The Romans Invented Trains....... Almost

Garrett Ryan, Ph.D as toldinstone: This is the first part of a two-video series exploring why an industrial revolution never took place in the Roman Empire.

0:00 Introduction
2:29 Three Fables about the Roman economy
4:27 Surfshark
5:43 Mass production
7:37 Mining
8:30 Water power
9:06 Steam power
Were the Romans close to an Industrial Revolution? (Part 1) | 10:34
toldinstone | 505K subscribers | 1,114,548 views | February 25, 2022

Garrett Ryan, Ph.D as toldinstone: This second half of my two-part series explores the social and economic barriers that precluded a Roman Industrial Revolution.

0:00 Compelling introduction
0:52 Lack of research funding
2:00 Elite disdain
2:48 Caution toward innovation
3:30 Poor communications
3:59 A hidebound education system
4:23 No economic incentive
5:09 No true mass production
6:10 No entrepreneurial class
6:46 No elite financing
7:29 No industrial revolution
8:06 Stirring conclusion
Were the Romans close to an Industrial Revolution? (Part 2) | 9:07
toldinstone | 505K subscribers | 309,867 views | March 4, 2022

Transcript
0:00 · [Music] when you read through the list of Roman Technologies they either invented or
0:08 · developed further it staggers me that the Industrial Revolution didn't start in the
0:13 · Roman era welcome to the story of how the Romans invented the steam engine,
0:19 · 1500 years before the actual Industrial Revolution [Music] almost
0:33 · now if you've been watching this channel a little while you know that I have a love of
0:36 · old routes whether it's a abandoned Railway Canal Roman Road ancient trackway so whilst I'll tell
0:43 · you today's story I'm going to travel along a Roman Road north towards an abandoned Railway
0:50 · actual fact let's have a look and old map back at base and I'll show you the exact route I'm
0:55 · taking
1:02 · and for that we're going to need one of these OS map
1:12 · .....got map okay um Paul that's better okay so today's journey is going to take us a log of
1:21 · Rowan Road towards an abandoned Railway because it kind of fits with the whole theme...
1:28 · [sponsor text redacted] ...so when I say the Train the Romans invented almost I'm not referring to the
3:16 · early horsedrawn traway I'm not referring to the more Modern Diesel or electric train I'm
3:22 · referring to the steam engine now I'm not showing you much Roman Road I've skipped
3:27 · quite a bit there because there's a long boring Road set C got a railway and a canal
3:31 · to cross then I'll show you or attempt to show you some Roman Road from this [Music]
3:40 · area love a cute donkey who doesn't right now we know that steam engines in the their form
3:50 · were well first of all not used to propel things at all that we use as stationary
3:55 · objects maybe to uh do things like pump water in fact just across the way there I can see a
4:02 · big chimney and building which was crofton and beam engines used to pump water from the lake
4:08 · or Reservoir below up back into this here which is the summit level of the kennet and
4:14 · avon Canal so the fact that are stationary for some time that helps me and gives me a little
4:20 · bit of justification for the word almost in the title of the video as you'll come to
4:25 · see so first and foremost what exactly do you need to build a steam engine propelling stuff
4:34 · or not now let's not get into too much detail because there are a few additional extras for
4:40 · safety let's just assume the absolute Basics which you would build on and evolve around 30
4:48 · to 20 BC Roman architect and engineer vitruvius wrote his works the De architectura that was
4:58 · almost like a modern day encyclopedia it contained everything and anything now largely it did focus
5:06 · on architecture and buildings and how to build but also it contains anything else that seemed to pop
5:13 · into his head it's a bit like this YouTube channel in some ways one such passing mention refers to
5:20 · the aelopile he describes this as a metal Ball filled with water which is placed above a fire to
