Roman aqueducts

Concrete water conveyance — the long-duration historical anchor in the pipe-material progression: trough → wood → stone → concrete (Roman) → lead → galvanized → copper → plastic.

Conveying water over the ages — what was the first material people used to convey water? They may have had to go down to the stream, and if they had a bucket made out of clay, a clay pot — or maybe they just scooped it up with their cupped hand. But after that, if they wanted to convey it, what might they have done? They could have used animal skins. I was actually thinking of soil. They might dig a hole and make a trough — except it leaks through. So what did they use next? They probably would have lined it with wood, because they had lots of wood, it was easy to work. After that they might use stone, then concrete. The Roman aqueducts were concrete. Then in the 18th and 19th centuries they were using lead pipe.