Hot Tub History Dates Back To Ancient Hot Springs

27 Sep Hot Tub History Dates Back To Ancient Hot Springs

Heath and Hot Water: The History of Nature’s ‘Hot Tub’

From AQUA

The history of our modern day hot tub dates back to a geological oddity.  Natural hot springs, as this post from AQUA magazine points out, were the inspiriation for what we now think of as a hot tub.  Loosely defined as emergent ground water that is heated geothermically, these hot springs occur naturally on every continent in the world.  Its no wonder that these relaxing, theraputic bodies of water inspired this phenomenon.

Here is an excerpt from the post:

Any discussion of hot water, and more specifically hot water hydrotherapy and the relaxation and recreation it provides, ultimately begins with natural hot springs. Loosely defined as emergent groundwater heated by geothermal energy that is in excess of the ambient temperature or in excess of average human body temperature, hot springs and their close cousins, mineral springs, exist on every continent and a majority of countries.

Many are far too hot for human contact but remain important features in the natural landscape and in the grand scheme of biodiversity. Indeed, organisms that thrive in hot springs exist in some of the most extreme conditions known to biological science.

For us humans, hot springs have been part of our lives since antiquity and likely before. Our efforts to harness these remarkable bodies of hot water continue to this day. Many major cities were established around hot springs and have names that reflect their history and relationship to the water. Places like Germany’s Baden-Baden, Bath in England and Spa in Belgium (the place often widely credited as the origin for the word “spa”) are literally synonymous with the hot-water bathing experience.

During the 19th century, such locales were largely the provinces of the wealthy. After the turn of the 20th century with the development of national park systems, the advent of the automobile and the modern tourism industry, the pleasures of hot springs became far more accessible to the masses.

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