The Korean connection

It’s not uncommon in History for the same invention to be invented twice, by people in places of the world so distant from one another that there’s no way they could have based or adapted their inventions from each other. That is the case for groundbreaking inventions, such as gunpowder or, more arguably, the compass, but it’s also the case for more mundane, household inventions that, nonetheless, play an important part in everyday life.

One such example is the technology we refer to as underfloor heating. In the Western World, underfloor heating was invented by the Romans. The Romans were known to take great pride in their hygiene, and bathhouses were considered not only a public service facility, but also a place of commerce and of honor, often consecrated to one of their gods. These bathhouses had a heating system that was very similar to nowadays underfloor heating technology, using hot water. When the Empire expanded further North, the colder temperatures caused the technology to be adapted to warm up private houses.

At a similar time, in Korea, the ondol technology was developed. Ondol is the Korean name for underfloor heating, and it is still used today, with only slight variations.