Culligan
water treatment company
Culligan International is a United States based global water treatment company with a network of dealers and direct operations in 90 countries with 1,000 dealers; over 600 in North America alone, and more than 14,000 employees.
History
Culligan was founded in 1936 by Emmett Culligan. With $50 and with additional financing by his brother Dr. John M. Culligan, and his sister, Anna V. Culligan, Emmett established the Culligan Zeolite Company with his brothers Drs. John and Leo Culligan as partners. They started the business in Jack McLaughlin's Blacksmith Shop at Northbrook, Illinois. Emmett perforated the bottom of a coffee can and used greensand to make a water filter. Upon running water through his device, he discovered that the filter acted as a water softener. By 1938, the first Culligan franchised dealership opened in Wheaton, Illinois, followed by another in Hagerstown, Maryland. In 1945, Emmett dissolved the partnership with his brothers and a new company was incorporated.
“Culligan” enters the record as water treatment company. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Culligan, water and treatment can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Culligan” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Culligan, water and treatment provides the most credible route into that argument.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5193025. VIAF identifies the subject as 159531443. The Library of Congress control number is n86109563. 2 of 7 selected statements include explicit references; 5 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1936, 1938 and 1945.
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This entry incorporates text from “Culligan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.