Roman Wooden Force Pumps

The purpose of this brief paper is to give an overview of the use and performance of Roman wooden force pumps. Much more information on them, and on metal pumps, can be found in the texts noted in the short bibliography. In this paper «pump» means the wooden two-cylinder force pump, unless the context indicates otherwise. The French equivalents of some of the technical terms are given in the notes. Concept As with many very original ideas, the basic concept of the force pump appears simple: a...