5:27 · produce steam which is forced out of an aperture on top now the key element here is that he doesn't
5:33 · describe any moving parts and perhaps alludes to the fact that this could be an invention more
5:39 · aligned with understanding weather move forward to 62 ad in Alexandria coined is the Roman Empire's
5:48 · cultural capital and we have a man named Heron or hero and he's inventing all kinds of weird
5:55 · and wonderful but not necessarily appreciated things the vend in machine the automatic door
6:02 · um the wind powered organ one thing that goes unnoticed as he invented the world's first steam
6:11 · engine you see he took the works of those before him and adapted Vitruviius' Aeilopile added pivot
6:23 · Points to the metal ball and angled the exit points for the Steam and hey Presto the ball
6:29 · would spin As It produced [Music] steam now ventured North into savernake Forest
6:37 · a thousand year old ancient Woodland here in a vain attempt to do something that I can never
6:43 · really do on this channel which is try and show you on camera the Agger of a Roman Road
6:49 · which Still Remains today largely impossible through the lens of a camera we give it a go
6:54 · come join me this [Music] way now like the TRU before him Heron wrote a list of Works what he
7:02 · learned by all of his tinkering and inventing and book two was entitled pneumatica so you can guess
7:10 · that that contained lots of details on steam powered things one of which was the ELO pile
7:21 · now this broadly translate as wind ball but that's about it there's not really much else
7:27 · in his Works other than how to build it it was almost like it was seen as a toy but nevertheless
7:33 · we have the technology there we know it's there but we do need a few other key elements [Music]
7:42 · first now we know how good the Romans were with water from barves to underfloor heating
7:53 · to Aqueduct it traveled miles across the country but if like me your might not have been aware that
8:00 · they took this one step further 3rd Century ad and we have a waterp powerered stone Sawmill and
8:09 · what is now turkey referred to as Little Asia a water doesn't sound too groundbreaking but what
8:16 · it was attached to in order to power the saw certainly was this is The hieropolis Sawmill
8:22 · and is the earliest known example of a saw mill powered by water using a crank with a connecting
8:28 · rod to perform a crank sliding mechanism well we're getting close you might not able to see
8:34 · it through there on camera yet but through there is all the Hallmarks of a Roman Road
8:41 · in fact right through there up through the trees again that's not going to come out on
8:44 · camera but bear with me so hopefully that diagram shows you how that crank Arman rod
8:50 · works and hopefully now you might be able to begin to see a picture forming if not
8:56 · bear with because you certainly will now I I thought today would be a great day to show you
9:01 · the own roads cuz the leaves are falling down but it's not I can see one right in front of
9:06 · me now and I'll try try and show you a diagram which highlights what I'm looking at but if I
9:11 · turn the camera around you're probably going to see nothing cuz the camera doesn't really show
9:15 · it once again we refer to the Roman's movement of water not just along a flat Aqueduct but also
9:27 · moving it up and down the force pump was used by sitting in the water just below its line and
9:34 · was designed to lift and push up a discharge tube by means of Pistons working in a pair of
9:40 · cylinders to date 25 examples of this Roman technology have been discovered
9:49 · [Music] 25 so we seem to have quite a lot of things in place here as Steam
9:58 · producing bull we have a crank in rod from the Mills and we have Pistons from
10:04 · the force pump action and even within those inventions we have a lot more useful things
10:10 · too we have gearing from the Mills and we have a non- return valve in the force
10:15 · pump doesn't seem like we're going to need much more but there is one thing
10:20 · left above all we have a civilization we have a seemingly ordered one we have mathematicians
