Distilled water

“ As for those who are curious, and will be at the charge, they may procure the best water for drink by distillation, either in an alembick, or in a cold still used in drawing any cold water from herbs; for no earthly or metallic substance, nor any kind of salt will rise in distillation: So that the water so distilled will be pure, and admirable to drink when cold, and will keep as long from stinking as any of the cold distilled water in the apothecaries40 shops ”

“ VII. In case the water be suspected to contain any salts, it will be advisable gently to boil a quantity of the dry substance obtained by distillation, in five or six times its weight of pure common distilled water, such as is totally divested of all mineral particles. By this process, the saline matter will be dissolved or suspended in such water, in the form of a solution, which, on being filtred, and evaporated to dryness, will re-produce its salt. ”

“ Whoever examines the series of memoirs published during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, on the subject of freshening seawater by distillation, must be struck by the divergence of opinions and the want of concordance in the results, some declaring that distilled water is pure, healthy, and tasteless, others that it is unhealthy and almost as detestable as before the operation. ”

“ Distilled water is the nearest approach to pure water obtainable, and it is said by physicians that such water is not desirable as a habitual and constant beverage. The human body requires certain mineral salts particularly for the bones and muscles, and while these salts are provided in a large measure by food, a number are also furnished [Pg 132] by drinking water. On the other hand, a wonderful natural process is accomplished by distilled or approximately pure water in that the water tends to dissolve, to add to itself, and to carry away whatever excess of solids may exist in the body. ”

“ If we add to hard water a quantity of sodium or potassium, the carbonate of lime is precipitated as a white or yellowish powder, according to the quantity of iron contained in the water, and a soft water remains.
The sun produces on a great scale in nature, what the chemist achieves on a smaller scale by evaporation or precipitation and cooling of steam, a water free of all mineral salts, which we call distilled water. ”

“ The distillation is conducted as quickly as possible, and, when one half the water has come over, it is returned into the still, and this cohobation is repeated, when necessary, until the distilled water ceases to be mixed with oil. The heat of steam or a salt-water bath should be preferably employed. When a naked fire is used, the still should be deep and narrow, by which means the bottom will be better protected by the gradually decreasing quantity of water towards the end of the process, and empyreuma prevented. ”

“ Experiment 81.—Test the purity of distilled water by slowly evaporating a few drops on Pt foil in a room free from dust. There should be no spot or residue left on the foil. Test in the same way undistilled water. 137. Water exists in Three States,— solid, liquid, and vaporous. It freezes at 0 degrees, suddenly expanding considerably as it passes into the solid state. It boils, i.e. overcomes atmospheric pressure and is vaporized, at 100 degrees (760 mm pressure) . If the pressure is greater, the boiling-point is raised, i.e. it takes a higher temperature to overcome a greater pressure. ”

“ So, if I take a gas-lamp, and put any cooling arrangement over it, I shall get water—water being likewise produced from the combustion of gas. Here, in this bottle, is a quantity of water—perfectly pure, distilled water, produced from the combustion of a gas-lamp—in no point different from the water that you distil from the river, or ocean, or spring, but exactly the same thing. Water is one individual thing—it never changes. ”

“ For most purposes distilled water, taken as it comes from the condenser, is sufficiently pure. The preparation of absolutely pure water is a matter of great difficulty. Stas, in his stoichiometric researches, mixed water with potassium manganate, and distilled after twenty-four hours ”

“ Apprehending that the fixed air in the distilled water occasioned the coagulation, or separation of the oily part of the soap, only by destroying the causticity of the lixivium, and thereby rendering the union less perfect betwixt that and the tallow, and not by the presence of any acid; I impregnated a fresh quantity of the same distilled water with fixed air, which had passed through half a yard of a wide barometer-tube filled with salt of tartar ”

“ If it is found that distilled water is too flat in taste, there are many manufacturers who use distilled water as the basis of their syphon products. Carbonated water will be found much more palatable. ”

“ Volatile oils are little soluble in water, yet enough so as to impart to it by agitation their characteristic smell and taste. The water which distils with any oil is in general a saturated solution of it, and as such is used in medicine under the name of distilled water. ”

“ A heat inferior to that of boiling water, with which we must begin in order to warm the vessel gradually, brings nothing over, as hath been said, but an insipid water, destitute of all acidity. By increasing it nearly to the degree of boiling water, the distilled water comes to be slightly acid. ”

“ STILL.--Daguerreotypists should always use distilled water for solutions, and washing the plate, as common water holds various substances in solution which detract very materially from the excellence of a photograph, and often gives much trouble, quite unaccountable to many. For the purpose of distilling water the apparatus represented at Fig. 16 is both convenient and economical. ”

“ It may be truthfully asserted that it is impossible to procure perfectly pure water. "Even distilled water and fresh rain-water contain some ammonia, carbonic acid, and other matters which detract from their purity; while the best water from rivers, wells, ponds, and tanks, contains a large number of chemical compounds, chiefly salts." The skillful use of the microscope would condemn the water from many sources for drinking purposes which now is considered pure. ”

“ Over these pipes a spray of cold water is kept playing, which still further cools this distilled water on its way to the filters shown in the next illustration. In making artificial ice the greatest care is taken to secure pure water. Before it is even distilled in the condensing system this water is boiled and then allowed to stand so that the impurities may settle. It is then drawn off from this settling tank, converted into steam and condensed.
This man is filling the cans with distilled water. ”

“ Lord Bacon, to whom the world is indebted for the first germs 456 of so many branches of science, had observed, that with a heat sufficient for distillation, salt will not rise in vapor, and that salt-water distilled is fresh; and it would seem, that all mankind might have observed that the earth is supplied with fresh water chiefly by exhalation from the sea, which is, in fact, an insensible distillation effected by the heat of the sun ”

