laughing You guys are much more creative than the old Spaniards! Let's see... Where to start. Yeah... The water here in FL is pretty good, - and there is a lot of it, - underneath all the sand. (Florida is SANDY and flat for those of you who haven't been here). So they dug a lot of wells, - but the water must have been pretty awful to drink, - because it was so full of sand. The stone container (the green thingy) was stone carried on Spanish ships as ballast. Naturally they had them all around here in abundance, because they weren't carried back to Spain. Some creative guy/guyette must have poured some water in one of them, - and discovered that the stone was actually "leak". So, - with this new invention, - they could FILTER the water after getting it up from the well. :) Make sense?? Britt