Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	fish_n	great_a	sea_n	3,519	5	6.8793	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84602	Salt-water sweetned; or, A true account of the great advantages of this new invention both by sea & land: together with a full and satisfactory answer to all apparent difficulties. : Also the approbation of the Colledge of Physicians. : Likewise a Letter of the Honourable Robert Boyle to a friend upon the same subject.	Fitzgerald, R. (Robert); Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Letter of Mr. Boyle to the learned Dr. John Beale ... concerning fresh-water made out of sea-water.	1683 (1683)	Wing F1088; ESTC R177086	7,625	15

Doctor King a very ingenious Physician who is a Member of the Colledge and of the Royal Society who finds 1. That it is Lighter than most of the Waters about the Town 2. That it is without Sediment and Transparent as any other Waters 3. That it Lathers as they call it with Wash-ball or Soap better than any other Water and with less Soap 4. That Sugar dissolveth sooner in it than in other Water 5. That it Evaporates sooner than common Water 6. That whereas common Water putrifies and yields a stinking Smell within a few Weeks this has continued Sweet and unaltered several Months and may yet do so much longer being still in as good condition as it was above four Months ago 7. That it makes Jellies as firm and good as any Water 8. That it boils Pease to Tenderness Beef Mutton Fish and all other Meat without giving it an ill Taste or Colour 9. That it has no kind of ill Taste in it self and boils in Milk without Curdling 10. That Flowers Plants and all Vegetables grow in it at least as well as any other Water And that small Animals live and grow in it Several men of great Quality viz. the Earls of Shrewsbury Westmorland Mulgrave the Lord Dunbar Lord Lumley Lord Falconbridge and Lord Chumley besides several Gentlemen of Quality Officers of Sea and Physicians have drunk of this Water without being in the least indispos'd after it but lest any doubts may remain after this of the Salubrity of the said Water the following Testimonial of these Learned and Eminent Physicians is here inserted The Approbation of the Colledge of Physicians and of other Doctors of Physick Practising in and about London WHereas we have received an account in a Gazet published some Months since that the Honourable Robert Fitz Gerald Esq hath found out the way and means of reducing salt-Salt-water into Fresh in quantities sufficient to serve Ships at Sea And forasmuch as some persons may possibly make a doubt if the said Water be wholsome after the Salt is taken out of it We therefore considering of what general advantage this useful Experiment may be having fully inform'd our selves from Mr. Boyle that the said Experiment is made by Fire And having also seen an account of some Experiments made by some Members of our own Body to declare our Opinion that we believe the said Water is very wholsome and may be safely us'd And being further acquainted by the said Mr. Boyle that the very few Ingredients made use of in the said Operation are fix'd in the Fire and give no noxious quality to the Water We are therefore of Opinion that the same may be safely us'd and is at least as Healthy as any other Water us'd at Sea All which we certify at the Request of the Honourable Robert Fitz Gerald. Dr. Cox President Sir C. Scarborough Knt. Dr. Daniel Whistler Dr. Weatherly Dr. William Denton Sir T. Millington Knt. Dr. Walter Needham Dr. Thomas Short Dr. Thomas Allen Dr. Edmond Dickingson Dr. William Croone Dr. Richard Lower Dr. John Windebank Dr. Daniel Cox Dr. James Rupine Dr. Charles Conquest Dr. Edmond King Dr. Willoughby Dr. Thomas Sydenham Dr. Edward Tyson Dr. Nehemiah Grew Dr. David Abercromby Dr. Andrew Creagh Though Physick has always Flourished in this Kingdom yet in this Age it is in greater perfection than ever being improv'd both as to the Practical and Speculative part by the present Fellows of the Famous Colledge of Physicians who being Men of great Practice and Eminent Learning cannot but give full satisfaction to all such as inquire concerning the healthfulness of this Water Their Opinion being in this particular the more valuable because it is their own disadvantage since the Brackish Waters of the Seacoast and the putrified Waters made use of at Sea might probably have afforded them a great number of Patients which may hereafter be lessened by the use of this wholsome Water The Benefits and Advantages of Sea Water made Fresh MUch Stowage will be saved so that a Ship of 50 or 60 Tun and proportionably of greater Bulk may take in several Tuns of Goods more than they formerly used to carry which will considerably advance the Trade of all Merchants and be of vast profit to the Masters or Owners of Ships The Charge of Casks is very considerable especially when bound with Iron as all Sea-Casks must be And by means of this Engine three fourths of that charge will be saved The tear and wear of Boats often going from Shipboard and frequent loss of the Boats and Men in stormy Weather and the opportunity of the Sea-mens being Drunk on shoar by which many fatal Accidents do happen by means of having this Water-Engine will be prevented Ships in long Voyages have been forc'd to run many Leagues from their intended course which much retards their Voyage and makes them lose Fair Winds and maintain more Sea-men at Charges of Diet and Wages than they have occasion for which Inconveniences may be