PURE WATER FOR COUNTRY SETTLERS.

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 287, 14 March 1874, Page 2

PURE WATER FOR COUNTRY SETTLERS.

Mr I» Y. L,ufiis writes tn the St/dnri/ Morning Herald, suggesting what be desciibce as a plan, simple, and inexpeusn c, hut very cflicaoious, for filtering. It makes the foulest water clear, and is procurable by the poorest. It is, I believe, generally known that a thread of cotton or worsted suspended m liquid will have the effect of a syphon, and speedily empty the vessel containing it ; but it does not appear as generally to have occurred to ©ther minds, as it has from practical experience to mine, that the so-called syphon will at the same time perform the oflicc of a lilter. This, however, it certainly does, and the reason appears to me to be simply this : — Tie water or liquid ascends tho throad by means of capillary tubes. These tubes iv some instances are infinitely minute, and cause the liquid to ascend in globules almost as small a^ those which constitute steam or vapour. I need scarcely refer to the fact that unless several glbbules are chemically united in a liquid all organic matter foreign to the two gases which constitute «*ach globule must necessarily lodge between the interstices ; therefore anything at all analogous to evaporation or distillation must have the effect of separating all organic matter held in suspension, such as i lead, grease, &c. I have had for Beveral days a filter of this kind constantly at work. It is nothing more than half a pound of white woratod cut into longths of about a foot, and suspended all around a tub or vessol placed under the water tap and oa the top of tho water cask, lho tap is, of course, regulated to tho exact discharge of these so-called syphons, and I find that this half pound of worsted will filter in twenty-four hours upwards of twenty-five gallons. Thus a very efficient filter can be produced at the small outlay necessary for t ho purchase of half a pound of worsted ; but listing or any other woollen material cut into strips of a similar length will answer the purpose equally well. I have mentioned this to several scientific gentlemen, inoluding our city health officer, Mr Dansey ; they one and all approve of my theory, and I vow take the liberty of asking tho U3O of your columns to make tho matter generally known, and then for tho future any individual resident who can procure a water cask or smnllcr vessel and a few shreds of woollen may thank himself if he drinks impure or poisoned water.