Ancient Roman Tools

Much of our modern world is built off of a number of very basic ancient roman tools and engineering techniques, some of them dating back to Roman times. For example, the width of our roads (and thus, the width of cars that we buy) are based off of the width established for Roman roads in the 2nd Century BC. This has influenced things like the width of shipping containers, rail road tracks, and even the width of the Space Shuttle's internal cargo bay.

Even so, there's a lot of interesting ancient roman tools and techniques that the Romans used in day to day life that we're still uncovering. Roman tools were made in a different era, before standardized units of measurement were common, and when there was no power other than animal, human or (very rarely) hydropower.

The military might wielded by the Roman Empire was legendary. The soldiers who lived during this time were fiercely loyal to their leaders and their country. These were strong, intelligent men who took a great deal of pride in using the best military tactics and having the best weapons.

The military and weapons of ancient Rome were two important factors that led to the superiority of one of the greatest empires of all times. Swords, shields and spears were the commonly used weapons required for combat, but this did not mean that these were the only military tools available. Roman soldiers were adroit tacticians, and they had no problems utilizing a variety of weaponry if that was what was needed to defeat their enemies on the battlefield.

Let's look at power tools, Roman style: Did you know that the Romans had powered milling lathes? The lathing rod itself was usually shaped from stone, and the system itself turned by gears and ropes, powered by a treadle press (basically, kicking a counterweight) or, for higher end options, a water mill from a stream.

Of course, if you can make a lathe spin, you can also make a drillbit turn, and some of the Roman archeology found recently has discovered the remnants of entire machine shops next to waterwheels to turn them. The Romans had iron, and bronze, and could make steel (although they really couldn't reproduce a lot of steel making techniques, save in small batches), so a lot of their tools were made from wood and shaped stone.

Another Roman tool worth noting was tools for pulling wire; wire was used for a lot of things, and getting consistently gauged wire with Classical era tools took a lot of ingenuity; the Romans practically invented the technique of pulling just shy of molten metal through stone grates to get wire of consistent sizes, and used this technique to great effect; there are a thousand things you can do that rate as technical marvels in the classical era if you can get wire that's fairly uniform in large lots.

Roman tools also included a lot of farm implements; the Roman scythe was one of the first major 'consumer items' produced in cast metal in the world, and was cast from bronze, and then from iron, and then from 'black steel' at various times during Roman history. Many of these blades were sharpened and re-sharpened and still in use more than a century later as Roman culture retreated after the Visigoths sacked Rome. Similarly, the Romans produced cast hammerheads and blades for auls and piths that have survived to the modern era.

Other Roman era tools also included navigational devices (early sextants) and sailing counterweights to make it easier to raise or lower sails when doing shipping across the Mediterranean. Roman engineering was dedicated to reproducible results, and Roman toolmakers guarded their techniques jealously; this is one reason why the fall of Rome and the loss of many of those techniques, are called the Dark Ages.

Fortunately for us, a lot of documentation exists about Roman technologies, and their tools. And some of their ideas aren't that far from what you'd find in a Home Depot or Lowes.