The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-02
The Use of Ultra Violet
 Rays for the Production
 of Sterile Drinking Water


 At the meeting of the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers, held in the Engineering Societies Building, New York, Dec. and 9, 1918, I had the pleasure of listening to a paper on the 'sArt of producing sterile drinking water by ultraviolet rays" presented by Matt von Reck- linghausen, Ph.D.. Strassburgs Ger many I think this 8 subject of gen. eral interest and importance to pub lie welfare, so that few notes from this excellent address may be a.ppre- cfafed-
 It is a fact but often denied espec- tally by dealers in natural ice, that water in the frozen state will preserve microbes, the carriers of many dis eases. as cholera, typhoid, dysentery, etc., which when thawed out may be as virulent as in the original state. To take the life out of these microbes by application of ultraviolet light and to produce sterile water has recently been worked out into a commercial system by Messrs, von. Recklin ghau- ssen. Henri and Hellbronner at the sor- bonne University in Paris France.
 
 P" derived from the Lahn Radii Ul- tra-vioIacei.
 i The process is really close ap- proach to Natures method of freeing water from germ life. as the sun does the same work on the waters of our rivers and lakes. The inventors es- .tablished the fact that water has a great transparency for ultraviolet rays, about much as air, but that ] practically no solid material exists (which allows these rays to pass through. Glass for instance is per fectly opaque to them.
 The water to be steri1ized should Therefore be absolutely free from sus- pended matter, as such material may form shadows in which fhe n1icr obes are protected from the bacteriologic action Of the rays.
 Tn the R. U. V. apparatus. filtered :; water. flowing through baff1ed chan 1e1s is submitted to the action of u1- fra-vioIet rays and thus becomes ster- 5Ifzed- Dr. Reckinghausen adopted the mercury are enclosed in quartz containers as the richest source of in dustrial U. ". rays.
 Quartz, that is. fused rock crystals, has so far been found to be the most practical material not opaque to these rays The hotter such a lamp is run the more U. V rays are produced, the most economic temperature was found to De about 800 degrees Celsius.
 The R. D. " apparatus may be built in any sizes. One of the standard types is B 2 for hospital use. Tests with these sterilizers have given the following results:
 Speed of flow of water 120 gallons per hour.
 Germs. before treatment, 1.o4o per cu- bic centimeter.
 Germs after treatment 0.s per cubic centimeter.
 This style is used extensively in Europe for producing safe water for drinking and even surgical purposes During the French-Morocco cam paign. field hospitals equipped with these outfits were singularly free from typhoid and wound infections
 Type c 3, used for municipal wa ter supply. sterilizes up to 600 tons < of water per day with a. horse pow CT lamp. A typical test with this
  Rouens France. showed a dirainution from 1. 500 to T germs per cubic cen- timeter- In another apparatus the sterilization of 7.50o tons of polluted river. water daily was accomplished by the use of 6-f.5 K. w. lamps In Genoa, Italy. some tests have been made by the city water works, which supplies 50 900 tons of water per day, the tests being carried over months between ozonizing and the use of ul- tra-vio1et rays, and they installed the R. U- v.
 Data concerning cost of installation were not given, but the power that would be required for an ice plant or hotel using about 2,50O gals per day, was estimated about one horsepower and the space required for the R. U. y- apparatus about 5 feet by 2xs feet.
 H. F. HEYRODT, Ref Eng