Aqueduct
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Aqueduct. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an artificial channel or conduit for the conveyance of water from one place to another; more particularly applied to structures for conveying water from distant sources for the supply of large cities. Works for supplying communities with water must have been constructed at a very early period. In China there are said to be aqueducts dating back to prehistoric times. In Persia and Assyria there are structures the remains of which indicate that they were used for aqueducts. Recent excavations at Jerusalem have laid bare wells and channels cut in the solid rock, COMPARATIVE SECTIONS OF AQUEDUCTSd 24 sqft CATSKILL 18 AQUA CLAUDIA AQUEDUCTS and indicate that the water supply of the city was brought from the neighborhood of Bethlehem and Hebron. In Patara, a city of Lycia, in Asia Minor, there is a very ancient aqueduct, consisting of an embankment of rough stone 250 feet high and 200 feet long. The channels for the water consist of cubical stone blocks about a yard in di dimension, with a hole 13 inches in diameter, the blocks being closely connected and cemented together. The first Roman aqueduct was the joint work of Appius Claudius Cæcus and Caius Plautius Venox, censors in 312 b. c. Appius Claudius built the conduit, Venox discovered the springs. The entire length of the aqueduct was about 10 miles, and it furnished 115,303 cubic meters a day. The second aqueduct was begun in 272 B. C., by Manius Curius Dentatus, and was finished three years later. Its length was about 45 miles, and it furnished 277,866 cubic meters a day; it was not used for drinking, but for irrigating gardens and flushing drains. In 144 B. C. the Senate determined to 160 NEW CROTON 52 OLD CROTON repair the old aqueducts and built a new one. This work was begun by Quintus Marcius Rex. The Marcian aqueduct brought the water from 56 miles away in the territory of Arsoli, and fed water to the highest platform of the capitol. It was restored in 33 b. c., and Augustus doubled the supply of water in 5 b. c. The viaducts and bridges by which it crossed the highlands are magnificent. There are seven bridges, some of them carrying four aqueducts. The Marcian reaches Rome at the Porta Maggiore, where no less than 10 water supplies met. Of the nine aqueducts which brought water to ancient Rome, three still supply the modern city, viz., the Aqua Virgo, now Acqua Vergine, finished by Agrippa, 27 B. c., and restored by Pope Nicholas V. in 1453; the Aqua Trajana, now Acqua Paolo; and the Aqua Marcia.. The Romans also constructed important aqueducts for the cities throughout their empire. One of the finest aqueducts in Europe is the Pont du Gard, built in the 3d or 4th century, or possibly by Agrippa, 19 B. c., at Nimes, in southern France. It is still in a good state of preservation. It is higher than any about Rome itself, being fully 180 gth of its feet in height, and the length highest arcade is 873 feet. There is an aqueduct in Paris built by Julian in 360 A. D.; also a very important aqueduct at Constantinople, built by Hadrian and restored by Theodosius by Theodosius. Since 1885 the water has been furnished the city by an aqueduct built by a French company, taking the supply from Lake Derkos. The ruins of an aqueduct exist at Mayence, and of another near Metz, Alsace- Lorraine. There are many other important aqueducts. One of the most remarkable is that constructed by Louis XIV., in 1684, to convey the waters of the Eure from Point Gouin to Versailles. Troops to the number of 40,000 were employed in this great undertaking. The bridge at Maintenon, forming part of this aqueduct, even in its incomplete state, is, in point of magnitude, the grandest structure of the kind in the world. The remains consist of 47 arches, each 42 feet wide and 83 feet high. The piers are 25 feet 6 inches thick. The first important aqueduct in England was built in 1613, to conduct the the eye. waters of the New river to London, over a distance of 20 miles. Wooden aqueducts were first used, but were replaced by embankments. Very large works were constructed during nine years, ending in 1877, to bring water from Longdendale, between Sheffield and Manchester, to the latter city. In this instance the aqueducts consist for the most part of tunnel and covered conduit, but for 8 miles the water is conveyed in large cast-iron pipes laid along or under the public roads. Before the Longdendale works were finished, the question of a greater supply had to be considered. Rome This led to the adoption of the scheme incme for bringing water from Lake Thirlmere tified. in Cumberland to Manchester. length of the line is nearly 100 miles, and the works were carried out in 1885-1894. In Scotland, the