Picking up a recent Economist magazine, an article discusses how desalination of the oceans for usable water is becoming less expensive these days. San Diego has built a large plant, as have a few Australian cities. What does this have to do with Jefferson? It is science related, thus there's a good chance there is a connection. Jefferson worked on Jacob Isaac’s patent on a desalination process back in the early 1790s. Take a look at the entry in our Jefferson Encyclopedia for Desalination of Sea Water.