Simcha Blass

Simcha Blass (; November 27, 1897 – July 18, 1982) was a Polish-Israeli engineer and inventor who developed the modern drip irrigation system with his son Yeshayahu.

Biography Simcha Blass was born in Warsaw, Poland, which was then part of the Russian Empire, to an Orthodox Jewish family. He was active in the Jewish self-defense units organized in Warsaw to defend Jews during the end of World War I. His engineering studies in Warsaw were interrupted by the Polish-Soviet War and completed after that war. During the war, he was recruited to the Polish Army, where he invented for the Polish Air Force a meteorological appliance, measuring the intensity and direction of winds. Blass started thinking about using drip irrigation and his 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.

In the late 1950s, with the advent of modern plastics 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 drip irrigation idea. The main aspect of the new invention was to release water through larger and longer passageways (rather than tiny holes) by using friction 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 patented this method and the new dripper was the first practical surface drip irrigation emitter.

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 kibbutz to give him the task of further developing this new enterprise. Out of some suggestions, Blass chose kibbutz Hazerim in the Negev.

Online dripper system 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 Netafim 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, Netafim engineers working with Blass, developed the online dripper—indeed allowing the desert to bloom.

Published works Water resources in Israel , Mekorot, May 1944 Water in Strife and Action , Massada, 1973 (autobiography)