The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-11-20
HOW BRITAIN SOLVED
ARMY WATER SUPPLY
Famous valroy Spring Bought by the
War Department-ItS Product
Bottled for Troops.

LONDON, Nov. 20-Field sanitation
is one of the marvels of the war, and
the sanitary authorities of the British
army have achieved wonders. Former
" the average inhabitant of northern
France drank the cheap light wine of
the country, or in Flanders the thin
Belgian beer. The reason for this lay
not so much in. the. fact that these
drinks contained small percentage of
alcohol MS that the ordinary water was
not good to drink. With the develop
ment of the war the population of
northern France was raised to an un-
heard of extent. and the water prob
lem became very serious. 1t was a
double problem, for the quantity was
inadequate and the quality was poor.
But in very short time every water
supply in the zone of the armies from
the Zig rivers to the smallest village
well had been sampled, tested and if
doubtful had been chemically purified.
And today every we'll bears a notice
stating the quality of the water
whether fit for drinking or only for
washing. whether good for animals or
men. and when last tested. Every few
days or so the water supplies are tested
so that typhoid and dysentery-the
curse of armies in the past-are prac-
ticallv unknown in the British army
today
Apart from the local supplies of
chemically purified drinking water,
every mess and canteen in the British
army is supplied with a special pure
aeratrd mineral water known as Val
roy water: and as ninetenths of the
consumption Of drinking water takes
place at meal times it can be seen that
Valov is an important health factor
with both the British and American
| forces in the field.
All over France are the shops Of
tie e f. c. 9r the Expeditionarv
| Forces Canteen. They are the soldier s
shops, a government managed concern
which supplies officers and men with
extra tobacco, clothes, food and drink
| Nalroy water is one of the greatest
achievements of the f. F.. c.
II bought up the pure natural spring,
of the Source Valroy,' favorit,
French mineral water before the war
and established vast military hottlina
establishment ut the base. Thanks tC
the army in France, Nalrov and lin,
juice, can be obtained anywhere from
the trenches to the base.
4 The bottling factory is worked unde
military supervision, the officers an,
men employed having all had expert
encP of mineral water manufacture il
civil life before they joined the army
Some hundreds Of local girls and won
en- arc employed. and the output of tn
factory runs into thousands of bottle
a day. The bottle problem has beer
solved very simply Old bottles of tn
r right size Cor very nearly so, for il
{ war time there is no need to insist tina
they should all he exactly the same
are collected from all over the arm,
zones.
Those come down 10 the factor
empty and are carefully washed. chloI
+ mated 70 Kill all germs, boiled an
: secured by machinery. After inspec
ton they are filled, aeratcd. eorked an
: labelled. packed in crates and sent n
; 70 the front line at the rate of twent
or thirty tons Of crates q day.
It may seem small thing. this sur
: pIv of q mineral water to troops in tn
I: field but in point of actual fact ii
vitality important both for health an
5 comfort. II IS pure natural waite
a and m excellent drink. The expert
! who run the factory have also pr,
{ dGced a most excellent ginger ale. ia
: II has been found that the water
! peculiarly suited for that purpose.