Evening star., 1948-03-21
There's a Long
Story Behind a
Dropof Water

If we wish to see magic, we need
not watch a magician perform on
q stage. There is magic all around
us-in q drop of water, a piece of
stone. or the shining light of the
sun. The more we learn Of these
things, the more magical they seem
to be. Nature is the greatest of all
magicians.
A drop of water in the palm Of
your hand-what does 1t stand for?
Perhaps 1t came from faucet, but
before 1t entered pipe or anything
else made by man, it went through
a long history. There was a time
when it was in the clouds. Very
likely there was a time when it
rolled down q hillside.
This drop, to be sure, was not
always the same. While in the
clouds, 1t must have existed in hun
dreds of parts. The rain fell, and
down came drops of water, hun
dreds, thousands, perhaps millions,
of them. They tumbled about; they
were mixed together; they were
separated. At length they found a
home in a well, a lake, or some
other reservoir. Then at last out
Of the faucet came this drop which
you may hold in your hand.
Gases Form Water.
ot4 ~
on. We may be tempted to say
that 1t lasts forever" but we must
be careful about using that word.
Scientists declare that there was
water on the earth millions of years
ago, but there must have been a
time when water and all other
things on earth had very different
forms.
Chemists have found that pure
water Is composed Of two gases,
hydrogen and oxygen. 1t may seem
strange that gases can be combined
In such way as to form water,
but this Is only one of many cases
Of the kind. Two parts OF hydrogen
and one part Of oxygen, when put
together in the right way, will pro-
duce the liquid known as water.
After rain water reaches an ocean
Il may become part OF a current
which travels thousands of miles,
but sooner or later it will 60 up
ward. Sunlight plays on the ocean
surface and heats it. This causes
evaporation, and water vapor rises
into the air. The vapor goes up
until it forms clouds.
In time the clouds send down
their vapor in the shape of rain
drops. Then there is a new chap
ter in the story of water.
Water covers about three -fourths
Of the surface of the earth. Be-
sides the thousands of lakes and
rivers, we have the mighty oceans.
There Is more water in a small sec
tion of the Atlantic Ocean than in
all the lakes and rivers of the earth.
Salt Left in Ocean.
We must have water If we are to
live. People drifting about on the
ocean in nfeboats after a wreck can
IL
they had large supply Of dry bis
cults they might keep from growing
hungry, but they would die within
week or two If there was no water
to drink.
A poet once spoke Of water,
water everywhere, but not a drop to
drink" That is the story Of many
persons adrift on the ocean. If
they drank the salt water they
would become Ill.
Ocean water goes into our drink
ing supply, however. When it turns
into vapor, 1t rises in the air as
fresh water. The salt in it is left !
in the ocean, and that is why the
ocean becomes more and more salty
as the years and centuries pass by.
Winds blow clouds from places
over the ocean to places over the
land. When the water vapor in a
cloud is cooled in the right way
there is fall of rain. Much OF the
rain at length serves as drinking
r