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underground water was reaching the roots of this particular tree—and not the others. This sight of tiny drops penetrating the soil causing the growth of a giant tree provided the catalyst for Blass's invention. The drip irrigation concept was born and experiments that followed led Blass to create an irrigation device that used friction and water pressure loss to leak drops of water at regular intervals. Recognizing the high potential of his discovery, he began to look for ways to turn his idea into a product.
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During the summer of 1946 the
British imposed an eighty-hour curfew on Tel Aviv and arrested scores of Zionist activists ... Eshkol ... sought a creative form of revenge. The night after Yom Kippur, he staged a lightning campaign, creating eleven new Negev settlements on JNF lands. ... Together the
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In the early 1930s, a farmer drew his attention to a big tree, growing in his backyard "without water". After digging below the apparently dry surface, Simcha Blass discovered why: water from a leaking coupling was causing a small wet area on the surface, while an expanding onion-shaped area of
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For the desert-based
Kibbutz Hatzerim looking to expand its activities beyond agriculture, Simcha Blass's invention opened up a world of possibilities. Blass and his son Yeshayahu and Kibbutz Hatzerim signed a contract (on August 10, 1965) establishing
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to slow water inside a plastic emitter. Larger passageways prevented the blocking of tiny holes by very small particles. The first experimental system of this type was established in 1959. In the early 1960s, Blass developed and
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During the years 1960 to 1965 Blass developed the drip-irrigation systems and sold them inside Israel and abroad. In 1965 he contacted Arie Bahir who was in charge of the industry in the kibbutzim in order to find a
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during and after World War II, he took a major step towards implementing his idea. After leaving government service in 1956 he reopened his private engineering office and worked with his son
Yeshayahu on the
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Irrigation
Company (80% Kibbutz Hatzerim and 20% Blass). Production began in 1966. With Blass's original narrow spaghetti tube model and later models as the starting point,
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idea. The main aspect of the new invention was to release water through larger and longer passageways (rather than tiny holes) by using
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110:(i.e. enabling more Jews to settle in Palestine). Zionism was the main drive for most of his other activities in adult life.
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In 1948 to 1956 Blass was the founder and director of the governmental water institutions of the newly established State of
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Later, he invented, patented and developed an operative wheat planting machine, which was tested and sold in Europe and in
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pipes could carry only a million cubic meters of water a year, but stage one of Arthur Rupin's desert fantasy was complete
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to give him the task of further developing this new enterprise. Out of some suggestions, Blass chose kibbutz
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family. He was active in the Jewish self-defense units organized in Warsaw to defend Jews during the end of
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engineers working with Blass, developed the online dripper—indeed allowing the desert to bloom.
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this method and the new dripper was the first practical surface drip irrigation emitter.
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Blass wrote the chapter "Development of Water
Resources in Palestine" in
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water company (established 1937, now Israel's national water company).
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During the years 1930–1948 he was the most known water engineer in the
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and completed after that war. During the war, he was recruited to the
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Pollution in a
Promised Land: An Environmental History of Israel
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Water engineering in the Yishuv of
Palestine and State of Israel
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377:. Teaneck, NJ 07666, USA: Avotaynu, Inc. pp. 297–298.
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appliance, measuring the intensity and direction of winds.
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518:(in Hebrew). Vol. 7. Estate of David Tidhar and
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Eliyahu's
Branches: The Descendants of the Vilna Gaon
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on water affairs and head of planners of the
Israeli
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Encyclopedia of the
Founders and Builders of Israel
420:"Water in Strife and Action", part 2 (pages 68-87)
411:"Water in Strife and Action", part 1 (pages 41-67)
177:for extinguishing fire and bought by Blass after
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436:. University of California Press. p. 206.
351:Mei Meriva u-Ma'as (Water in Strife and Action)
35:engineer and inventor who developed the modern
461:History of micro-irrigation in landscape turf
242:In the late 1950s, with the advent of modern
181:. This pipeline enabled the establishment of
153:checking the sabotaged water pipeline to the
161:Later, in 1946, he planned the first water
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98:(1927), but proved uneconomical. The main
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587:Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine
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471:"Water in Strife and Action", page 351
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183:11 new Jewish settlements in the Negev
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19:(November 27, 1897 – July 18, 1982;
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187:British Mandate for Palestine
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498:Stanford University Library
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481:History of drip irrigation
321:Water in Strife and Action
303:Water resources in Israel
157:isolated settlements,1948
47:Simcha Blass was born in
522:Libraries. p. 2945.
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507:"Engineer Simcha Blass"
397:: CS1 maint: location (
373:Freedman, Chaim (1997).
189:, on a single evening (
185:towards the end of the
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349:Blass, Simcha (1973).
311:אוצרות המים בארץ ישראל
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221:National Water Carrier
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430:Tal, Alon (2002).
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136:Levi Eshkol
79:, where he
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69:engineering
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531:Categories
336:References
317:, May 1944
217:government
191:Yom Kippur
100:motivation
393:cite book
175:the Blitz
124:Palestine
104:invention
102:for this
96:Palestine
43:Biography
25:שמחה בלאס
505:(1947).
355:Givataim
258:patented
253:friction
244:plastics
163:pipeline
128:aqueduct
83:for the
81:invented
59:, to an
27:) was a
315:Mekorot
291:Netafim
287:Netafim
272:in the
270:Hazerim
266:kibbutz
195:Bedouin
173:during
165:to the
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130:in the
108:Zionism
33:Israeli
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325:Hebrew
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213:Israel
206:UNSCOP
171:London
120:Yishuv
67:. His
53:Poland
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29:Polish
21:Hebrew
274:Negev
198:Arabs
167:Negev
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438:ISBN
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138:and
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