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100
Referances
History of Water Quality, Purification and Filtration. (2004, February 24). - HM Digital. Retrieved October 1, 2012, from http://www.tdsmeter.com/education?id=0002
History of Water Filters - Early Water Treatment. (n.d.). History of Water Filters - Early Water Treatment. Retrieved October 1, 2012, from http://www.historyofwaterfilters.com/early-water-treatment.html -
100
Referances
Enzler, S. (n.d.). History of water treatment. History of Water Treatment. Retrieved October 1, 2012, from http://www.lenntech.com/history-water-treatment.htm -
100
Referances
Water Purification History. (n.d.). ,History of Drinking Water Treatment,History of Water Filters. Retrieved October 1, 2012, from http://sourcing.indiamart.com/engineering/articles/water-purification-history/
INFORMATION. (n.d.). Water Filtration, Treatment History and Technology. Retrieved October 1, 2012, from http://www.aquatechnologies.com/info_water_filtration.htm -
Period: 100 to
The History of Water Purification
Most residents of the United States turn on their faucets feeling confident they can drink the water without contracting a waterborne disease or dying immediately. However, it is only a relatively new phenomenon for water consumers to receive treated water. For hundreds of years, as water treatment methods have evolved, the quality of municipal drinking water has developed from a relatively sketchy product to a strictly regulated commodity. -
200
Water Purification during Ancient Times in 2000 BC
Early Sanskrit writings outlined methods for purifying water. These methods ranged from boiling or placing hot metal instruments in water before drinking it to filtering water through crude sand or charcoal filters. These writings suggest that the major motive in purifying water was to provide better tasting drinking water. It was assumed that good tasting water was also clean. In 2000 BC people did not know about microorganisms. -
500
Water Purification by Filtering in 500 BC
In 500 BC Hippocrates, the famed father of medicine, began to conduct his own experiments in water purification. Like the ancients before him, Hippocrates also believed good taste in water meant cleanliness and purity of that water. Hippocrates designed his own crude water filter to “purify” the water he used for his patients. Later known as the “Hippocratic sleeve,” this filter was a cloth bag through which boiled water could be poured into to further improve the purification. -
Water Filitration after the Dark Ages
The first record of experimentation in water filtration, after the blight of the Dark Ages, came from Sir Francis Bacon in 1627. He began experimenting in the desalination of seawater. Using a sand filter method, Bacon believed that if he dug a hole near the shore through which seawater would pass, sand particles would obstruct the passage of salt in the upward passage of the water. This was an alternative to boiling and cloth filtering. -
Need for mass quantities of fresh water
Because of the growing need for filtered water, scientists in the United States designed a rapid sand filter in the late nineteenth century. The rapid sand filter was cleaned by powerful jet streams of water, greatly increasing the efficiency and capacity of the water filter. This was a big step up from slow boiling and sand filtering. -
Water Purification with Chemicals
As municipal water treatment facilities sought to increase the quality and healthfulness of public water supplies, more and more cities began to implement chlorine into their water treatment process. Chlorine was first recognized as a valuable chemical in treating water when John Snow used it to purify the cholera-causing water of the Broad Street Pump. This application of chlorine resulted in a sharp decline in deaths from typhoid. -
Modern Filtration
The current major concerns in regard to water quality are lead and disinfection byproducts. Right now the main focus is to improve water quality by removing harmful substances. One modern example is the Alkaline Ionizing Water Filter. The device uses a system of electrically charged layers to kill and filter out bacteria.
