Florida contractor Richard Groden had been hired to do a renovation at the world famous Cotton House on the tiny island of Mustique. When his team got there, the island was dry – there was no water. But noticing how much condensate the air conditioners produced, and knowing that the Incas and Aztecs had gotten water from the sky, he was inspired to update that ancient technology by building a machine that makes water from air.

“We’re harnessing an ancient technique, but doing it in a new, more efficient way,” he said. “This is something the Incas and Aztecs were doing. They would string long nets up in the mountains to collect the dew from the fog and this water would drain down into troughs which they would bring down to their cities.”