prevented by having Water within themselves Ships are often forc'd to leave their Anchors and Cables behind them by being forced into dangerous Shoars upon account of taking in Fresh Water In the African East and West India Voyages great quantities of Fresh Water are necessary which the Sea-men are forc'd to put above Deck for want of room which is great hindrance to a Ships sailing and much endangers and weakens a Ship in case of Calms which often happen in the narrow Seas but especially near the Line this Instrument will be of vast advantage by affording fresh and wholesom Water instead of that which is unwholesom and offensive Essex Kent and all other the Sea-coasts that want wholesom Water may be easily and cheaply supplied by this means as also Venice Amsterdam Rotterdam and all other places that lie near the Sea and either want good or have Brackish Water In time of War whole Navies may be relieved by this Engine and opportunity given of making the greatest Discoveries imaginable It is further to be considered that hitherto the richest and ablest bodied Sea-men have been averse from undertaking long Voyages by reason of endangering their Healths and Lives by making use of putrified Water which Inconvenience is not now to be feared there being such useful helps of Fresh Water by the use of this Engine and possibly a smaller number of Men may serve the use of Ships than do at present by which much Charges will be saved to the Masters and Owners of Ships and Merchants may Trade upon easier Terms A LETTER of Mr. BOYLES to the Learned Doctor JOHN BEALE Fellow of the Royal Society concerning Fresh Water made out of Sea-Water printed at the Desire of the Patentees SIR TO give you a short Account suitable to the little time I have to do it in of the Transaction which I suppose must have given the rise to the mention made of my Name in the publik Gazzet I must inform you that one of my nearest

SALT WATER SWEETNED Or a TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT ADVANTAGES Of this NEW INVENTION BOTH BY SEA LAND Together with A Full and Satisfactory ANSWER to all Apparent DIFFICULTIES ALSO THE Approbation of the COLLEDGE of PHYSICIANS LIKEWISE A LETTER of the Honourable Robert Boyle to a Friend upon the same Subject Dublin Printed by Joseph Ray at Colledge-Green for William Norman in Dames-street Bookbinder to His Grace the Duke of Ormond 1683. TO THE KING'S Most Excellent MAJESTY SIR WHen Mr Boyle with my Partners and my self attended Your Majesty with the Experiment of Reducing Salt Water into Fresh Your Majesty seem'd so well pleas'd with an Invention of that Vniversal Benefit That We cannot but with our Humblest Duty acknowledge Your Gracious Reception of it However as Your Great Wisdom and Profound Judgment is not easie to be surpriz'd and Your Royal Approbation never known to be Your hasty Act of Grace Your Favour and Patronage was not fully obtain'd till with the strictest Scrutiny you had first examin'd those Hopes and Probabilities You vouch saf'd to encourage in us But when upon further consideration we had obviated all Difficulties and salv'd all Objections against this Vndertaking which we hope will appear in this printed Paper Your Majesty was graciously pleas'd to give us Your Approbation and to order us Your Letters Patents which Grace and Favour ought to be and is receiv'd by us with the deepest sense of our humble Acknowledgments and Gratitude And if the Fruits of Your Royal Grant has not hitherto been deriv'd to us 't is partly by some Obstacles we met from the suggestions of a private Person but more especially by the late Horrid Conspiracy when not only our Loyal apprehensions for Your Majesties Danger diverted our Thoughts from all other Concerns but likewise we judg'd it a part of our Duty not to be pressing on Your Majesties Goodness or on Your Ministers of State in so Important a juncture of Affairs But having now regain'd Leisure and Freedom after the dissipation of the greatest part of our Fears We presume a second time to lay these Endeavours at Your Feet as best Entituled to the Patronage of so great an Vndertaking by Your own Subjects and best able to recommend it to the World by Your Royal Approbation This Experiment is in a great degree owing to the Eminent Mr. Boyle and indeed well worthy so Ingenious a Promoter being so much the more the Favourite of his happy Genius as it is Vniversally useful to Mankind But whatever Advantages this Country or indeed the World may receive by it his whole ambition is bounded in the publick profit contenting himself with no other Benefit from it than the satisfaction and pleasure of seeing it accomplish'd by his Friends The advantages in regard to Navigation especially in long Voyages which are subject through often Calms and on several other accounts to distress for want of Water and the benefits to Sea Towns which are incommodated by Brackish Waters Together with the Easiness Cheapness and Wholsomness of this prepared Water are the principal scope of these ensuing Papers which are Humbly Dedicated to Your Majesties Perusal Favour and further Approbation by Your Majesties most Dutiful and Obedient Subject R. FITZGERALD The fore-going Dedication humbly offered to His Majesty having discovered the Intention of this Undertaking it remains now to satisfie all Reasonable Scruples which have been raised concerning the Wholesomness and Cheapness of Water thus prepared The Queries and Answers follow Quest 1 IF this Water can be made in sufficient Quantities to serve