“ This Vapour became visible, and much increased, when the Water in the Worm-tub was very hot; at which Time, less is distilled into the Cask-receiver; then also there is more Danger of the Spirit of Salt arising. And it was observable, that the Water in the Worm-pipe Vessel heated much sooner by Ventilation, than in the common Way of distilling. For which Reason that Water ought to be changed so much the oftener, which can easily be done at Sea. The Cocks also at the Side of the Worm-tub ought to be large, in order to let the hot Water off the faster. ”

“ If it be necessary, the better to close the Joining of the Still-head, it may be done with a Lute or Paste made of a Mixture of powdered Chalk and Meal, wetted with Salt-water.
21. Now that several effectual Means are discovered, to make distilled Sea-water wholsome, and also to distill it in much greater Quantity in the same Still, in the same Time, and with nearly the same Quantity of Fuel; it is reasonable to believe, that it will be of great Benefit to [Pg 18] Navigation, not only in saving much stowage room, for other important Purposes ”

“ Their notion was to combine earth, air, fire, and water in their alembic, and to obtain the essences of all of these in one distillate. They dissolved lime in nitric acid, evaporated to dryness, exposed the residue to the air, and let it absorb humidity. They then distilled this substance and obtained the humidity in a pure form. History does not tell us what questions they put to their spirit of the world when they had thus caught it. ”

“ It is a considerable further Advantage, that Water thus distilled by Ventilation, being thereby repleat and freshened with Air, has for present Use a more agreeable Taste, than Water distilled without Ventilation, which requires the standing a longer Time to have its more disagreeable adust Taste go off. ”

“ The constituent parts of pure water, in volumes, are two parts of hydrogen and one of oxygen, and by weight one part hydrogen and eight parts oxygen. When pure it is transparent, tasteless, inodorous, and colorless, except when seen in considerable depths. But having such high solvent powers and affinity for almost every substance in nature, one can account for suspicions that science places on all waters, for it is never free from impurities. And well it may not, if doctors are to be believed, for they tell us, that chemically pure water is not best for man ”

“ When it is subjected to distillation in a heat sufficient to keep it in a gentle ebullition, an oily looking matter passes over in considerable proportion, which sinks to the bottom of the water into which the tube is inserted. ”

“ Perfectly pure water is without taste: even the pleasant character of freshly-drawn spring-water is due to the admixture of atmospheric air and carbonic acid. The manner in which water absorbs air is evidently due to a peculiar physical attractive force, the value of which we do not at present clearly perceive or correctly estimate. It is chemically composed of two volumes of hydrogen gas—the lightest body known, and at the same time a highly inflammable one—united with one volume of oxygen, which excites combustion, and continues that action,—producing heat and light,—with great energy. ”

“ On the other hand, if the alcohol, turpentine, ether, or chloroform were allowed to evaporate into the bell-glass, a certain quantity of either of these vapours would presently enter it, and then this vapour would act like a solid mass in resisting the entry of any more of its own kind, while it would be freely pervious to the vapour of water or that of the other liquids.
A practical example will further illustrate this. Some [68] years ago I was engaged in the distillation of paraffin oil, and had a few thousand gallons of the crude liquid in a still with a tall head and a rising condenser. ”

“ If we mix them in a vessel and apply a match, there is instantly a powerful explosion, heat is generated and there is formed—water. The two strange, invisible gases have combined and formed the well-known liquid. Whenever a substance which contains hydrogen, like wood, paper, starch, sugar, &c., burns, it forms water with oxygen of the air. In fact, these two gases are always ready, on the slightest provocation to unite. Rain, or melted snow, approaches nearest to chemically pure water, but all wells, springs, rivers and seas contain dissolved substances, in greater or less degree. ”

“ Water, at least, we know, cannot be made to contain much more than its own bulk of fixed air.
After this disappointment, I confined myself to the use of that volatile spirit of sal ammoniac which is procured by a distillation with slaked lime, which contains no fixed air; and which seems, in a general state, to contain about as much alkaline air, as an equal quantity of spirit of salt contains of the acid air. ”

“ The pots must be covered to prevent the absorption of moisture from the air, or the accidental entrance of water, which would cause decomposition, and consequent fuming off, through the heat generated by the action of the water upon the strong acids. ”

“ And that it is also different from common elastic air, is sufficiently proved by daily experience; for lime-water, which soon attracts air, and forms a crust when exposed in open and shallow vessels, may be preserved, for any time, in bottles which are but slightly corked, or closed in such a manner as would allow free access to elastic air, were a vacuum formed in the bottle. ”

“ Sea-water is not potable, but it has long since been remarked that the vapours which rise from the sea are soft, and it was thence concluded that, by collecting and condensing them, it would be possible to obtain a potable liquid fit for domestic purposes. ”

“ Water, exposed to the air, is constantly undergoing this change. It is changed from the liquid form, and becomes a vapor in the air. Water in the form of vapor occupies nearly 2000 times the space that it filled as a liquid. As the vapor at the time of its formation is of the same temperature with the water, and, from its highly expanded condition, requires a great amount of heat to maintain it as vapor, it follows that a given quantity of water contains, in the vapory form, many times as much heat as in the liquid form. ”

“ When not entirely transparent they frequently contain inclusions of black asphaltum or other hydrocarbons and also contain hollow cavities which are filled with fluid, sometimes salt water and sometimes liquid carbonic acid gas. In these are moving bubbles and occasionally a heavy hydrocarbon; that is, a bubble will ascend and the hydrocarbon will sink; or else the bubble will rise and take with it a small speck of hydrocarbon, and another will sink. ”