Object data
copper, brass and iron
height 49.5 cm × width 43.5 cm × depth 35 cm
anonymous
Distilling Apparatus
Netherlands, United Kingdom, 1866 - 1870
Provenance
...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-1108-1
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
Distilling apparatus for distilling fresh water from salt water (NG-MC-1108-1), with an explanatory note (NG-MC-1108-2).
The system has two separate water flows: cold salt water from outside the hull enters the outer, cylindrical container from below and once heated, leaves the container through a pipe in the side above and is led out of the ship again. Steam is admitted to the apparatus through the top and distributed over a number of parallel pipes, where it is cooled by the water in the outer container and condenses into fresh water, which is tapped from below. Two extra cocks are attached to the outer container, leading to one pipe. The tops of the outer container and the distilling pipes are bolted.
James Bouvery Grant’s condenser or distilling apparatus was much appreciated for its simplicity and effectiveness. He obtained a patent for his invention in the United Kingdom in 1866. The Dutch Navy experimented with these condensers and gradually improved them: the most important problem was the need for completely watertight seams, which could not be achieved with solder and led to the use of bolts and nuts.
Literature
British Patent 1/2/1866, no. 319; J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1108; J. Gay, ‘L’eau à bord aux XIXe et XXe siècles’, Neptunia 189 (1993), pp. 40-45; E.M. Diamond and K.T.H. Farrer, ‘Watering the Fleet and the Introduction of Distillation’, The Mariner’s Mirror 91 (2005), no. 4, pp. 548-53
Citation
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Distilling Apparatus, Netherlands, 1866 - 1870', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244922
(accessed 29 December 2024 14:09:21).