Might've been asked before, but between work and sifting through a sea of search results about bagpipes and smoking, I figured I'd just ask. How did humans achieve piping water before electricity/modernity? Was the primary source of power simply gravity? What else could be used to pipe water into homes or fountains?
How could modern humans achieve the same effect of piping water into homes without electricity, given what we know about that tech?
Look up ancient plumbing.
IIRC, we find the earliest evidence in Minoan Crete. The Romans were the true masters of it, bringing water across intervening valleys on aqueducts, then distributing it around a city to public fountains at many locals.
All of this was gravity-fed until the 1800s. This includes glorious high-shooting fountains, as at Versailles.
You need to remember that even today water is only pumped above the sixth floor (ref: NFPA on fire systems). That would be a towering tenement back when, and not likely to have indoor plumbing.
If some gravity needed to be added for force, water could be pumped up to higher cisterns using muscle-powered machines, like an Archimedes screw (that's really old). Narrowing pipes also increases force.