“It is sometimes held that the aquarium was invented by the Romans, who are said to have kept sea barbels in marble-and-glass tanks, but this is definitely not true.” – Wikipedia
Well now I want to know what a sea barbel is.
We asked on Monday how humans discovered glass, and we left the fish tank question to be answered later. Now, we’re answering it.
NOT IN ANCIENT ROME!
Honestly, it’s possible the Romans had tanks. I’m not ruling it out. That Wikipedia line cites this impassioned defense of the British–inventor theory, a defense which boils down to: No, we can’t prove the Romans *didn’t* have fish tanks, but there is also no evidence that they did, and we’d probably have that evidence if it existed. Thus reasons the late Albert J. Klee, Ph.D. (It does seem like Dr. Klee’s probably right, and to be honest, he cares a lot more about fish tanks than I do. I’m gonna stand down and move on from the Romans now.)
If the Romans didn’t invent the fish tank, who did? Going by Wikipedia, it sounds like there were porcelain fish tanks in China as early as 1369, and that the first glass aquaria came onto the scene in the 1800s in France. Robert Warington, the British man, discovered the Aquarium Principle, which says that the plants in an aquarium can support the fish in an aquarium if there’s the right balance. Never thought about that before, to be honest. I thought you either needed to refresh the water or add a bubbler.
So, not a lot of answers. Or rather, plenty of answers but nothing that interesting. Respect to Dr. Klee’s memory, though. That guy did a heck of a lot of digging on this. That’s what separates Ph.D.’s from bloggers.
