New Method of Purifying Water.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8053, 3 April 1905, Page 3

New Method of Purifying Water.

In tho Century Magazine, Mr Gilbert H. Giosvenor describes a new method of purifying water by the agency of copper sulphate, tbe method being tbe discovery of Dr. George T. Moore. ." Every school laboratory," says the writer, " contains some beautiful blua crystals of copper sulphate, and yet, wbo .would- bave imagined that a ' ph'ca cf those crystals dissolved in ibe water tank in tbe attic, or in the cistern or well, would kiil any typhoid germs that might be lmk-. | ing there; that it* use would insure healthful drinking water in a crowded m;l;tary camp ; that it would exterminate malaria-and-yello«r-f ever-carry-ing mosquitos in stagnant pools and swamos, by destroying the vegetable organisms on which th« mosquito lacvoe feed; that it would, in a lew hours, make the water of an eyil-amelling and foul-looking city reservoir, containing billions of gallons of water, clean and sweet; and th at the amount of copper that accomplishes all this is so small th*t while i« killi tho bacteria in the water is does not make the drinking water poisonous or injurious to tho human system ? It has baen known for a long time that copper destroys bacteria, bus the metal bat? not been much used heretofore for the purpose, because scientists bave generally belieyed that the dose required to kill must be very concentrated —po concentrated in fact that it would poison the water. Dr George T. Moore has now announced, with the authority of the United Scales Goveroment behind him, that he has discovered how to get tbe good effect of copper witbous any dangerous remit ; that be has a way of usng popper so diluted that it cannot hurt a baby, and so active that it will destroy virulent cholera and typhoid bacilli, in four or five hours. A dose of one part copper to 100,000 pats of water has been used successfully to sterilise a reservoir infected with typhoid. The cost of the treatment is ridiculoml'y small, ranging from 50 cents to three dollars per million gallons. Usually, a much weaker dose than one to 100,000 is effective.*'