10:29 · scientist Society we seem to have a world ready for industrial revolution we do also have larger
10:36 · Industries which would have absolutely benefited from the transport Revolution here in Britain in
10:41 · the mid to late 1700s mining fishing Pottery all kinds of things that would have benefited from
10:48 · that transportation system outside of Roads did I just say mining cuz yes they did have carts in
10:58 · their mines and they did have ruts I wouldn't call them rails but they did have ruts for those carts
11:06 · now one last hunt in the forest before we leave here and head further north for a Roman Road and
11:13 · right here you can see the Agger just slightly raised up by a couple of feet here untouched for
11:21 · a couple of thousand years right now the trees in the middle Believe It or Not of that slope slope
11:28 · Bank whatever you want to call it and uh yeah you can walk along a 2,000 year old Roman Road in saac
11:35 · [Music]
11:41 · Forest I've traveled out of savac forest up there on the hill walked into some rain
11:52 · but that field there right there is one I wanted to see for years in person it's
11:58 · just a field there's nothing there but it did contain the Roman town of coutino this
12:04 · field here this contained one of the uh the tax Haven or the tax um Center for this part
12:11 · of the Roman Empire because in that field they found the Roman town and they found
12:16 · hordes and hordes of coins wheelbarrows literally wheelbarrows full of Roman
12:23 · coins that is quite the image of a Roman town nothing but a field but sat below the ridge
12:35 · of savenac forest very beautiful setting so what went wrong why did all of these technologies that
12:41 · we seemingly have in the Roman time not sort of Link together and kick off this Industrial
12:46 · Revolution for that we may well need to look at the actual Industrial Revolution at that
12:52 · time well there was big change of foot the movement away from handmade to machine made
12:59 · efficiency at the time was absolutely King we also have huge agricultural productivity
13:06 · and we have orbe a poor Road Network we do have an increasing more organized way of
13:12 · moving things around increased efficiency on River navigation and of course [Music]
13:20 · canals so we've now solved the biggest issue in movement and that was getting the goods
13:27 · that were now so abundant and easy to produce to Market and we've arrived here at the start
13:34 · of the end of my journey I don't know if you can make it out but I've just walked
13:39 · down a platform this is ogborn platform that would be the track bed just there and just up
13:45 · ahead of me is something quite special so the Roman Road itself would have also gone
13:49 · pretty much exactly where the railway did as well compare that Industrial Revolution
13:56 · or the Industrial Revolution to the one that didn't happen 2,000 years ago you see it was
14:02 · said that Innovation wasn't really rewarded for the Roman citizen so our poor hero back
14:09 · then well he had every potential to facilitate a Industrial Revolution single-handedly but he had
14:16 · absolutely no motivation to do so here we are arrived the Midlands in Southwestern Junction
14:23 · Railway lovely new sign come and take a look at this so even if our hero or Heron had any inkling
14:32 · of the huge potential of steam power and I do believe he did have an inkling because of some
14:39 · of the things that he invented well there was no reward for him no real motivation I do believe
14:46 · that if someone would have said to him look we have this problem how do we overcome it I do
14:52 · believe that he would have had the solution and here we are arrived my final destination of the
14:58 · today which is ogborn abandoned railway station on the Midlands and Southwestern Junction Railway and
15:04 · this part takes pretty much the same alignment as the Roman Road here taking the same Journey
15:10 · I've been Paul thanks for watching and a big thanks to hellofresh for sponsoring today's
15:15 · video

