Editing Dam (section)

===Industrial Revolution===
[[File:Engraving of Rideau Canal locks.jpg|thumb|upright|240x240px|An engraving of the [[Rideau Canal]] locks at [[Bytown]]]]
The Romans were the first to build [[arch dam]]s, where the [[reaction force]]s from the abutment stabilizes the structure from the external [[hydrostatic pressure]], but it was only in the 19th century that the engineering skills and construction materials available were capable of building the first large-scale arch dams.

Three pioneering arch dams were built around the [[British Empire]] in the early 19th century. Henry Russel of the [[Royal Engineers]] oversaw the construction of the [[Mir Alam Tank|Mir Alam dam]] in 1804 to supply water to the city of [[Hyderabad]] (it is still in use today). It had a height of {{convert|12|m|abbr=on}} and consisted of 21 arches of variable span.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.simscience.org/cracks/advanced/butt_hist1.html |title=Key Developments in the History of Buttress Dams |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321190213/http://www.simscience.org/cracks/advanced/butt_hist1.html |archive-date=21 March 2012 |df=dmy }}</ref>

In the 1820s and 30s, Lieutenant-Colonel [[John By]] supervised the construction of the [[Rideau Canal]] in [[Canada]] near modern-day [[Ottawa]] and built a series of curved masonry dams as part of the waterway system. In particular, the [[Jones Falls Dam]], built by [[John Redpath]], was completed in 1832 as the largest dam in [[North America]] and an engineering marvel. In order to keep the water in control during construction, two [[sluice]]s, artificial channels for conducting water, were kept open in the dam. The first was near the base of the dam on its east side. A second sluice was put in on the west side of the dam, about {{convert|20|ft|abbr=on}} above the base. To make the switch from the lower to upper sluice, the outlet of Sand Lake was blocked off.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Canada/john_redpath.htm |title=John Redpath, the Whispering Dam, and Sugar |date=2014-10-31}}</ref>

[[File:Lake Parramatta,New South Wales.jpg|left|thumb|Masonry arch wall, [[Parramatta]], [[New South Wales]], the first engineered dam built in Australia]]
Hunts Creek near the city of [[Parramatta]], [[Australia]], was dammed in the 1850s, to cater to the demand for water from the growing population of the city. The masonry [[arch dam]] wall was designed by Lieutenant Percy Simpson who was influenced by the advances in dam engineering techniques made by the [[Royal Engineers]] in [[British India|India]]. The dam cost £17,000 and was completed in 1856 as the first engineered dam built in Australia, and the second arch dam in the world built to mathematical specifications.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.traianvs.net/textos/archdams_en.htm |title=Historical Development of Arch Dams}}</ref>

The first such dam was opened two years earlier in [[France]]. It was the first French arch dam of the [[Industrial Revolution|industrial era]], and it was built by François Zola in the municipality of [[Aix-en-Provence]] to improve the supply of water after the [[Second cholera pandemic (1829–1851)|1832 cholera outbreak]] devastated the area. After [[Louis Philippe I|royal approval]] was granted in 1844, the dam was constructed over the following decade. Its construction was carried out on the basis of the mathematical results of scientific stress analysis.

The 75-miles dam near [[Warwick, Queensland|Warwick]], Australia, was possibly the world's first concrete arch dam. Designed by [[Henry Charles Stanley]] in 1880 with an overflow spillway and a special water outlet, it was eventually heightened to {{convert|10|m|abbr=on}}.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, significant advances in the scientific theory of masonry dam design were made. This transformed dam design from an art based on empirical methodology to a profession based on a rigorously applied scientific theoretical framework. This new emphasis was centered around the engineering faculties of universities in France and in the United Kingdom. [[William John Macquorn Rankine]] at the [[University of Glasgow]] pioneered the theoretical understanding of dam structures in his 1857 paper ''On the Stability of Loose Earth''. [[Rankine theory]] provided a good understanding of the principles behind dam design.<ref>Rankine, W. (1857) "On the stability of loose earth". ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London'', Vol. 147.</ref> In France, J. Augustin Tortene de Sazilly explained the mechanics of vertically faced masonry gravity dams, and Zola's dam was the first to be built on the basis of these principles.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150337/dam/72085/The-19th-century |title=dam |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=13 August 2023 }}</ref>