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2009 Meritorious Achievement Award
The idea of drainage, according to our current knowledge, was first put into practice around the year 3100 BC, by the Indus Valley Civilization in modern day Pakistan and India. The draining system of this civilization provided the basis for the rest of the drainage systems the world has come to know, even up to this day. In the 18th century, the idea of the drain became more and more complex. The draining system was a system of interconnecting ditches. There were a few main drains, which were large and therefore capable of carrying large quantities of water. Running into the main drains were smaller drains. The purpose of the smaller drains was to gather water from specific areas and transport it to the larger drain, through which the water could be disposed of. This method was used mostly on the agricultural front. However, the idea of drainage as we know it today started to become more mainstream in the 20th century. The idea of interconnecting pipes transporting waste water from the source to a sewage system has been a common practice over the past few decades. However, people began to realize the amount of water that was being wasted by this process, water that was capable of being reused. On April 2, 1990, Donald O. Burkhardt filed United States Patent 5059330. This patent discusses the invention of a device that takes the gray water after it is transferred through a household appliance and reclaiming it for reuse. A sensor would detect the flow of gray water going into the receptacle, and would inject cleaning solution relative to the amount of water that enters. The history of effective draining systems is a chain of improvements upon the previous ideas, and the Gr-ain water system is an improvement upon the current ideas of water drainage systems. Sources: |
