A SIMPLE FILTER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 618, 20 February 1874, Page 3

A SIMPLE FILTER.

A gentleman name;! Lavers writes to tlie Sydney Morning Heraid to suggest a simple and efficacious, Imt very inexpensive plan for filtc ing, within the reach of the p >orcst, and which never fails to make the fouled water clean. Take about half a pound of white worsted cu u into lengths of about a foot, or any other woollen material cut into strips of an equal length, and suspend them all round a tub or other vessel containing the water to be filtered, and ttiey will speedily empty it into any other vessel that may bo placed underneath to catch it. These lengths of worsted or strips of cloth act as so many small syphons for draining off the water, and the principle on which the filtering process is carried out appears to be that the water ascends through capillary tubes, wh : ch will not admit of the passage of any foreign matler. Something analogous to this is to be observed in the process of evaporation or distilling, which has the effect of separating all foreign or organic matter held in suspension, and of leaving the liquid itself when condensed perfectly clear. Mr Lavers has had one of these filters in use for some time past, and Mr. Danver, the Sydney health officer, and other scientific gentlemen, highly approve of it, and recommend its adoption wherever no more perfect system of filtration is obtainable. For those residing in the country districts, where pure water cannot be procured without difficulty at this season of the year, this, if acted cp< o, must he a special con-

veuicnce. All that could stand in the way of its adoption m the hush would be tho want of two vessels, but it should bo remembered that it can be used on a small as well as on a large scale.