7699. SALT WATER, Distillation.—
The obtaining fresh from salt water was for
ages considered as an important desideratum
for the use of navigators. The process for doing
this by simple distillation is so efficacious,
the erecting an extempore still with such utensils
as are found on board of every ship, is so
practicable, as to authorize the assertion that
this desideratum is satisfied to a very useful
degree. [442]
But though this has been done for
upwards of thirty years, though its reality has
been established by the actual experience of
several vessels which have had recourse to it,
yet neither the fact nor the process is known
to the mass of seamen, to whom it would be the
most useful, and for whom it was principally
wanted. The Secretary of State is, therefore,
of opinion that since the subject has now
been brought under observation, it should be
made the occasion of disseminating its knowledge
generally and effectually among the seafaring
citizens of the United States.—
Report to Congress. Washington ed. vii, 459.
(1790)
