'they drank several glasses, and thought it nothing inferior to spring 

 water. He made them a bowl of punch of it, which was highly 

 commended. 



He had not the convenience of a still, or he should have repeat- 

 ed the experiment for the conviction of some of his friends: for as 

 to himself, he was firmly persuaded, that wood ashes mixed with 

 sea. water would yield, when distilled, as good fresh water as could 

 be wished for. And he thought, if every ship bound a long voyage 

 was to take a small still with Dr. Hales's improvements, they need 

 never want fresh water. Wood-ashs might easily be made, while 

 there was any wood in the ship, and the extraordinary expense of 

 fuel would be trifling, if they contrived so that the still should stand 

 en the fire along with the ship's boiler. 



All sweet or pure water, if preserved in wood, will soon dissolve 

 a part of its interior surface, and become corrupt. To avoid this 

 Mr. Bentham proposed the following plan, for which he received a 

 gold medal from the Society of Arts. " The mode," says he, "in 

 which I conceived fresh water might be preserved sweet, wss merely 

 by keeping it in vessels of which the interior lining at least should 

 be of such a substance as should not be acted upon by the water, 

 so as to become a cause of contamination. Accordingly, on-board 

 two ships, the greater part of the water was kept, not in casks but 

 in cases or tanks, which, though they were made of wood, on account 

 of strength, were lined with metallic plates, of the kind manufac- 

 tured by Mr. Charles Wyatt, of Bridge. street, under the denomi- 

 nation of tinned copper-sheets ; and the junctures of the plates or 

 sheets were soldered together, so that the tightness of the cases 

 depended entirely on the lining, the water having no where access 

 to the wood. The shape of these cases was adapted to that of the 

 hold of the ship, some of them being made to fit close under the 

 platform, by which means the quantity of water stowed was consi- 

 derably greater than could have been stowed, in the same space, by 

 means of casks ; and thereby the stowage-room on-board ship, was 

 very much increased. 



The quantity of water kept in this manner on.board each ship, 

 was about forty tons divided into .sixteen tanks ; and there was 

 likewise, on-board each of the ships, about thirty tons slowed ia 

 casks as usual. 



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