<P> Water chlorination is the process of adding chlorine (Cl) or hypochlorite to water . This method is used to kill certain bacteria and other microbes in tap water as chlorine is highly toxic . In particular, chlorination is used to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid . </P> <P> In a paper published in 1894, it was formally proposed to add chlorine to water to render it "germ - free". Two other authorities endorsed this proposal and published it in many other papers in 1895 . Early attempts at implementing water chlorination at a water treatment plant were made in 1893 in Hamburg, Germany, and in 1897 the town of Maidstone, England was the first to have its entire water supply treated with chlorine . </P> <P> Permanent water chlorination began in 1905, when a faulty slow sand filter and a contaminated water supply caused a serious typhoid fever epidemic in Lincoln, England . Dr. Alexander Cruickshank Houston used chlorination of the water to stop the epidemic . His installation fed a concentrated solution of so - called chloride of lime to the water being treated . This was not simply modern calcium chloride, but contained chlorine gas dissolved in lime - water (dilute calcium hydroxide) to form calcium hypochlorite (chlorinated lime). The chlorination of the water supply helped stop the epidemic and as a precaution, the chlorination was continued until 1911 when a new water supply was instituted . </P>

When was chlorine first added to drinking water in the uk