A brief history of aqueducts and conduit resistance laws

The history presented here, which must necessarily be short compared to the immensity of the history of fluid mechanics, in general, and of aqueducts, in particular, is divided into six paragraphs. The first is dedicated to ancient investigations and applications on currents. There follows a paragraph dedicated to a brief history of the Roman aqueducts, still today the object of so much admiration. It should be emphasized that, with the decline of the Roman Empire, the administration necessary for the development and maintenance of these water systems was lost. It was a long time before the kind of solution that the Romans had given to the problem could be taken up and applied again.