History of water disinfection | History of drinking water
disinfection | The link between water quality and health has
been known since the early ages. Clear water was considered
clean water. Swamp areas were associated with fever.
Disinfection has been applied for centuries. Two basic rules
dating back to 2000 B.C. state that water must be exposed to
sunlight and filtered with charcoal and that impure water must
be purified by boiling the water and than dipping a piece of
copper in the water seven times, before filtering the water.
Descriptions of ancient civilisations were found about boiling
water and water storage in silver jugs. To realize water
purification copper, silver and electrolysis were applied.
Disinfection has been applied for several decades. However, the
mechanism has been known for only one hundred years. In 1680
Anthony van Leeuwenhoek developed the microscope. His discovery
of microorganisms was considered a curiosity. It took scientists
another two hundred years before they started using