ABSTRACT
The scarcity of source materials for the history of the pile driver is illustrated in a quick survey. The pile drivers demonstrably in use from the 15th through the 18th centuries were the hand ram, the hye, and the engin. The technological sophistication of the improved pile drivers provokes people admiration, but there is little evidence that contemporaries shared people attitude. Even the simple pile driver powered by men pulling directly on the ram needed frequent repairs during the two-month pile-driving season at Orleans in 1387–89. The earliest pile driver illustrating a literary text is in a 1519 manuscript of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars, where the Roman commander is shown supervising the building of the bridge across the Rhine. Technical expertise was in short supply among builders, so that a pile driver with a foolproof construction, or at least one where the repairs were easy, was bound to be popular.
