Ongoing quest
for pure water
The quest for safe drinking water is fascinating and is ongoing. Let’s look at
this water wisdom from the very beginning.
A
sanskrit manuscript Ousruta Sanghita, from 2000 BC observes that "It is good to keep
water in copper vessels, to expose it to sunlight and filter through charcoal."
Early
Egyptian paintings from the 13th and 15th centuries BC depict the sedimentation apparatus
being used.
Historically,
the taste of water used to determine its purity. Hippocrates, the father of Medicine,
invented the ‘Hippocrates Sleeve’, a cloth bag to strain rainwater, in the 5th
century BC.
Between
343 BC and 225 AD, Roman engineers created a system — supplying 130 gallons daily
through aqueducts.
Sir
Francis Bacon, a philosopher, chronicled only ten experiments in the preceding 1,000 years
that dealt with water treatment. He believed that saline sea water could be purified if it
were percolated through sand.
In
1685, an Italian physician, Lu Antonio Porzio, designed the first multiple sand filter. It
used contained two compartments (one downward flow, one upward). The filter used plain
sedimentation and straining followed by sand filtration.
Filtration
was gaining popularity.In 1746, a Parisian scientist Joseph Amy, was granted the first
patent for a filter design consisting of sponge, charcoal and wool. By 1750 his filters
were out in the market for home use.