Soft water

“ To one accustomed to drinking hard water from a well or spring, rain water is a little unpalatable, but after he is accustomed to its use he will prefer it. It is always wise to secure an analysis of the drinking water of the house, since water reputed pure because of its clearness and coldness is as apt as any other to be contaminated. Where soft water is not available for household use, hard water may be softened by the addition to it of pearline or soda, or by boiling, in the latter case the lime in it being precipitated to the bottom of the kettle or boiler. ”

“ The best, as also far the pleasantest water to wash in is soft water, approaching as nearly as possible to pure or distilled water,{140} which from its purity and freedom from suspended mineral matter is more eager, so to speak, to take dirt, etc., into solution—that is to say, to wash it off. ”

“ When first taken from the stone basin into which it flows, the water is perfectly clear and bright, and exhales no particular smell. It does not sparkle in the glass, but a few bubbles slowly separate, and adhere to the sides of the vessel. When it has stood for some hours exposed to the air, it becomes turbid, and otherwise undergoes a very material change. As it does not properly curdle soap, it may be denominated a soft water. ”

“ One must conclude that within reasonable limits there is little to choose between a hard and soft water for drinking purposes, although a change from a soft water to a hard, or vice versa, usually produces temporary derangements. ”

“ Hard water makes the skin rough, but soft water, on the contrary, renders it smooth. When water, with the slightest acidity in it, has been suffered to remain in leaden pipes, pumps or cisterns for any length of time, it absorbs the dangerous qualities of the lead ”

“ The chief source of supply for water which falls on the earth is from the ocean. The heat of the sun raises a vapour from its surface. This vapour condenses and falls as rain or snow, either on sea or land. Rain after falling for some time is almost pure and for that reason is called soft. Hard water contains various minerals. ”

“ REMARKS ON THE Effect of different Kinds of Waters IN THEIR APPLICATION TO DOMESTIC ECONOMY AND THE ARTS; AND METHODS OF ASCERTAINING THEIR PURITY.
It requires not much reflection to become convinced that the waters which issue from the recesses of the earth, and form springs, wells, rivers, or lakes, often materially differ from each other in their taste and other obvious properties. There are few people who have not observed a difference in the waters used for domestic purposes and in the arts; and the distinctions of hard and soft water are familiar to every body. ”

“ 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. ”

“ HOW TO MAKE A FILTER. For drinking, and for all ordinary purposes, it is of the greatest importance that water should be as pure as possible. When water which is nearly soft, and wholly free from organic impurities, cannot be obtained from wells or springs, filtered rain water should be employed. ”

“ Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three feet, and when sunk to that depth seldom fail; but produce a fine limpid water, soft to the taste, and much commended by those who drink the pure element, but which does not lather well with soap. ”

“ Rain water is, of course, the softest, but as a rule lakes yield waters also quite soft. 384When a good and wholesome water cannot be obtained from springs or rivers, as in malarial districts, and when there is reasonable ground for thinking the ordinary sources are contaminated by epidemics, it is well to fall back on the rainfall for drinking purposes, with special care that it is collected in a cleanly manner. ”

“ This drains off from the surface, forming rills, which collect as they descend, by their own weight, into the lowest channels of the ground, and form into streams and rivers, and back into the sea comes the water which the air had taken away, with this difference, that it is free from salt and fit for the many uses to which fresh water alone can be applied; when the vapour rises from the sea, none of the saline matters rise with it, for, although the water is volatile, yet they are not, and this is the whole source of fresh water. ”

“ It should be clear and colorless, with little or no taste or smell, and free from any great amount of foreign ingredients. Chemically pure water does not occur in nature: it is only obtained by the condensation of steam, carefully conducted, and is not as agreeable for drinking purposes as the water furnished by springs and streams. Rain-water is the purest occurring in nature; but even this contains certain impurities, especially the portion which falls in the early part of a shower; for in its descent from the clouds, the particles floating in the air are caught by the falling drops. ”

“ WaterWater helps to regulate the concentration of the minerals in the body and carries food to the tissues by holding the food materials in solution in the body fluids. It also is invaluable in helping to carry off the body’s wastes and assists in regulating the body temperature. Four to eight glasses of pure water every day make for health. ”

“ Hence we see the Benefit of frequently replenishing the Water with fresh Air, which we find is necessary not only to preserve the Life of [Pg 72] Land Animals, but also of Fish; as also the Use of their Gills, to spread in thin Sheets fresh Supplies of Water, that they may the better come at the Air in the Water; for which Purpose both Sides of their Gills are furrowed with many fine Furrows, not only thereby to enlarge their Surfaces, but also more minutely to divide the Water, whereby to come at the Air in it. ”

“ We have also pools, of which some do strain fresh water out of salt; and others by art do turn fresh water into salt. We have also some rocks in the midst of the sea, and some bays upon the shore for some works, wherein is required the air and vapor of the sea. ”

“ Such a salt-water saucer of fresh water is maintained full to overflowing by the rainfall, and owing to the frictional resistance of the sand and to capillary action and the fact that a given column of fresh water is balanced by a shorter column of sea water, the fresh water never sinks to the mean sea-level unless artificially abstracted. ”

“ These springs feed the streams and rivers which carry the water back again to the sea. It is owing to this continuous circulation of water that the sea does not overflow, or the rivers dry up. Moreover, those damp exhalations supply the air with that moisture which is necessary to the life of men and beasts, and to the growth of plants. One thing more. You know that water turns foul when it remains for some time without being stirred. How is it that though it is shut in one place, the water of the sea never turns foul? ”

