Simcha Blass

Simcha Blass (Hebrew: שמחה בלאס; November 27, 1897 – July 18, 1982) was a Polish-Israeli engineer and inventor who developed the modern drip irrigation system with his son Yeshayahu.

Later, in 1946, he planned the first water pipeline to the Negev, the pipes for which had been used in London during the Blitz for extinguishing fire and bought by Blass after World War II.

This pipeline enabled the establishment of 11 new Jewish settlements in the Negev towards the end of the British Mandate for Palestine, on a single evening (Yom Kippur night) in 1946; it also served Bedouin Arabs.

This sight of tiny drops penetrating the soil causing the growth of a giant tree provided the catalyst for Blass's invention.

After leaving government service in 1956 he reopened his private engineering office and worked with his son Yeshayahu on the drip irrigation idea.

In 1965 he contacted Arie Bahir who was in charge of the industry in the kibbutzim in order to find a kibbutz to give him the task of further developing this new enterprise.