Garrett Ryan, Ph.D as toldinstone: Were the Romans close to an Industrial Revolution? [Parts 1 & 2] [04/17/2022]

The Diolkos was a 4-mile-long (6.4 km) paved trackway near Corinth, Greece, built around 600 BC. It allowed ships to be moved overland across the Isthmus of Corinth, avoiding the long and treacherous journey around the Peloponnese peninsula. Although not directly related to the Red Sea, the Diolkos demonstrates the Romans’ ingenuity in creating infrastructure to facilitate maritime trade and transportation.

The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is four feet, eight and a half inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that’s the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the U.S. railroads.
Why did the English people build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the prerailroad tramways, and that’s the gauge they used. Why did ‘they’ use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagons would break on some of the old, long-distance roads, because that’s the spacing of the old wheel ruts.
So who built these old rutted roads? The first long-distance roads in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of its legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts? Roman war chariots made the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagons. Since the chariots were made for or by Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.

Thus, the standard U.S. railroad gauge of four feet, eight and a half inches derives from the specification for an Imperial Roman army war chariot. Specs and bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse’s a** came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two warhorses.

600 BC... that was almost 400 years before the Romans conquered Greece.

The Persians considered a canal/lock system to facilitate naval movement across the isthmus. They didn’t last long enough in Greece to get it done.

:^) Transit of the modern canal is described in one of Clive Cussler’s novels.

https://www.historyofrailroad.com/news/father-railway-diolkos

Paul did a video about the origin of the rail gauges.

Stay tuned for the Romans Invented Airplanes . . . Almost series.

Summary of tiny print transcript?

They built it there because isthmus be the place to do it.............

It says, “stop complaining”.

It’s where the phrase “Merry Isthmus” began.

Railway Gauges did NOT Evolve from a Roman Chariot.
14:16
Paul Whitewick
118K subscribers
295,488 views
January 1, 2024
Welcome to two questions. 1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrq2_koM1zg

https://search.brave.com/search?q=corinth+isthmus+canal

Corinth isthmus canal

The Corinth Isthmus Canal is a 6.3 km (4 miles) long, 24.6 meters (80.7 feet) wide artificial waterway that connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth, separating the Peloponnese peninsula from the Greek mainland.

History

The idea of building a canal across the Isthmus of Corinth dates back to the 7th century BC, when Periander, the ruler of Corinth, proposed the project. However, it was abandoned and replaced with a simpler and less costly overland portage road, known as the Diolkos or stone carriageway. The project was revived in the 19th century, and construction began in 1881. The canal was finally completed in 1893.

Features

Length: 6.3 km (4 miles)
Width: 24.6 meters (80.7 feet) at sea level
Depth: 8.5 meters (27.9 feet)
Locks: None (the canal is dug at sea level)
Maximum ship size: 58 feet wide

Here I thought this was going to be a story of how railroad gauges came about, based on ancient Roman chariot rut spacing.

And, nothing about Biggus Dickus and his wife?

