We tend to take for granted what a bleak and dangerous world surrounded us within the life spans of people still alive today. In 1896, Halsey W. Taylor lost his father to an outbreak of typhoid fever caused by contaminated water. A few years later, as a plant superintendent in a Packard auto plant, he noticed dysentery spreading quickly through the factory workers, again due to waterborne pathogens.
These experiences inspired Halsey Taylor to dedicate his life to providing safe drinking water. In 1912, he developed a sanitary drinking fountain he named "The Puritan," and began producing it in Warren, Ohio.