Relief model of
the Baths, Rome, Museo della Civiltà Romana |
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Fire and technology have been closely related since the earliest times.
Cylindrical or round braziers made of bronze, holding burning coals, were used to heat the home. In contrast to this simple system, highly sophisticated technologies were used at the bathhouses: water was collected in cisterns, heated by boilers and conveyed through pipelines to the pools, where bathers used ladles to douse their bodies. The steam produced by the boilers was channeled into special conduits beneath the floor of the calidarium, the warm room of the baths. The steam heated the room through special perforated bricks in the walls. |