Transcript
0:00	·	[Music] when you read through the list of Roman Technologies they either invented or
0:08	·	developed further it staggers me that the Industrial Revolution didn't start in the
0:13	·	Roman era welcome to the story of how the Romans invented the steam engine,
0:19	·	1500 years before the actual Industrial Revolution [Music] almost
0:33	·	now if you've been watching this channel a little while you know that I have a love of
0:36	·	old routes whether it's a abandoned Railway Canal Roman Road ancient trackway so whilst I'll tell
0:43	·	you today's story I'm going to travel along a Roman Road north towards an abandoned Railway
0:50	·	actual fact let's have a look and old map back at base and I'll show you the exact route I'm
0:55	·	taking
1:02	·	and for that we're going to need one of these OS map
1:12	·	.....got map okay um Paul that's better okay so today's journey is going to take us a log of
1:21	·	Rowan Road towards an abandoned Railway because it kind of fits with the whole theme...
1:28	·	[sponsor text redacted] ...so when I say the Train the Romans invented almost I'm not referring to the
3:16	·	early horsedrawn traway I'm not referring to the more Modern Diesel or electric train I'm
3:22	·	referring to the steam engine now I'm not showing you much Roman Road I've skipped
3:27	·	quite a bit there because there's a long boring Road set C got a railway and a canal
3:31	·	to cross then I'll show you or attempt to show you some Roman Road from this [Music]
3:40	·	area love a cute donkey who doesn't right now we know that steam engines in the their form
3:50	·	were well first of all not used to propel things at all that we use as stationary
3:55	·	objects maybe to uh do things like pump water in fact just across the way there I can see a
4:02	·	big chimney and building which was crofton and beam engines used to pump water from the lake
4:08	·	or Reservoir below up back into this here which is the summit level of the kennet and
4:14	·	avon Canal so the fact that are stationary for some time that helps me and gives me a little
4:20	·	bit of justification for the word almost in the title of the video as you'll come to
4:25	·	see so first and foremost what exactly do you need to build a steam engine propelling stuff
4:34	·	or not now let's not get into too much detail because there are a few additional extras for
4:40	·	safety let's just assume the absolute Basics which you would build on and evolve around 30
4:48	·	to 20 BC Roman architect and engineer vitruvius wrote his works the De architectura that was
4:58	·	almost like a modern day encyclopedia it contained everything and anything now largely it did focus
5:06	·	on architecture and buildings and how to build but also it contains anything else that seemed to pop
5:13	·	into his head it's a bit like this YouTube channel in some ways one such passing mention refers to
5:20	·	the aelopile he describes this as a metal Ball filled with water which is placed above a fire to
5:27	·	produce steam which is forced out of an aperture on top now the key element here is that he doesn't
5:33	·	describe any moving parts and perhaps alludes to the fact that this could be an invention more
5:39	·	aligned with understanding weather move forward to 62 ad in Alexandria coined is the Roman Empire's
5:48	·	cultural capital and we have a man named Heron or hero and he's inventing all kinds of weird
5:55	·	and wonderful but not necessarily appreciated things the vend in machine the automatic door
6:02	·	um the wind powered organ one thing that goes unnoticed as he invented the world's first steam
6:11	·	engine you see he took the works of those before him and adapted Vitruviius' Aeilopile added pivot
6:23	·	Points to the metal ball and angled the exit points for the Steam and hey Presto the ball
6:29	·	would spin As It produced [Music] steam now ventured North into savernake Forest
6:37	·	a thousand year old ancient Woodland here in a vain attempt to do something that I can never
6:43	·	really do on this channel which is try and show you on camera the Agger of a Roman Road
6:49	·	which Still Remains today largely impossible through the lens of a camera we give it a go
6:54	·	come join me this [Music] way now like the TRU before him Heron wrote a list of Works what he
7:02	·	learned by all of his tinkering and inventing and book two was entitled pneumatica so you can guess
7:10	·	that that contained lots of details on steam powered things one of which was the ELO pile
7:21	·	now this broadly translate as wind ball but that's about it there's not really much else
7:27	·	in his Works other than how to build it it was almost like it was seen as a toy but nevertheless
7:33	·	we have the technology there we know it's there but we do need a few other key elements [Music]
7:42	·	first now we know how good the Romans were with water from barves to underfloor heating
7:53	·	to Aqueduct it traveled miles across the country but if like me your might not have been aware that
8:00	·	they took this one step further 3rd Century ad and we have a waterp powerered stone Sawmill and
8:09	·	what is now turkey referred to as Little Asia a water doesn't sound too groundbreaking but what
8:16	·	it was attached to in order to power the saw certainly was this is The hieropolis Sawmill
8:22	·	and is the earliest known example of a saw mill powered by water using a crank with a connecting
8:28	·	rod to perform a crank sliding mechanism well we're getting close you might not able to see
8:34	·	it through there on camera yet but through there is all the Hallmarks of a Roman Road
8:41	·	in fact right through there up through the trees again that's not going to come out on
