When did desalination begin?
Desalination, the removal of salts from sea water using primitive methods of distillation, has taken place over thousands of years. There are biblical references as well as historical accounts from ancient Egyptian, Phoenician and Greek writings, mentioning the purification of brackish water. 17th Century Japanese sailors used earthenware pots to boil seawater, and bamboo tubes to collect condensed fresh water from the steam. A technical report on desalination was presented by Thomas Jefferson, then US Secretary of State, in 1791 to describe the results of a simple distillation process.
