• DOI:10.1179/175812111X13033852943471
• Corpus ID: 110624972

Central Heating for Caligula's Pleasure Ship

@article{Kroos2011CentralHF,
  title={Central Heating for Caligula's Pleasure Ship},
  author={Kenneth A. Kroos},
  journal={The International Journal for the History of Engineering \& Technology},
  year={2011},
  volume={81},
  pages={291 - 299}
}

• K. Kroos
• Published 1 July 2011
• Engineering
• The International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology

Abstract Almost two thousand years ago, the Roman Emperor Caligula ordered the construction of a floating pleasure barge that he used for entertaining. For the comfort of his passengers, he installed a hypocaust heating system. The ship was destroyed shortly after his death and nothing remains of this heating system or the ship design. A hypothetical design was developed and analysed to show that this type of heating could be used effectively and safely on a wooden ship. Various floor materials and designs were analysed to gain an understanding of how heat was delivered through the floor into the living area. It was found that a hypocaust could be built that would provide 140 W/m2 of floor space consuming 2 kg/hr of wood to heat a 5 m by 10 m floor.