Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-05-30
Filtered Water.

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way towards properly utilizing that
wonderful liquid, called by the Be-
douin Arabs, "the gift of God. /"
The sensation of thirst is none other
than the still small voice of deeper
and far more imperfective demand.
The gustatory sensations attendant
upon taking food or drink into the
stomach, are only concomitant cir
cumstances when compared with the
ultimate effects of that liquid upon
the human organism. Much as water
differs in it's accidental and acquired
properties in various localities, its
physical constitution is one and the
same under all circumstances. When
we combine eight parts. of oxygen
with one part Of hydrogen, the re-
sulting compound is water in its
most simple and essential form.
Carefully distilled water, condensed
in clean glass or earthern vessel
represents, also, perfect union of
the two gases in their proper pro-
portions. And yet. such water is
not the best for cooking purposes
and still less fit for drinking, as a
beverage. Let any one take swal-
low of water recently boiled, and
Immediately after it swallow OF
spring or we'll water, and practical
illustration will be had of the princi-
pie we are striving to inculcate.
Water in its chemically pure state,
needs to be aerated" in order to
make it palatable. To aerate water
is to incorporate within its mass, a
due amount of carbonic acid gas.
Boiled or distilled water is limpid
and pellucid, but dead and insipid to
the taste, while, on the contrary,
water which has been duly aerated
is sparkling and invigorating. But
the most important thing is to rem
der water free from ali such impuri-
ties as occur in q solid form, CON-
monty known as sediment.
The air we breathe is ever loaded
with vegetable and animal remains,
in variously advanced stages of de.
composition. Hence water which is
kept in open vessels, and thus more
or less exposed to the air of unven-
tilated rooms, is sure to become
impregnated with the impurities Of
the air in few hours, after being
brought from the purest fountain
To remove these foreign substances
every family not provided with bet
ter means, should have in the house
q large filter, through which all the
water should be made to pass that
is used for cooking or drinking. A
good filter can be easily and quickly
made by anybody who boasts of the
merest 1udiments of mechanism
Let good faucet be fixed in the
end of a strong cask, SO that it will
be four or five inches from the bot.
tom, when the cask stands upright
Fix the cask in convenient place in
the kitchen or elsewhere, and fill il
half full with alternate layers oil
clean, coarse gravel, white sand and
charcoal. The sand and gravel
should be taken from. a bank that
has not been exposed to the wash OF
drips Of surface water. The char
coal can be procured at any black
smith shop at trifing cost. Such
charcoal as has been made from hard
wood is best, and it should not be
too finely powdered. To catch and
detain the coarser impurities con-
tanned by the water, it is good plan
to make top layer of good clean
wheat or oat straw, and this should
be stirred up or changed as often as
two or three times a week. The
length of time such filter should
he used without being emptied and
made over again with new material
is owing, of course, to the quantity
and condition of the water that
passes through it. The degree of
purity exhibited by the filtered water,
after the cask has been long in use,
will determine, accurately this ques-
ton.