Re: sterilizing drinking water

["Bruno M." <brunom1@yucom.be>]

At 16:10 26/01/2002 +0530, you wrote:
> Water used to be
> stored in my childhood days in copper vessels, because the copper ions
> that entered the water had a germicidal effect.  However it was
> later shown that the copper also caused liver and brain damage among some
> infants. (I must have been among the lucky infants that were not harmed).
> It did not harm adults. The richer families in India stored water in
> silver vessels for the same reason. No physical harm was ever reported in
> families that used silver vessels. The Indian Institute of Science,
> Bangalore, India, developed a spiral of silver.  This spiral,
> suspended for 12 hours in a pot filled with water, killed all the
> bacteria in it.  An analysis of the water with even the most
> sensitive instruments failed to show the presence of silver ions in the
> water.  The method has now been recommended by the Department of
> Science and Technology, Government of India. It is a very cheap method,
> but unfortunately it has not been widely publicised.
> A.D.Karve
> > -----Original
> > Message-----
> > From: Reedtb2@cs.com
> > <Reedtb2@cs.com>
> > Cc: stoves@crest.org <stoves@crest.org>
> > Date: Monday, January 21, 2002 7:09 AM
> > Subject: Re: Practical boiling
> > Dear Karve, Crispin, Stovelist and Gasification list: 
> > I dream of making significant improvements in cooking during my lifetime, but have added CLEAN WATER to my list of problems because it fits so close to stove making and gasification.  However, I am horrified at the idea of boiling all drinking water.  What an enormous energy and time expense. 
> >
> > It seems to me that CLEAN WATER could be an easy add-on to gasification.  Clean water can be achieved at village scale with activated charcoal and electric power. 
> >
> > Maybe there is a simple chlorinator that could make the chlorine for a local water supply.  However, oxygen is favored today over chlorine for pathogen treatment and a simple ozonizer would achieve the same results - with 1 kW power maybe. 
> >
> > The downdraft gasifiers we make for electric power (15 kW at CPC) typically produce 5 to 10% of a black "char-ash" that has been to 700 C and above.  While not enough for GOOD activation (giving an iodine number of >1,000) it does give activated charcoal (IN >300).  If necessary I believe a VERY simple activator could be added to the outlet of the gasifier to achieve higher activation. 
> >
> > I hope someone with a bad water supply will grab this idea and demonstrate it.  Talk is cheap. 
> >
> > Your truly,      TOM REED      
===============================================================
About Silver to desinfect drinking water,

It is already an old technology and energy friendly,( as a child I had also a silver cup to drink from).
You can find a lot on the net about silver and drink water.
For example  on :http://www.bondel.com/sec_3_1.php?pg=idx_3&secpg=sec_3_1
I found this:"    The Silver Lining in Water Purification 
Since 1893, medical science has used silver as a powerful bactericide and fungicide. In fact relatively small amounts of silver in drinking water have proven effective against Salmonella bacteria and against viruses such as Herpes. And no studies have ever shown that silver is harmful to man. —The Silver Institute Letter, August 1987, Volume XVII Number 4. (Italics are theirs)
At Bon Del, we use small amounts of silver bonded to granular activated carbon to make our filter an actual purifier. In other words, not only do we screen harmful sediments out, we inhibit the growth of harmful organisms that otherwise would breed inside the filter element. Silver is the proven method to do this effectively and non-toxically."........

Also, in a lot of (so called) health care product lines you will find "colloidal silver" and/or)
-generators as a antibiotic, antibacterial and anti fungal aid; and for drink water, etc...
E.g.: http://www.health2us.com/colloid.htm

It ll be not simple to separate the scientifically correct and good info, from the rubbish, I guess:-(
But I would stay away from chlorine, if possible, because than  you might exchange one
problem for an other.
Just my 2 (euro) cents.
Bruno M.

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