The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1905-02-23
PURIFYING THE WATER SUPPLY.
:!cw One Town Worked a Seeming
l'iracie in TIE Cleansing of
LIS Reservoir.

How One Town Worked a Seeming
. iairacie in TIE Cleansing of
Its Reservoir.
Just at this time there came to L..
?loorc's special notice the troubles of
a small town ir Kentucky. At much
expense. several years before, the
town had built an elaborate water
supply system, but it had continual
difficulty with the water. On examin-
ing the reservoir, Dr.. Moore found tho
water packed with anabaena organ
isms, as many as 1000 filaments to the
cubic centimeter. A colony OF ana
baena when enlarged several hundred
times look like a bracelet Of small
green stones with larger yellow stones
set in at intervals. The water smellel
like pig-psn, and tasted to match,
and was Of a Shiny, greenish color.
The reservoir was not large one, be-
ing OF about 25,000,0G0 gallons capac-
ity-jUst what was wanted for the
first test. as the algae were SO dense,
he decided to give the rather strong
dose Of ! to 100000. The expert
melt was made in July, 1903.
. The only apparatus required was
some coarse sacks and a rowboat.
About zoe pounds Of the blue vitriol
were placed in the sacks and hung
from the stern of the boat. Then the
boat was rowed up and down: back
ward and forward, across the reservoir
for several hours, covering every part
Of the surface in order that the cop
pc: should be evenly distributed. The
crystals we're soon dissolved, and the
party returned to the shore. DR..
Moore knew that the small amount of
copper used was SO thoroughly dis
tributed that it could not make the
water dangerous to drink; but would
it be strong enough to destroy the
foul-smelliug plants in the water? At
first the smell grew worse, but he was
not particularly alarmed, as he had
expected that the commotioa made IN
the water would break up many of the
tiny oil sacs and liOerate the OIL. At
the end CT "a hours the greenish color
began to disappear; at the end OF 4S
hours the green was entirely gone and
the surface was clear, but the water
had ligat-brown tinge, due to the
dead organisms held in suspension.
At the end Of the third day the water
was clear, sweet and completely cured
of the disagreea5le smell and taste.
Tests showed that there was not an
anabaena left. To make sure that the
copper had not poisoned the water,
DR.. Moore tested it few hours after
the dose was applied and found no
trace Of the copper remaining.
1t cost $3.50 to purify the reser-
voir, the only item of expense being
the blue vitriol, which costs about s
or cents pound. The town, which
had been spending thousands of dol
lars each year Intellectually, has had
no further trouble.
After this successful experiment DR..
Moore attacked larger reservoirs, with
equal success. In the fall of 1903 he
sterilized a basin of 600,000,000 gal
Ions in Massachusetts, formerly part
of the water supply system of Boston.
At that time the water contained 1O,-
600 organisms to the cubic centimeter.
After the treatment he could not dis.
cover a single organism. This year
only from 80 to GO to the centimeter
were found, and a very slight dose
has killed these. The largest reser-
voirs in the world can be treated in
the same way. When a very large
surface has to be covered, it Is better
to use several boats, or perhaps a
small launch. in order that every part
of the reservoir may be evenly treat
ed. The treatment costs from so to 60
cents per million gallons. July IS the
best month to kill algae. The organ
isms are then, so to speak, most re-
laxed, as they have not yet formed
their spores and hardened themselves
for the winter. All algae are not
equally sensitive to the solution, so
tha. the strength of the dose varies
with the different species.-From Gil
bert H. Grosvenor's 1.-The New Method
of Purifying Water" in the Century.