New-York tribune., 1898-06-12
pIrRICYING OCEAN WATER
.,,v ,rsp OF EVAPORATORS ON WAR AND
MERCHANT VESSELS
FOR THE MARINER

FOR THE MARINER
within the asst few weeks apparatus for dis
,;,;og water has been placed on board OF dozens
=, vessels which were diverted from peacetui
,.,suits to those Of war. under the auspices OF
me American Government. Much r this work
h,s been conducted at the Brooklyn Navy Yard,
,,t some of il has been done elsewhere. steps
have been taken by the War Department TO
so,uip in a similar manner the vessels i'll which
,-oons are being or are about TO he. transported
~ the Philippines and the Antilles. Attention is
Tins direct "a afresh to a system that is Of much
,mnortance oh in navics and the merchant ma
rine but which - not at all new. For years past
the largest md most modern warshps have
bsan provided with evapOratOrs and 4 great
many of the Atlantic liners also.
The desirahility OF being able to elm nate the
salt from ocean water in order 10 iii it COR use Oh
sbnhoar1 would seem to he more Obvious in the
Navy than IN he merchant service As an At
l.ntic liner rarely spends more than 4 week or
Ten days in crossing the ocean, she cen renew
her supply Of fresh water q, short intervals
whereas a mln-of-war often spends weeks ut
sea without IN opportunity e. get any Not
only must she store a larger quantity before
likely to grow stale However merchant ships
are freight carriers. and every cubic foot OF
space that an h~ utilized for cargo is likely to
yield pecunary return In some respects then.
it is even more desirable to equip these vessels
with the means Of obtaining fresh water from
day to day than those Of the Navy
The uses o. which the distilled water procured
IN this manner is put on a ship are varied. ON
for
drinking and cooking Then too /, is necessary
to have pure water for the boilers that furnish
power Toy the ship 1t will not DO to feed them
with ocean wafer because the deposit of salt in
the boilers would impair their efficiency. To be
sure the marine engine Is Of the clndensing
type but ,r-n go there is apt To- be a certain
amount of '~akase and waste. which must he
made good : me steamship, carry eydporators
for only one { these purposes. and som" II them
use the apparo, us for another. More tNan few
rely on it f,i .,ll Of th- objects m~niipi."d
An outfit II his sort includes At Last three
things an -.aporator. distiller and A filter.
The frs, and second resemble each other in ap-
pearance and interior ARRANGEMENT. bat he dis
tiller is the smaller OF the two. The evaporator
Is an upright. cylindrical. steamtight receptacle.
which is kept about one-half fun of sea water
,ols of pipe into which steam is led from either
special boiler or from the boilers thar develop
power for the engines-the source j. inmate
Hal. An outlet from the coils Is provid 4 as we'll
as an inlet. The steam heats the coils and the
coils heat the surrounding salt water. which IS
made to boil soon after the steam il turned on.
From th- upper part of the cvaporator the
yapor produced in this way is conducted of to
.s.g.
pppriety might be named The condenser"
This is cylindrical in shape, and stands on erd
There is another set Of pipe colts inside. To
these al the top is conducted The vapor from
the eyaporator. Outside OF the pipes j, "A guam
ay Of cold sea water which cools rhc steam ana
ondenses IT. The water in the cylnicr is con
SANITY being hanged by means IF pumps. 1t IS
an easy matter therefore. 10 bring the tempcra-
ture Of the ~, duct of the still down 10 any
POINT prescribed 50 long as no attempt is made
make the water cooler than that environing
the coils. The usual temperature Of the distilled
water is about 20 or - degrees Fahr.
The filter through which the water goes before
eng stored contains animal charcoal. In add
a9n 10 this operation the liquid is sometimes
Subjected 10 another. BY means Of the "aera-
w air is made 10 bubble up through the water
snd npart little more life to it. This process
not essential. but it takes away the rather
nat inspid taste that the nuid would otherwise
possess
ihe Quantity Of water obtained in this manner
I" Inc course Of twenty-four hours varies ac-
"'oing to the size Of the plant. Several OF the
small vessels recently equipped at the Brooklyn
'Au nave evaporating apparatus that will yield
~'u' Two thousand gallons day. The con
SUMPTION on those vessels. it was estimated
''aa De IN the neighborhood Of twelve hundred