• Oisteink@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Why they make that many house if relly ingenious?? Force is the same, so they could have a really large one at the bottom and save slaves for stuff like the feeding of grapes wile laying on sofa

    • gnu@lemmy.zip
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      2 months ago

      Without modern metallurgy and and the associated industrial manufacturing base it’s a lot harder to build a single mill to effectively use all the potential energy. A multiple mill setup like this allows you to extract most of the energy without reaching the limits of how much force you can put through machinery made of wood (the shafts and bearings are likely also wood, not just the wheel buckets), stone, and low strength metals.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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      2 months ago

      Overshot wheels, as the ones displayed in the reconstruction, are more efficient. Theoretically, I suppose, they could have made it one massive structure like a modern dam, but that would have been a lot of architectural effort for no real increase in efficiency.

      • Oisteink@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Dam? Just dont build all the houses and the water falls the same height. The one at the bottom spinns dam fast!

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Maybe more manageable consistency in the grist. You would get just about the same level of work from each mill, so you products would maybe be more consistent?

    • gnu@lemmy.zip
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      2 months ago

      Without modern metallurgy and and the associated industrial manufacturing base it’s a lot harder to build a single mill to effectively use all the potential energy. A multiple mill setup like this allows you to extract most of the energy without reaching the limits of how much force you can put through machinery made of wood (the shafts and bearings are likely also wood, not just the wheel buckets), stone, and low strength metals.