help me make sense....

[Arwen]

I have been reading and devouring just about every article I can find on the layout of the Roman Baths, specifically for a Villa Urbana or Suburbana, and everything I see, seems to contradict themselves on where the users undressed, and where the Apodyterium, the Frigidarium, the tepidarium, the Caldarium, and the praefurnium, and related passageways and doors...some, say the Tepidarium and Caldarium had small circular pools in them, some say they were just regular chambers, heated by the air heated by the Praefurnium fires and passed by clay ductwork into the various chambers, while others indicate that fires were directly under each chamberin the hypocaust, and ond site I looked at, had something about a triple-chambered boiler system which supplied the appropriate-temperature water to each...grrrrr it gets my old head spinning, and I would like to have contact with someone who comprehends these things, and can aid me in comprehension as I work in a virtual world called Second Life, to build, a historically accurate, yet appropriately sized one, first, for the Estate of my SL family, and later, for contibution to exhibits, inworld related to the Roman world.

[GhostOfClayton]

There were almost as many layouts of baths as there were baths. There's not even that much commonality in the military bathhouses.

 

The three tier boiler you describe is called a Milarium, but I doubt they were that widespread.

 

Your SL requirements seem to correspond to a bath suite in a private villa. We're fortunate that there are two excellent reproductions of such examples available. The first is the town house at Wroxeter, and the second is the town house at Augusta Raurica.

 

Wroxeter can be explored via the virtual tour on this page.

 

Photos of the Augusta Raurica bath suite can be found at the virtual tour on this page.

 

It's a long shot, but if you ever find yourself in Newcastle upon Tyne (UK), there is a reproduction military bathhouse at Segedunum (Wallsend).

[Arwen]

There were almost as many layouts of baths as there were baths. There's not even that much commonality in the military bathhouses.

 

The three tier boiler you describe is called a Milarium, but I doubt they were that widespread.

 

Your SL requirements seem to correspond to a bath suite in a private villa. We're fortunate that there are two excellent reproductions of such examples available. The first is the town house at Wroxeter, and the second is the town house at Augusta Raurica.

 

Wroxeter can be explored via the virtual tour on this page.

 

Photos of the Augusta Raurica bath suite can be found at the virtual tour on this page.

 

It's a long shot, but if you ever find yourself in Newcastle upon Tyne (UK), there is a reproduction military bathhouse at Segedunum (Wallsend).

[Arwen]

Thank you ghost! that relieves me greatly, and vastly simplifies things! I willl look at the ones you cite. at Wroxeter and the Augusta Raurica and see what they have to offer, but I am still interestedin whatever I can find on the practical usage of the milarium:) and again, thanks very much!!)

[GhostOfClayton]

Have a look at Wroxeter, and you see the very simplest of boiler designs; a simple copper tank placed over the praefurnium. Being relatively shallow, this would lead to a fairly uniform supply of very hot water.

 

If the miliarium were merely a tall copper cylinder, there would be a steady gradient of water temperatures (once the heat source had died down) from top to bottom. The miliarium narrows in two places creating three chambers within which water can convect freely, but between which there is limited convection. The result is (in all practical terms) three bodies of water at differing temperatures. The top chamber being smaller, and the bottom one being larger, helps this.