Drop to Drink

For the war's shipwrecked, the water, water everywhere which is not fit to drink is torture. A naval officer, a physiologist and a physicist have now announced three possible ways to make sea water potable.

> In London, Lieut. J. H. G. Goodfellow, R.N.V.R., demonstrated to the Ministry of War Transport a simple stove for lifeboat use which can distill six quarts of fresh water at a time. Compact and light (28 lb.), the little still can burn kerosene or wood.

> At the University of Minnesota, Physiologist Maurice B. Visscher has developed a one-man "belly still" (worn strapped around the waist) which uses body heat to boil sea water at low temperature, under partial vacuum, to yield drinkable fluid.

> At California Institute of Technology, Physicist Alexander Goetz has worked out a chemical method for the National Research Council. His aim: to replace the salts in sea water (which prevent water from passing through the intestinal walls into the blood stream) with less harmful salts. The resulting liquid "cheats the palate and the kidneys," but will keep a man alive.

Dr. Goetz's chemical kit, size of a cake of soap, weighs less than half a pound, will treat enough salt water to make two quarts of drinkable water -- enough to last a careful man a week. The chemicals (secret) are simply mixed with sea water in any available container -- a bucket, a boot or a helmet. When the muddy material settles, the clear liquid is treated with a second chemical swished around in a cloth like a tea bag, poured off, drunk.

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