Abstract
THE Bulletin and Laboratory Notes of September 1943, issued by Messrs. Baird and Tatlock, Ltd., Esher, Surrey, contains a description of an interesting copper and glass still for the preparation of distilled water in the laboratory. The water is boiled by an electric immersion heater in a tinned copper boiler, with a water-sealed lid of the same material. The lid carries a central metal tube over which is a glass hood communicating by a backward-sloping glass tube to the special water-cooled spiral glass condenser. A horizontal baffle inside the lid under the central steam outlet minimizes the passage of spray into the hood, which also serves as a trap. More than 90 per cent heating efficiency is claimed. The standard model has a 1·8 kW. motor and produces 2·7 lit. of distilled water per hour, with a total water consumption of 36 lit. The water, in a particular experiment, had a pH. of 6·0–6·2, and conductivity 1·5–2·0 gemmohs, although these figures will vary with the quality of the tap water. Oil or gas heating may be used in emergency. The whole apparatus is conveniently mounted in one piece by suitable clamps and appears to be very robust, and an additional feature is that a supply of hot cooling water can be diverted to a tank near a sink and used for washing. Other interesting types of stills are also described in the Bulletin.
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14 October 1944
An Erratum to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/154484e0
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A New Type of Still. Nature 154, 393 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154393b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154393b0