How to Purify Drinking Water

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 24, 1914

How to Purify Drinking Water

IN the Washington Times of Nov. 16, 1914, Leonard Keene Hirshberg, A. B., A. M., M. D. (Johns Hopkins University), gives practical directions for disinfecting drinking water so that no cholera, fever, dysentery, or other disease-producing microbes will be left in it, and no unpleasant taste or odor remain. He says to obtain a supply of high-quality chlorinated lime in quarter-pound cans, hermetically sealed. Secure also an equal number of half-pound packages of hyposulphate of soda, properly called sodium thiosulphate. Add to a gallon of water a quarter-pound can of the chlorinated lime, and shake well until thoroughly mixed. In another gallon of water dissolve in the same way a half-pound package of hyposulphate of soda. These solutions may be bottled and kept in stock.

They are sufficient to sterilize 8,000 gallons of drinking water. A teaspoonful of each will sterilize eight gallons of water. To use, add the chlorinated lime solution to the drinking water in the above proportion, according to the quantity of water to be sterilized, and fifteen minutes later add the hyposulphate of soda in the same proportion to remove any bad taste or odor. These mixtures may be used in reservoirs, wells, fountains, springs, or gallon bottles of table waters, and will remove from them all danger from water-borne maladies.