the Vses of any Ship at Sea Answ About Ninety Gallons may be prepared in Twenty four Hours by an Instrument of 33 Inches Diameter which will stand under the Deck of any Ship and it 's computed that less than 3 Quarts is a good Allowance for any man in that time And it a large Ship wherein there are many men aboard should require more Water then two or more of the Instruments may be had upon Reasonable Terms and one Man may attend several of them Quest 2 In case the Operation be by Fire it may require a Skilful Chymist or one known in such Operations to be on board every Ship who will require great Wages Answ There will be no occasion for any such person for any Sea-man may be instructed in an Hour or two to prepare this Water Quest 3 It 's probable that the Engine may be frequently out of Order and being so at Sea where Artificers and Tools are wanting to repair it there must necessarily follow want of Water which will be of ill consequence Answ This Engine is of such Contrivance that it 's never likely to be out of Order Quest Can this Engine be of use in Stormy weather Answ Since a sufficient quantity of Fresh-water may be so easily had by this Engine the Mariners will be careful to make a good Provision of it before-hand however 't is not to be doubted but it will answer the worst Accidents of the greatest Storms and have its Effect sufficiently in the worst Weather especially considering that in such desperate Extremities men must be content with smaller Allowances Quest 5 The Operation being by Fire it may endanger the Ship and the Smoak be very offensive Answ The Engine may easily be placed in any Ship without danger of Fire or offence of Smoak Quest 6 Will not the Charge of this Instrument and the Materials belonging to it be very great Answ It is difficult to make exact Answer to this but an Instrument of the largest Size with all the Materials belonging to it will not amount to above Sixteen Pound at most and may last many years and according to the Rates of Ships they may be proportion'd both in Bulk and Price Quest 7 Will not the Fewel be very Chargeable and take up much Room in the Ship Answ This Operation is caused by so little Fire that it will be very Cheap and the Provision need not be great nor the trouble of Stowing it in a Ship Quest 8 Will not the Ingredients take up much Room and be very Chargeable Answ A Vessel less than a Barrel may contain enough of the Ingredients to carry a Ship to the Indies and back again and the Ingredients for one hundred Gallons of this Sea-Water will not amount to above Fourteen Pence at most Quest 9 Admitting this Preparation of Water may be made and in sufficient quantities it may be doubted whether it be Wholesome Answ The Famous Lord Bacon having written learnedly of this Subject had not the least thought that the Sea-water after it had been dis-salted without any Noxious addition was Unwholesome and it neither now is nor ever was really doubted whether it were Wholesome However because invidious persons who are no Well-wishers to Ingenious Designs may possibly raise Scruples the Gentlemen who are concerned in this Grant have purposely to give publick Satisfaction sent a large quantity of this Water to

Relations Captain Fitz-Gerald and some other worthy Gentlemen having acquainted His Majesty that they had an Invention for making Sea-Water sweet and wholesom in great quantity and with small Charge and that I had examin'd and did approve the Water so prepar'd His Majesty was pleas'd with very Gracious Expressions to command me to attend Him with a further and more particular Information Having readily obey'd this Order and been made acquainted with the Objections the King thought fit to make against the Practicableness of the Invention which though a private man had urg'd them I I should think the most judicious that have been fram'd against it I humbly represented to Him that I look'd upon this Invention as comprising two differing things a Mechanical part which related to the Engine it self and the use of it a Ship-board and a Physical part which concerns the Potableness and Wholesomness of the Liquor About the former of these I did not intend to clear the Difficulties especially such strong ones as His Majesty had propos'd but left it to the Patentees to give Him Satisfaction which they were in a readiness to offer But as to the Wholesomness of the prepared Water I had made some Trials upon that Liquor which gave me no just grounds of suspecting it to be unwholesome but several Motives to believe it well conditioned and of great use to Navigators and not to them only And having hereupon briefly acquainted His Majesty with the chief Trials I had made to examine this Sweetned Water He was pleased to look upon them as satisfactory and vouchsaf'd on that occasion to discourse as a Virtuoso of the Sea and Brackish Waters and gave me some new as well as instructive Observations about them and in Conclusion dismiss'd the Patentees with a Gracious Promise of His Royal Protection and peculiar Favour To this short Narrative it now remains that I briefly Subjoyn the chief things that perswaded me of the Salubrity of this Water whence may be justly and easily inferr'd the Vtilitie the Publick may receive by a cheap and easie way of preparing it First then I considered that almost all the Rain water that falls from the Clouds on the Main Ocean and which except perhaps in very few places in Torrid Climates is unquestionably receiv'd as wholsome must be afforded by the Sea and consequently