Centuries ago, if you wanted to filter your water at home, you’d likely have to boil the water then pour it through sieve-like cloth bags to trap sediments that caused foul taste and smell. Water filtration was no more complex than that, at least not until thousands of years later. Nonetheless, continuous efforts to obtain “clean” drinking water led to many breakthroughs in water filtration throughout the ages.
These days, we have access to a vast array of modern home water filters equipped with state-of-the-art features and technologies to help produce the cleanest, purest, and highest-quality water possible. As a result, clean drinking water has become so widely available today that many people take it for granted.
Modern water filters can treat large quantities of water, usually behind the scenes, with little to no human intervention. However, while you can find these devices in many American households, very few of us know their origins and evolution. Sure, these systems may seem like a new development, especially if you live in an area with limited access to clean water, but they have a history that stretches back thousands of years.
In this post, we’ll be tracing water filters back to their origins, how they’ve evolved through the ages, and what’s their state in this modern era.