[Illustration]

Sometimes the vapor is condensed by being allowed to play against the
inside of a conical cover which is adapted to a saucepan, and is kept cool
by the external application of cold water; and in this case the still takes
the form represented by the subjoined diagrams; such compact and portable
stills being largely employed in Ireland for the private manufacture of
whisky.

[Illustration]

It is scarcely necessary to say that the condensed water trickles down on
the inside of the cone, and flows out at the spout.

An extemporized arrangement of a similar character may be made by passing a
tobacco pipe through the side of a tin saucepan as shown below, and
inverting the lid of the saucepan; if the lid is now kept cool by frequent
changes of water inside it, and the pipe is properly adjusted so as to
catch the drippings from the convex side of the lid, a considerable
quantity of distilled water may be collected in an hour or so.

The proportion of solid impurities present in water as ordinarily met with
is extremely variable: rain water which has been collected toward the end
of a storm contains only a minute fraction of a grain per gallon, while
river or spring water may contain from less than thirty grains per gallon
or so and upward. Ordinary sea water generally contains from three to four
per cent. of saline matter, but that of the Dead Sea contains nearly
one-fourth of its weight of salts.