Jamerson-Ulikov Water Purifier

One of the key technological developments of the Star League era, the Jamerson-Ulikov Water Purifier (alternately called the Jamerson-Ulikov Water Purification Technique or the Jamerson-Ulikov Water Purification Procedure) was an advanced and inexpensive water purification system that enabled a massive colonisation and economic boom for the Star League.

Overview
Developed in 2622 during the height of Star League's post-Reunification War Good Years, engineers Jamerson and Ulikov at the Caph Institute of Technology developed a revolutionary new water purification system using a filtering agent made from common sand, the resulting purifier half the size and a third of the cost of any previous purification plant. When news of the J-U Water Purifier was announced, it sparked considerable debate within Terran Hegemony government whether such an important technological advance should be placed on the Hegemony's list of "sensitive" technologies prohibited from sale or export outside its borders. Considering it unusually cruel to deny access to the technology to those worlds that had to devote enormous resources just to obtain drinking water, First Lord Nicholas Cameron approved the licensing of the J-U system to the member states.

The Jamerson-Ulikov Water Purifier was the first water purification system to be significantly cheaper to operate than to import water via IceShips, as well as making it economically feasible to settle Inner Sphere worlds previously ignored during the Exodus. The system also provided many settled worlds with an unexpected economic boom. The Ryan Cartel, the great IceShip manufacturer and operator, was nearly driven bankrupt as fewer and fewer worlds relied on its service. Between the period from 2632 to 2700, more than a thousand new worlds had been settled, and the Star League had expanded to control a sphere roughly 540 light years in diameter.

The J-U Water Purifier's one flaw was it required a steady stream of both high-tech parts and maintenance to remain functional. During the optimistic era of the Star League such things were no problem at all, but the collapse of Star League and with it the scorched earth destruction of manufacturing practiced by the Successor States would quickly make the J-U Purifier LosTech, forcing a return to IceShips and in many cases dooming worlds that relied upon it to destitution and abandonment.