8:44	·	camera but bear with me so hopefully that diagram shows you how that crank Arman rod
8:50	·	works and hopefully now you might be able to begin to see a picture forming if not
8:56	·	bear with because you certainly will now I I thought today would be a great day to show you
9:01	·	the own roads cuz the leaves are falling down but it's not I can see one right in front of
9:06	·	me now and I'll try try and show you a diagram which highlights what I'm looking at but if I
9:11	·	turn the camera around you're probably going to see nothing cuz the camera doesn't really show
9:15	·	it once again we refer to the Roman's movement of water not just along a flat Aqueduct but also
9:27	·	moving it up and down the force pump was used by sitting in the water just below its line and
9:34	·	was designed to lift and push up a discharge tube by means of Pistons working in a pair of
9:40	·	cylinders to date 25 examples of this Roman technology have been discovered
9:49	·	[Music] 25 so we seem to have quite a lot of things in place here as Steam
9:58	·	producing bull we have a crank in rod from the Mills and we have Pistons from
10:04	·	the force pump action and even within those inventions we have a lot more useful things
10:10	·	too we have gearing from the Mills and we have a non- return valve in the force
10:15	·	pump doesn't seem like we're going to need much more but there is one thing
10:20	·	left above all we have a civilization we have a seemingly ordered one we have mathematicians
10:29	·	scientist Society we seem to have a world ready for industrial revolution we do also have larger
10:36	·	Industries which would have absolutely benefited from the transport Revolution here in Britain in
10:41	·	the mid to late 1700s mining fishing Pottery all kinds of things that would have benefited from
10:48	·	that transportation system outside of Roads did I just say mining cuz yes they did have carts in
10:58	·	their mines and they did have ruts I wouldn't call them rails but they did have ruts for those carts
11:06	·	now one last hunt in the forest before we leave here and head further north for a Roman Road and
11:13	·	right here you can see the Agger just slightly raised up by a couple of feet here untouched for
11:21	·	a couple of thousand years right now the trees in the middle Believe It or Not of that slope slope
11:28	·	Bank whatever you want to call it and uh yeah you can walk along a 2,000 year old Roman Road in saac
11:35	·	[Music]
11:41	·	Forest I've traveled out of savac forest up there on the hill walked into some rain
11:52	·	but that field there right there is one I wanted to see for years in person it's
11:58	·	just a field there's nothing there but it did contain the Roman town of coutino this
12:04	·	field here this contained one of the uh the tax Haven or the tax um Center for this part
12:11	·	of the Roman Empire because in that field they found the Roman town and they found
12:16	·	hordes and hordes of coins wheelbarrows literally wheelbarrows full of Roman
12:23	·	coins that is quite the image of a Roman town nothing but a field but sat below the ridge
12:35	·	of savenac forest very beautiful setting so what went wrong why did all of these technologies that
12:41	·	we seemingly have in the Roman time not sort of Link together and kick off this Industrial
12:46	·	Revolution for that we may well need to look at the actual Industrial Revolution at that
12:52	·	time well there was big change of foot the movement away from handmade to machine made
12:59	·	efficiency at the time was absolutely King we also have huge agricultural productivity
13:06	·	and we have orbe a poor Road Network we do have an increasing more organized way of
13:12	·	moving things around increased efficiency on River navigation and of course [Music]
13:20	·	canals so we've now solved the biggest issue in movement and that was getting the goods
13:27	·	that were now so abundant and easy to produce to Market and we've arrived here at the start
13:34	·	of the end of my journey I don't know if you can make it out but I've just walked
13:39	·	down a platform this is ogborn platform that would be the track bed just there and just up
13:45	·	ahead of me is something quite special so the Roman Road itself would have also gone
13:49	·	pretty much exactly where the railway did as well compare that Industrial Revolution
13:56	·	or the Industrial Revolution to the one that didn't happen 2,000 years ago you see it was
14:02	·	said that Innovation wasn't really rewarded for the Roman citizen so our poor hero back
14:09	·	then well he had every potential to facilitate a Industrial Revolution single-handedly but he had
14:16	·	absolutely no motivation to do so here we are arrived the Midlands in Southwestern Junction
14:23	·	Railway lovely new sign come and take a look at this so even if our hero or Heron had any inkling
14:32	·	of the huge potential of steam power and I do believe he did have an inkling because of some
14:39	·	of the things that he invented well there was no reward for him no real motivation I do believe
14:46	·	that if someone would have said to him look we have this problem how do we overcome it I do
14:52	·	believe that he would have had the solution and here we are arrived my final destination of the
14:58	·	today which is ogborn abandoned railway station on the Midlands and Southwestern Junction Railway and
15:04	·	this part takes pretty much the same alignment as the Roman Road here taking the same Journey
15:10	·	I've been Paul thanks for watching and a big thanks to hellofresh for sponsoring today's
15:15	·	video