History of water filters

[1] Images in Egyptian tombs, dating from the 15th to 13th century BCE depict the use of various water treatment devices.

He recommended that feverish patients immerse themselves in a bath of cool water, which would help realign the temperature and harmony of the four humors.

Rainwater was the best water, but had to be boiled and strained before drinking to get rid of the "bad smell" and to avoid hoarseness of the voice.

[5][6] Sir Francis Bacon in his famous compilation "A Natural History of Ten Centuries" 1627 (Baker & Taras, 1981) discussed desalination and began the first scientific experimentation into water filtration.

[10][11] This installation provided filtered water for every resident of the area, and the network design was widely copied throughout the United Kingdom in the ensuing decades.

The practice of water treatment soon became mainstream, and the virtues of the system were made starkly apparent after the investigations of the physician John Snow during the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak.

Snow was sceptical of the then-dominant miasma theory that stated that diseases were caused by noxious "bad airs".

His data convinced the local council to disable the water pump, which promptly ended the outbreak.

In 1972, the Clean Water Act passed through Congress and became law, requiring industrial plants to proactively improve their waste procedures in order to limit the effect of contaminants on freshwater sources.