be but Seawater freed from its Salt according to the Famous Motto Redit Agmine dulci. Next I found as His Majesty Himself had done that the Liquor was well tasted and without any sensible Brackishness and so some of it continued for between 4 or 5 Months in a large Chrystal Bottle that I purposely kept unstopt and for the most part in a South Window where it neither did nor probably in a long time will putrifie or so much as appear troubled or less transparent during which time it was with Approbation tasted and smelled by several Learned Physicians of the Famous Colledge of London Thirdly I found it laver very well which most Pump waters and many others that have some little though unperceived common Salt in them will not do Fourthly this Water will boile Pease tender which amongst Seamen is one of the principal signs of good Water Fifthly in very good Ballances with an Instrument that I purposely caus'd to be made for the nice weighing of Liquors I found this Water far less heavy than one would expect for if it differed at all in weight from the like quantitie of undistilled Water I speak with an If because it is far more difficult to be Exact in such nice Trials than the Vnpracticed will Imagine the difference was not considerable being but 1 part in 400 and that difference is very small in Comparison of that which Navigators and Learned Authors relate to be observable in Natural Waters all of them good and potable I might tell you on this occasion that the last Great Duke of Tuscany who was an Eminent Virtuoso and the Patron of the Celebrated Academy of the Lyncean Philosophers is affirmed among other prudent courses that he took for his Health whereof he was very Solicitous to have constantly made use of Distill'd Water for his own Drinking And I could add other things favourable enough to the Patentees Water if Haste and perhaps Discretion too did not oblige me to leave them yet unmention'd that I might now have time to say somewhat of the main thing of all that convinced me of the Saltness of the Water I speak of I consider'd then Sixthly That the thing that was aim'd at by those Ingenious men that at differing times and in several Countries have attempted to make Sea water Sweet and the thing that was requir'd by proposing Recompences or otherwise to Encourage the Makers of such Attempts was to Free the sea-Sea-water from the Brackishness without any Noxious Additament so that on all sides it was taken for granted that the only thing that kept the Sea water from being safely Potable was its Brackishness From which Reflection it was natural for me to infer a Conclusion very favourable to our prepar'd Water For having long since written a short Discourse of the Saltness of the Sea I had been industrious to devise ways of comparing Waters in point of Brackishness And by these I found the Patentees Water to be more free from common Salt than Waters that are usually drunk here in London of which I remember I shew'd those Gentlemen an Experiment that surpriz'd as well as convinc'd them And that which more satisfied me my self was a Trial that I carefully made by a way which having mention'd but not yet for want of opportunity disclos'd to His Majesty the Respect I owe Him forbids me to impart without His Leave On which account I hope you 'l be content to be at present assur'd of these two things One that by this way of Trial I found what possibly you will think strange that if there were in Water so much as one Grain of Salt in above two Ounces of Water I could readily discover it The other that even by this critical Examen I could not detect so much as a thousandth part of Salt in our prepar'd Water whereas I found by Trials purposely and carefully made that our English Sea-water contain'd a 44th or 45th part of good dry Salt or which is all one that 44 Pints or near so many Pounds of Marine Water would yield about one Pound of dry common Salt Thus Sir you have a short and Art-less Account such as my haste will permit and the Nature of the Subject requires of my part in promoting this profitable Invention to which I own my self a great well-wisher not out of any private Interest though that was obligingly proffer'd me by the Patentees but as I think the bringing into general use may prove a real Service to Mankind upon the score of divers Vtilities and Advantages which yet though I had leisure I should think very needless to enumerate to so discerning a person as Dr. B. to whom I shall therefore hasten to subscribe my self c. An Affectionate Friend and Servant R. BOYLE THe Gentlemen Concern'd in this Grant are the Honourable Robert Fitz Gerald Colonel Oglethorp Mr. Bridgeman Mr. Thomas Maul and Mr. Patrick Trant who intending the General Good as well as their Private Advantage in this Design do intend as soon as these Papers be made publick to agree with all such as are willing to deal with them for the Instruments and Ingredients which concerning so nearly the Lives and Healths of men shall be carefully made up under such sure and private marks that it shall be very hard if possible to Counterfeit them If any Corporation Body of People or Private Persons are willing to be concern'd herein they may please to direct their Letters to any of the Patentees before mentioned at Garaway's Coffee house over against the Royal-Exchange or at Will 's Coffee house in Bow-street in Covent Garden or to Mr. John Pye in Brook-street near Holbourn who is the Person appointed by the Patentees to receive such Papers as are intended for them FINIS