Five Oldest Books on Water

The five of the oldest books on water resource developement

Jun 16, 2023

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What is the oldest book on water techniques, or to be more precise, water engineering, that was used for optimal water resource utilization? The primary goal of this article is to locate five of the oldest books on water resources. Water has been used for agriculture, tourism, and power generation since ancient times, in addition to everyday uses such as drinking, cleaning, and so on. In this article, I will attempt to highlight books that were published at least 100 years ago and were considered pioneering books on water resource utilization. The majority of the books are from the twentieth century, but I'll begin with one that was translated into English in the eighteenth century.

1. Brihata Samhita

by Baraha Mihir

English Translation : N.C. Iyer

This book was written during the reign of the Gupta Dynasty in the Indian Subcontinent (6th century CE). He wrote about astronomy, astrology, and various arts such as agriculture. His techniques are still used to identify groundwater (Ref: DSPandey ). This book was originally written in Sanskrit by Baraha Mihir and was translated into English by N.C.Iyer and published by The South India Press in 1884. This book is not only about water resource utilisation, but the techniques discussed in the book are still used for groundwater extraction. This is possibly the oldest book on the techniques for extracting water. More specifically, this was the book that showed the first glimpses of Water Engineering.

Year of Publication : 1884(English Translation)

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2. Electric Transmission of Water Power

by Alton D. Adams

More than fifty cities in North America now have access to electricity generated by transmitted water power. Mexico City, with a population of Buffalo, and San Francisco, with and respectively; Montreal, with 266 826; and Los Angeles, St. Paul, and Minneapolis, with populations ranging from to. These cities stretch from Quebec to Anderson, and from Seattle to Mexico City. Portland, Springfield, Albany, Buffalo, Hamilton, Toronto, St. Paul, Butte, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco are among the cities in the chain from east to west. Water power is electrically transmitted to these cities, in many cases dozens of miles, in a few cases scores of miles, and in one case more than two hundred miles.

Year of Publication: 1906

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3. Water Power for the Farm and Country Home

by David R. Cooper

“In the course of its general investigations of the water powers of the State, the Water Supply Commission has heretofore confined its attention to the possibilities for large developments, and the regulation of the How of rivers and large creeks. No previous or general investigation of small creeks and brooks and their power possibilities have been made, not because they were considered unimportant, but because the Commission believes that if the State decides to take an active part in the regulation of the ﬂow of streams and the development and conservation of water powers, it should confine its first activities to the larger units, leaving the smaller opportunities for later examination and for private and individual development. However, no comprehensive system of conservation can meet with universal favor unless it contemplates the prevention of waste, great or small, and wherever found.”

Year of Publication: 1911

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4. The Danube

by Walter Jerrold (Author)

…..“Probably in the past its difficulty of access made the enthusiasm of travellers less effective in attracting English visitors to the Danube. As early as 1827, J. R. Planché, poet, dramatist, and historian of costume, made a Descent of the Danube from Ratisbon to Vienna, and duly published an account of the journey in the following year. Twenty years later another writer, who had “scribbled successfully for the stage,” John Palgrave Simpson, published Letters from the Danube, describing a journey by steamer from Ratisbon to[Pg vi] Budapest. Then, in 1853, “two briefless barristers and a Cambridge undergraduate” journeyed in a Thames rowing-boat from Kelheim to Budapest, and one of their number, R. B. Mansfield, chronicled their adventures in The Water Lily on the Danube: being a brief account of a Pair-Oar during a voyage from Lambeth to Pesth. Some years earlier William Beattie had gathered various legends of the Danube to accompany Bartlett’s series of engravings of The Beauties of the Danube. Thus it will be seen that in days when the river was more distant than it is now it was not wanting panegyrists. In later years it has been curiously neglected, except in the way of casual references and the compact compilations of guide-books. This, however, may be said, so far as I have been able to ascertain, nobody who has journeyed along both the Rhine and the Danube—if we except the pardonable partiality of those who have a patriotic regard for the former—but finds the Danube almost incomparably the more variously fascinating stream.”….

Year of Publication: 1911

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5. The First Book of Water

by Josephine Norling and Ernest Norling

“Water seems to have magic. Here it is and now it's gone! You see it and now you don't! It is water — now vapor — now a cloud! It falls from the sky! It's a pool on the ground! N ow it's gone again! It runs down the river but the river is still full! It pours steadily into the great ocean, but the ocean never runs over! It appears at dawn as shiny drops of dew on the grass. Look again later and presto, the drops are gone! Now it has changed from a drop of water into a snow crystal! It's a piece of ice you can hold in your hand for a minute gone now, dripping through your fingers!”

Year of Publication: 1952

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