“ Hard Water.—Water is said to be hard when it will not produce a good lather with soap, but forms curds instead. Hardness is due to the presence of earthy salts in the water; salts of lime—chalk and gypsum—are the most common. ”

“ When the receiver is full of the sand, sea water is poured on the top, and this, in its way down, carries with it the salt left by evaporation. When it runs out below at a small hole, it is a very strong brine ”

“ What is it that makes the water, when spouting forth in a smooth stream from the hose, such a power? What is it that makes the beauty of the stem and curve of the body of water, as it leaps out of the fountain? ”

“ The fresh water is inodorous, perfectly limpid and sparkling, and sends forth numerous air-bubbles when poured into a glass. It is very agreeable to the taste, and in specific gravity approaches very nearly to that of distilled water ”

“ Boiling water, or other liquid, presents only an inanimate element, changed to the touch, not to the eye; but molten metal, red and fiery, takes a new appearance, and seems to have life,—the heat appears to give it voluntary action, and the sense of its power of injury adds to the emotion with which it is regarded; as well as the fact that it takes and preserves the form into which it flows. In this every-day world a new sensation is a new delight. ”

“ Water is mechanically attracted by many substances; it adheres to their surfaces just as dust adheres to objects, or one piece of polished glass adheres to another. Such attraction is termed ‘moistening,’ ‘soaking,’ or ‘absorption of water.’ Thus water moistens clean glass and adheres to its surface, is absorbed by the soil, sand, and clay, and does not flow away from them, but lodges itself between their particles. Similarly, water soaks into a sponge, cloth, hair, or paper, &c., but fat and greasy substances in general are not moistened. ”

“ For the most widespread use, the most desirable water is a cold water as free from mineral content as possible, and especially one lacking an excess of lime and magnesia which make it hard; also lacking an excess of acid constituents like sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, or chlorine, which give the water a taste, or which make impossible its use in boilers. ”

“ If, on the other hand, we increase the pressure on the surface of the water by any means, such, for example, as by placing it in a chamber of compressed air, the water can be heated to a higher temperature without boiling away. ”

“ The water begins to get salt when the evaporation from the lake exceeds the inflow. The inflowing waters bring in a small amount of saline and alkaline matter, which becomes more and more concentrated as the evaporation increases. ”

“ Wetness, which is the Interior or Innate Property, or Nature of Water, is, in my opinion, caused by some sort of Dilatations or Extenuations. As, all Droughts, or Dryness, are caused by some sorts of Contractions; so, all Moistures, Liquors, and Wets, by Dilatations: yet, those Extenuations, or Dilatations, that cause Wet, must be of such a sort of Dilatations, as are proper to Wet; viz. Such a sort of Extenuations, as are Circular Extenuations; which do dilate, or extenuate, in a smooth, equal dilatation, from the Center, to the Circumference ”

“ We now see that, as a living organism, it tends, on the one hand, to diminish the humidity of the air by sometimes absorbing moisture from it, and, on the other, to increase that humidity by pouring out into the atmosphere, in a vaporous form, the water it draws up through its roots. ”

“ So concreted humid things attract when a little resolved into air (the effluvia in the intermediate space tending to produce unity) ; for water has on wet bodies, or on bodies wet with abundant moisture on the top of water, the force of an effluvium. Clear air is a convenient medium for an electrical effluvium excited from concreted humour. Wet bodies projecting above the surface of water (if they are near) run together so that they may unite; for the surface of the water is raised around wet substances. But a dry thing is not impelled to a wet one, nor a wet to a dry, but seems to run away. ”

“ Of water, he says—"Nothing can hinder water from being a reflecting medium but dry dust or filth of some kind on its surface. Dirty water, if the foul matter be dissolved or suspended in the liquid, reflects just as clearly and sharply as pure water, only the image is coloured by the hue of the mixed matter, and becomes comparatively brown or dark." ”

“ At any rate, those places which are dug over break more into springs and run more with water, in answer to this treatment of their surface, just as women's breasts respond to sucking, for it moistens and softens the vapour; whereas land which is not worked is incapable of producing water, not having the motion by which moisture is obtained. ”

“ Why our Drinking Water is Likely to be Impure. Every drop of water that we drink or use, fell somewhere on the surface of the earth, in the form of rain or snow; and if we wish to find out whether it is pure and safe, we must trace its course through the soil, or the streams, from the point where it fell. ”

“ We know the difficulty we have to procure good drinking water, and though it may be filtered, there will remain natural salts, which are found in different degrees in all water upon the globe. We know the rain, which is perfectly [Pg 604] pure when condensed from the clouds, absorbs carbonic acid, etc., from the atmosphere. We have shown how this water as soon as it comes upon the earth attacks the rocks, and as it progresses carries away lime. ”

“ Hales, in his Vegetable Statics, advances, from experiment, that 'the moister the earth is the more dew falls on it in a night: and more than a double quantity of dew falls on a surface of water than there does on an equal surface of moist earth.' Hence we see that water, by its coolness, is enabled to assimilate to itself a large quantity of moisture nightly by condensation; and that the air, when loaded with fogs and vapours, and even with copious dews, can alone advance a considerable and never-failing resource. ”

“ I want you to water them, Tom. Water one with salt and water (brine) , the other with tap-water.”
Tom did as he was asked.
Plants watered with Fresh and Salt Water.
“See,” said Uncle George, “the one which you watered with brine is drooping. It is bending over the pot. That is because the water outside its root-hairs is denser than that which is inside the plant.”
19
“How does the water get up from the roots to the leaves?” Frank asked.
“Just in the same way as the oil travels up the wick of the lamp. Water will always travel up through small spaces.” ”