From: "Strong, Lee" <StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL>
To: "'WSFA members'" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Interesting Inventions
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 10:59:59 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

	Another favorite was the coin operated holy water dispenser invented
by the Egyptian priesthood in Roman times.  However, I do think that having
the statute of the god spit the holy water at the worshipper lacked dignity.
	Concerning Roman spending habits, yes, but we should remember the
differences in culture.  A lot of spending was extremely conspicuous
consumption in a society that lacked the variety of pleasures that we enjoy.
However, a number of Romans used their wealth to create public works of
enduring value.  The Appian Way was originally built by a private citizen
and donated to the Roman people.  It's been repaved many times since but is
still in use today.

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Smith [mailto:sgs at aginc.net]
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2002 10:37 AM
To: WSFA members
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Interesting Inventions

"Strong, Lee" wrote:

>         One of my favorite interesting invention stories was the Roman
> investor who discovered that Romans loved seafood which was scarce and
> expensive due to contemporary transportation problems.  So he built
> artifical oyster farms on the roofs of several buildings he owned -- the
> first known case of seafood farming.

The Romans did come up with some of the durndest things.  I think my
favorite is the Syrian icemaker.  The Romans loved ices, and would haul
large amounts of snow from the Alps to Rome in the summer.  In Syria
(hot, dry desert), there were no local (even by Roman standards)
mountains, somebody came up with a way of making ice in the summer.

Take a large shallow pond.  Water will evaporate, cooling it.  Cover it
with straw during the day to keep it from warming up.  Remove the straw
at night to expose the pond to the sky (radiation temperature about -268
degrees C (5K)).  The water will freeze.

Note that for spending money, the Romans made our current dotcom
millionaires look like Trappist monks.

--
Steve Smith                                           sgs at aginc.net
Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."