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Home Sanitation and Hygiene: Make

Take a new vinegar barrel or an oak tub that has never been used, either full cask or half size. a CHARCOAL SAND FILTERED WATER "A Cheap and Easy Way to Make a Filter."

Stand it on end raised on brick or stone from the ground. Insert a faucet near the bottom. Make a tight false bottom three or four inches from the bottom of the cask.

Perforate this with small gimlet holes, and cover it with a piece of clean white canvas. Place on this false bottom a layer of clean pebbles three or four inches in thickness; next, a layer of clean washed sand and gravel; then coarsely granulated charcoal about the size of small peas.

Charcoal made from hard maple is the best. After putting in a half bushel or so, pound it down firmly.

Then put in more until the tub is filled within one foot of the top.

Add a three-inch layer of pebbles, and throw over the top a piece of canvas as a strainer. This canvas strainer can be removed and washed occasionally and the cask can be dumped out, pebbles cleansed, and charcoal renewed every spring and fall, or once a year may be sufficient.

This filter may be set in the cellar and used only for drinking water.

Or it may be used in time of drouth for filtering stagnant water, which would otherwise be unpalatable, for the use of stock. This also makes a good cider filter for the purpose of making vinegar. The cider should first be passed through cheese cloth to remove all coarser particles.

Or a small cheap filter may be made from a flower pot. A fine sponge may be inserted in the hole and the pot filled about as directed for the above filter. It may be placed in the top of a jar, which will receive the filtered water.

Or a valuable substitute for charcoal in the above filters is sponge iron obtained by burning finely divided iron ore with charcoal. This can be obtained in the locality of iron mines or smelting furnaces. This is much more powerful than charcoal, and is said to completely purify contaminated water. DISPOSAL OF WASTES The sanitary disposal of household wastes presents three distinct problems: The removal (1) of solid excreta; (2) of slops; and (3) of garbage. If an adequate water supply is available from an elevated or pneumatic storage tank, the first two problems can be jointly solved by a house drainage system equipped with water closets, bath tubs and sinks.

Such a system can be installed with somewhat less trouble and expense when the house is first built. Yet it can be put into any house at moderate cost. From a sanitary standpoint it is perhaps the most desirable of all permanent improvements. All pipes and drains should be exposed to full view. Hence there need be no interference with walls or partitions. The only carpentry necessary will be openings through the floors.

These with the necessary repairs to ceilings and the like will not add greatly to the expense.