Moray on Mineral Waters, ^c. 99 



charged at the lower end of the tube in bubbles ; thereby 

 furnishing a carbonic gas within and without, with an al- 

 most infinitely thin film of water between, to absorb it on 

 each sid3. By continuing the same process, it passes the 

 whole, let the number be ever so many. At the last one it 

 is thrown out, through a stop cock, as at common soda wa- 

 ter establishments, or flows out in a continued stream with 

 the gas. It may be well to fill the first decanter, or even all 

 of them, with water, and discharge it into the last one, by 

 the gas, before the water is let in from the reservoir above. 

 These glass vessels may be placed in a trough to keep them 

 cold : this can stand on a table or side board, where the do- 

 mestics or other members of the family, may at any time 

 furnish a bottle or bottles of the mineral water when 

 wanted. 



If tin plate tubes will answer, it is but a short day's work 

 to prepare this apparatus, which may afford sixty or one 

 hundred and twenty tumblers per hour, with half a dozen 

 decanters. By increasing their number or size, any given 

 quantity in this way can be constantly or occasionally sup- 

 plied. One pound of sulphuric acid, if I mistake not, 

 ought to furnish gas enough to saturate sixty or seventy gal- 

 Ions, or not far from one thousand tumblers of water. Ex- 

 periments, I think, justify me in saying, we may expect not 

 far from half this quantity, practically. I can but hope, 

 and do believe, if owned and properly managed by corpo- 

 rations and companies, it may and will do much, very much 

 towards annihilating the use of ardent spirits, as well as be 

 the means of saving many annually from an untimely death, 

 by drinking cold water, to say nothing of its usefulness in 

 other respects. 



When currents of this gas, conveniently situated, are 

 found issuing naturally from the earth, they may be turned 

 to account. As for instance, at the Grotto del Cane, two 

 miles from Naples : if the gas from this grotto were receiv- 

 ed into an aqueduct, and carried in the direction of Naples, 

 or in any others, until a supply of water could be added, 

 the current might be continued until the gas and water were 

 perfectly united, and then they might be let out for use in 

 any situation most agreeable, or most conducive to the 

 comfort and convenience of that city and country. 

 Orford, Sept. 27, 1820. 



