase in efficiency.

[–] Oisteink@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Dam? Just dont build all the houses and the water falls the same height. The one at the bottom spinns dam fast!

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Maybe more manageable consistency in the grist. You would get just about the same level of work from each mill, so you products would maybe be more consistent?