NOVEMBER 27/KISLEV 14

1897:  

Birthday of Simcha Blass, Polish-Israeli who was the chief engineer and one of the founders of Mekorot water company established 1937 and now Israel's national water company. In 1946, he planned and built the first water pipeline to the Negev, providing water to Jewish and Bedouin villages. In the early 1960s, Blass developed and patented the drip irrigation concept that used friction and water pressure loss to leak drops of water at regular intervals,  allowing previously arid areas worldwide to bloom.