A look into the history of Plumbing

Looking at plumbing systems today can be quite confusing and amazing at the same time. With all the pipes and connections coming from almost everywhere, you can’t help but ask what does each pipe do? This is mainly because plumbing has become more sophisticated than what it used to be.

Evidence shows that plumbing was only present around the time of the Greek and Roman Civiliations. Historians or researchers cannot find any proof that a plumbing system was present before those times. The name where it originates, plumbing from a Latin word plumbum which means Lead in English. The early Romans tried to prevent thieves from stealing their water by using lead pipe inscriptions to inform people who owns the pipes and the water that runs through it. During these times, they used a simple plumbing system to provide drainage for waste, public baths and portable water. But the plumbing system only relies on gravity to pump water to an area and dump it away.

The simplicity of the plumbing system before also caused problems to these people health wise, due to the unsanitary practice of the ancient people and the plumbing system design. It lacks security from dirt and other organisms that can contaminate the water it carries plus the plumbing materials itself. There were no proper dumping areas before so the sewage system didn’t really protect the people from the contaminated water . This caused health problems to people around it. Most of the time it was dumped into a river which was also a source of water from people down stream. Later, when more lead was used for plumbing pipes people also got seriously ill. It was later discovered that lead can be poisonous.

Lead poisoning can damage internal organs such as the heart and may also affect the bones. A number of disorders in children were also caused by lead poisoning which result to the act of changing lead pipes to copper. People began to switch from lead to copper after the second World War.

Since then, people began to improve their plumbing system so that we can have cleaner portable water and a more efficient, safer way to dump our waste. The designs grew more complicated depending on the task which is required but with safety being put first above everything else.