The need for drinking water is as old as life on earth. For much of human evolution, springs, streams, rivers, and lakes provided a ready source of water, and early towns and cities eventually grew up around such important supplies. But as towns and cities got bigger, the difficulty of ensuring a dean supply increased because of greater pollution and more thirsty mouths to sate.
Methods of purifying water have been around for centuries. Sand filtration was first described as a means to remove impurities in the seventeenth century and used a method borrowed from nature. The technique was adopted by individuals, but not set up as a municipal service until 1804.
In that year, civil engineer Robert Thorn (1774- 1847) created the first water treatment plant in Paisley,- Scotland. The water was slowly filtered through sand and gravel before being transported by horse and cart. Three years later, this rather inefficient system was improved when Glasgow began piping water to residents. (With the increasing popularity of bottled water today, transported by road again, it is curious to reflect how we appear to have come full circle.)
Thorn, who came from South Ayrshire, Scotland, went on to bigger things. He was commissioned to build an improved water supply for Greenock, near Glasgow, a town that was thriving on the manufacturing trades of the Industrial Revolution. Thorn designed a 51/2-rnile (9 km) aqueduct—known as "The Cut"—to bring water from a nearby lake to power the mills. The people of Greenock still enjoy water pumped through his system to this day
and the water source is known as Loch Thorn jn honor of the engineer.
