Ancient History

Ancient History. By Hamid.

History. Ancient civilizations were established around #water resources. While our ancestors had no knowledge about the quality of water, they relied mostly on their senses to judge the quality based on its appearance and taste. Going back to 4000 B.C. ancient Greek and Sanskrit writings mentioned methods for purifying the water including boiling, exposing to sunlight, placing hot metal instruments in water, straining and filtering through sand and coal. Visible cloudiness of water, later known as #turbidity, was the main driving force for such attempts and it was believed that good tasting water is also clean. To clarify water Egyptians began using chemical alum as early as 1500 B.C. to cause suspended particles to settle. Images found in the tomb of Amenhotep II and Ramses II depict the use of this technique..

Centuries later around 400 B.C. Hippocrates, known as the “Father of medicine”, created the first water filtering system in the form of a cloth bag called “Hippocrates Sleeve” to purify water after boiling it, resulting in a cleaner better tasting drinking water. I the following 1000 years Roman Empire collapsed and no scientific or technological advancement was made in water technology..

Modern History (Part 1). During the 1700s domestic water #filtration began to evolve by using wool, sponge and charcoal. The first documented use of sand filters to purify water supplies dates back to 1804 in a bleachery in Scotland and the method developed in the following decades by private water companies’ engineers leading to the first treated public #water supply in the world installed in London in 1829. The first ceramic filter was invented in 1827 by John Doulton and his son, using a porous clay bowl to filter impurities from drinking water which attracted royal interest. In 1835 Queen Victoria commissioned Doulton to provide a device for her royal household..

In 1854 observations of John Snow linked the leakage of raw sewage into a water pump with the outbreak of cholera in that region. This was the first time Scientists discovered that water could be #contaminated by pathogens despite looking pure and used chlorine to disinfect water. Slow and rapid sand filtration was implemented in united states in 1890s to improve public health. As chlorination gained popularity in different countries waterborne illnesses like cholera and typhoid began to vanish..