消防和水工程
Philadelphia claims to have discovered a new method of purifying water, or, more properly, perhaps, to have applied in a different shape Nature’s means of aeration, such as takes place in running water, and in which oxygen in the form of ozone is the purifying agent. Ozone is present in the atmosphere in limited quantities, but is found in the greatest quantity during a thunderstorm or in high latitudes where electricity abounds in the air. The Philadelphia plan is to pass electrical discharges through air confined in tubes, whereby the oxygen is transformed into ozone. The air thus charged is driven into a column of water at its base, and. as it rises in tbe standpipe, the ozone, so to say, seizes upon the bacteria and other organic matter. Carbonic acid gas is thus evolved, which escapes in bubbles at the top. By means of this process the bacteria and organic matter are burned up and consumed (so it is claimed) much better than by boiling, which expels the air and leaves the water fiat, to say nothing of its being tainted by the dead bacilli. The process is said to remove all the foreign matter and to leave no ash behind, the combustion being perfect! The cost of the process is said to be only $3.50 for 1,000,000 gals., and the method is said to be so perfect in its working that, whereas twenty drops of the Schuylkill water contain 2,500,000 bacilli, after these have been subjected to the action of the ozone, their number is reduced to twenty-five—that is, only one in 100,000 escapes. Another advantage set down to the employment of this ozone as an agent of combustion and purification is, that its action is so rapid as to he able to purify for distribution no less than 75,000,000 gals, a day.
水的感觉迅速生长,像Csesafwife, should be above suspicion. Hence it is hardly' possible today to take up a newspaper without finding in it some reference more or less direct to the importance of seeing to it that the water supply is free from pollution. For some years, and especially of late, the same subject has occupied the attention of the members of the three different associations in this country that arc devoted to the study of waterworks’ conditions, with the result that a flood of light has been thrown upon the question, which has given birth to the rise of mamspecialists who devote a large portion of time to the chemical and bacteriological investigation of water supplies and their sources. The same work has been undertaken by cities and States, so that nowadays there is no board of health of any importance. State or municipal, that hgs not set apart a staff of experts to devote their whole time to this subject, and, in many instances, great expense has been gone to in the way of supplying these officials with commodious laboratories fitted up with all tbe most modern instruments for determining the conditions of water supplies within their jurisdiction. So far, a great step has been taken in advance. The good w-ork, however, cannot and must not stop there. The knowledge that this or that water supply is polluted is not sufficient, nor is it enough to caution the consumer against drinking the water unless it is boiled. A farther forward step must be taken, and the water must be distributed to the public in as pure a state as possible. That is to say: Whatever the first cost, resort must be had to the most perfect sys tern of filtration that can be devised. It may involve the expenditure of a considerable sum of money; but, if it saves the life even of one person, that expenditure will have been amply justified. That such a desirable consummation may be arrived at is the first duty of the State or the municipality, and for every case of disease or every death that results from tolerating the continuance of the cause of such sickness or death, after due warning has been given by professional experts, that State or municipality should be held legally responsible, if not criminally guilty.
