Many of our readers see notices from time to time in the newspapers about
this or that ship being employed, or at least her steam fittings, in
distilling water for the use of the troops; and although most of, if not
all, our readers are engineers, still it is no disparagement to some of
them to assume that they are more or less unfamiliar with sea water
distillation on the scale on which the process is now being carried on at
Suakim; and as the subject is of general interest, we give a short
description of the process.
In a general sense, fresh water is obtained from sea water by simply
generating steam from the sea water, passing the said steam through a
surface condenser, and filtering the resulting water. The obtaining of
fresh water in this way has been in practice on board sea-going ships for
many years. It is supposed by some authorities on this subject that the
first time fresh water was thus obtained at sea was by an old captain of
a brig which ran short of water, and he cut up some pewter dishes into
strips, which he bent and soldered into a pipe. He, with the carpenter's
aid, fitted a wooden lid in one of the cooking boilers, and fixed one end
of his pipe in it.
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