Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1889 — To Detect Impure Water. [ARTICLE]

To Detect Impure Water.

Orang® Judd Farmer. Fill a perfectly daan quart bottle half full of wate-, cork and shake it; remove the oork and see if any odor can be detected at the mouth of the bottle. Cork the bottle again, and put it in a warm place for a few hours, or set in a pan of hot water for an hour. Shake, uncork, and test again by smell. If an unpleasant- or faint, musty odor is perceptible, the water requires more minute investigation. The school Jtest—*a~to- evaporate a quart of water to dryness in a new tin pan or cup, and note the character of the residue, and what happens when it is strongly heated in a metal spoon. If the sediment left after evaporation is small, and bn' being burnt, o'n a metal spoon give rise only to such an odor as comes from burning vegetable matter, the water is not greatly contaminated with sewage. But if the sediment is in considerable quantity dark in eolor, and burner, giving off the peculiar odor of burning hair or other animal matter, then the water is foul.