How did public fountains, like those in Rome, work without any type of motor to pump the water?

★ wanayoo — archive 1999 http://howstuffworks.com/question33.htm

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Question
How did public fountains, like those in Rome, work without any type of motor to pump the water?

Answer
Rome received all of its water (according to Encarta, about 38 million gallons a day) through a system of aqueducts. All water flowed to the city by gravity, but because it was arriving from surrounding hills it could be stored in large cisterns very similar in concept to today's water towers (the main difference is that cisterns are filled from the top).

Water flowed from the cisterns either through pipes to individual houses or to public distribution points. Fountains served both decorative and functional purposes, since people could bring their buckets to the fountain to collect water. The cisterns provided the height needed to generate water pressure for the fountains to spray. As discussed in the HSW article on water towers, a foot of height generates 0.43 PSI of water pressure, so a cistern does not have to be that tall to develop enough pressure to give a fountain a reasonable display.

Helpful links:

Good discussion of the history of Roman fountains
History of Roman plumbing
Roman scenes - some really nice animations!
A quick tour of Modern Rome

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