Plumbing is a communication, without which it is impossible to imagine modern society. And please answer me the question: When laying a water supply system, what pipes are used? Plastic, steel, and in the relatively recent past, they were generally made from lead. But what if we look into the distant past, say 500 years ago to ancient Moscow. How was the water supply there?
One of the most ancient pressure water pipelines is the Moscow one, the history of which dates back to the reign of Ivan the Terrible, when, by his order in 1461, oak logs were laid with a hollowed out core. Through these wooden pipes, water from the Moskva River flowed by gravity to the well-cache. From where the inhabitants were already delivered in buckets to their homes.
Already in 1492, wells were dug under the Sviblova and Sobakina towers of the Kremlin. And in 1631-1634, the construction of the first pressure water pipeline not only in Russia, but throughout Europe was completed.
Water was still flowing through the same pipes from the river to a well under the Vodovzvodnaya (Sviblova) tower, from where, with the help of a water platoon, the water was raised into a tank placed on the tower, and from there it flowed by gravity into various rooms.
And, it would seem, so what, the water supply from wooden pipes. The fact is that these pipes can still be used, and they were over 500 years old for a minute.
And this is far from the limit. If you move from Moscow to ancient Novgorod, then there is a similar construction for almost 800 years already. After all, it was laid down in the 12th century and is still in work today.
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Opening such facts, you involuntarily begin to wonder whether we are so developed if our products last a maximum of 50 years, and the buildings of our ancestors half a millennium or more can still be actively used for their intended purpose.