Loch Katrine aqueduct supplies Glasgow with water coming 1534. from a distant of 42 miles. An aqueduct was built in 1738, conducting water for a distance of about 15 miles into the city of Lisbon. The aqueduct of Caserta was built in 1573, by Vanvitelli, by order of Charles III. and his son, for the purpose of supplying the gardens of Caserta with water from Monte Taburno, a distance of 25 miles. It now conducts the water to Naples and crosses 20 valleys; the last 15 miles the water is carried in iron pipes. The Canal de Marseilles, 57 miles in length, conveys water from the River Durance to Marseilles, and is a magnificent specimen of French engineering. The Vienna aqueduct is nearly 60 miles long, and was finished in 1873. There are a number of in important aqueducts in America. For 125 years, the city of Otumba, in Mexico, received its supply of water through the aqueduct of Zempoala, which, however, has not been used since 1700, though the aqueduct is said to be in almost perfect condition. It is 27 miles long. New York is supplied with water from Croton river, which falls into the Hudson above Sing Sing. The first aqueduct was constructed between the years 1837 and 1842, and is 38 miles long. When the conduit reaches the Harlem river, the water is conveyed in iron pipes over a splendid bridge, 150 feet above the river. In October, 1917, New York celebrated the completion of the vast Catskill Aqueduct. The great Ashokan Reservoir, 12 miles west of Kingston, N. Y., receives ich supply ly New York City the waters which with from 500 to 600 million additional gallons of water per day.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an artificial conduit or channel for carrying water. In one sense of the word a canal or ditch, or even a water pipe, is an aqueduct; but, as used, the term refers to extensive watertight channels or flumes built, it may be, through tunnels and led across valleys on masonry, that an abundant stream of pure mountain water may be brought into a city. Such a system is possible when a city is situated on comparatively low ground. China still uses aqueducts built centuries before the Christian era. Traces of ancient aqueducts are to be found in Palmyra of the Desert, at Jerusalem, and at Athens. Ancient Rome was supplied with water from the Apennines by nine aqueducts. Three of them are still in use. One of these was forty-five miles long. The Marcian aqueduct is carried across the Campagna, for six miles at a stretch, on arches of masonry. An aqueduct at Nimes, in France, crosses a valley 180 feet deep on three tiers of arches. Each tier is narrower than the one below. The entire structure is built of hewn stone, without cement save in the waterway at the top. One of the Roman emperors brought water sixty miles to conquered Carthage through an aqueduct resting on arches of stone work. It still supplies Tunis with water. A much admired aqueduct at Segovia, Spain, also built by the Romans, has in some parts two tiers of arches, one above the other, each 100 feet in height. Water tunnels of antiquity are equally admirable. A water pipe in Lycia, Asia Minor , consists of cubical blocks of stone, each pierced with a hole, nine inches in diameter. The stones are cemented together to form a pipe a mile in length. Aqueducts in ruins and aqueducts in service are among the sights of many a European city. One of the most celebrated American aqueducts is the Croton, leading from the river of that name thirty-eight miles into New York City. It crosses the Harlem river on a bridge 150 feet high. Irrigation canals, true aqueducts, are built on a large scale in the West. Of late water is conducted more frequently through large pipes that follow the undulations of the surface. A water main or tunnel may descend into a valley and rise again; or it may curve under the bed of a river or over a low hill, and still the water will flow freely, provided the outlet is lower than the source and the upward curves are nowhere more than thirty feet above the intake. As to the main aqueducts, which supplied Rome with a daily volume of 54,000,000 cubic feet of water, it would have been impossible to substitute metal pipes for channels of masonry, because the Romans did not know cast-iron, and no pipe except of cast-iron could have supported such enormous pressure.--Lanciani's Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries, p. 60. See Irrigation ; Water ; Siphon ; Pump ; Waterworks 2026 Editor's Note: The Roman aqueducts the entry admires still stand — the Pont du Gard in France and the aqueduct of Segovia among them, now UNESCO monuments. And the idea only grew: modern Los Angeles and New York drink from aqueducts hundreds of miles long, still moving water by the same patient downhill gravity the Romans used. (Ed: BR 2026-07-08)