Section 3

Hydropower

Humans have used water power for centuries to grind grain, make cloth, saw wood, tan leather, shape iron, bore pipes, and most recently, to generate electricity.

One of the first mechanical devices used to extract water was the shaduf, originally developed in ancient Egypt (ca. 3000 BC). The shaduf is a form of lever consisting of a pole balanced on a pivot, with a weight at one end and a bucket at the other. This first appeared in Egypt or possibly India; it is still in use today. The noria, a vertical water wheel with buckets attached to its rim, used to raise water from a stream, especially for transfer to an irrigation channel, was probably in use in India and/or the Near East ca. 350 to 200 BC. The Greek engineer and ...

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