A Practical Manual On Sea Water Distillation
With A Description Of The Necessary Machinery For The Process

PREFACE. In this Manual on the subject of the Distillation of sea water and other impure waters, so as to procure Pure Water for drinking purposes, and indeed for any other purpose for which pure water may be required, I have endeavoured first to explain the abstract principle of the process, and then to give some practical idea of the machinery that is required. With regard to the Principle of distillation, in order to explain this properly, I have found it necessary to treat of the fundamental subjects, Water, Steam, and Fuel. I have then endeavoured to show that the cost of obtaining distilled water (i.e., the amount of fuel used in the process) is, in point of fact, but a debit and credit account of the heat that is used, in other words, an account of the heat given and returned from first to last. With regard to the Machinery, I give a general explanation of the different systems under which various types of apparatus operate, so far as. they are all governed by the laws of nature, on the three cardinal points above alluded to; but to give in detail the construction of the various types supplied is quite beyond the object of this book. If further information is required as to any particular variety of apparatus, application should be made to the maker for his pamphlet dealing with the same. To a considerable extent I have beeil obliged to base the details I have given on personal experience in the