WEBVTT 00:00:04.430 --> 00:00:24.350 [National Library of Medicine. HF 1862. This transfer made: 01/16/06. Length: 00:18:05] 00:00:24.350 --> 00:00:28.740 [Official Training Film. T.F. 8 1174. War Department.] 00:00:28.740 --> 00:00:34.020 [Produced by The Signal Corps for the Commanding General Army Service Forces 1943.] 00:00:34.020 --> 00:00:43.440 [Purification of Water] 00:00:43.440 --> 00:00:48.740 Wasteland, devoid of any living thing, because there is no water. 00:00:48.740 --> 00:00:52.060 Without water, the land is dead. 00:00:52.060 --> 00:00:55.670 Water (unintelligible) to the valley. 00:00:55.670 --> 00:00:58.810 Water plows the fields and threshes the wheat. 00:00:58.810 --> 00:01:01.740 Water makes the bread that nourishes life. 00:01:01.740 --> 00:01:05.100 In the civilian world, you accepted water. It was there. 00:01:05.100 --> 00:01:10.820 You didn't worry about where it came from or whether or not it was pure. 00:01:10.820 --> 00:01:14.790 You got used to drinking good water - pure water. 00:01:14.790 --> 00:01:19.140 Did you ever wonder how it got that way? 00:01:19.140 --> 00:01:24.950 This looks like beautiful, clean water. But take a look at it under the micrososcope. 00:01:24.950 --> 00:01:35.520 It is alive with all sorts of living matter, with deadly germs that may give you dysentary, diarrhea, typhoid fever, para typhoid, or even cholera. 00:01:35.520 --> 00:01:41.050 Your local government protects you against these diseases by treating water to make it pure. 00:01:41.050 --> 00:01:46.100 By aerating, settling and filtering, 00:01:46.100 --> 00:01:51.130 and chlorinating, until it looks like this. 00:01:51.130 --> 00:01:54.570 Quite a difference, eh? One means life; 00:01:54.570 --> 00:01:58.170 the other may be deadlier than a machine gun bullet. 00:01:58.170 --> 00:02:02.190 That's why you must never drink water unless you know it's safe. 00:02:02.190 --> 00:02:12.030 These boys have been hiking all day. They're thirsty, and they're taking a 10 minute break. 00:02:12.030 --> 00:02:19.110 But drinking from this apparently harmless stream will get them a 10 month sick leave. 00:02:19.110 --> 00:02:22.480 Because upstream there's an open privy, 00:02:22.480 --> 00:02:25.530 and a trash dump, 00:02:25.530 --> 00:02:27.920 and a hog wallow. 00:02:27.920 --> 00:02:33.340 There's usually habitation along streams and all people have their own waste to dispose of, 00:02:33.340 --> 00:02:35.790 as well as animal waste and garbage. 00:02:35.790 --> 00:02:41.890 About 9 times out of 10, these wastes go into the stream. 00:02:41.890 --> 00:02:44.880 Brother, that water you drank before was polluted, 00:02:44.880 --> 00:02:47.810 and now your belly is full of disease germs. 00:02:47.810 --> 00:02:53.680 There's only one way to beat the game: don't water unless you know it has been purified. 00:02:53.680 --> 00:03:01.790 In the field, the Corps of Engineers usually supplies water for troops. 00:03:01.790 --> 00:03:05.060 With each army, there's an engineer water supply batallion. 00:03:05.060 --> 00:03:10.000 This outfit has mobile purification units mounted on trucks. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:14.650 These units usually operate as water points in the rear of the army area. 00:03:14.650 --> 00:03:19.530 When the water is purified, it is normally stored in large canvas reservoirs. 00:03:19.530 --> 00:03:22.980 From there it's conveniently transported to the troops. 00:03:22.980 --> 00:03:27.210 Most of the time, the Corps of Engineers depends on smaller, portable units, 00:03:27.210 --> 00:03:29.990 which work in about the same manner as the big mobile outfits, 00:03:29.990 --> 00:03:34.910 except that they're set up by the combat engineers. 00:03:34.910 --> 00:03:42.660 The purified water is stored in the large canvas tanks until the forward units can send for it. 00:03:42.660 --> 00:03:49.220 Unit tank trailers and water cans are used to carry water from the engineer's water point to the troops. 00:03:49.220 --> 00:03:52.720 This is one way the army looks after your water. 00:03:52.720 --> 00:04:00.400 Here's another. Every unit of 100 men or less is issued a water sterilizing bag, known as a Lister bag. 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:05.660 It's usually used to store and distribute water that has already been made fit for drinking. 00:04:05.660 --> 00:04:12.410 But this bag is also used to purify water when the water trucks can't get through. 00:04:12.410 --> 00:04:17.720 This bag is made of heavy canvas or rubberized fabric, and will hold 36 gallons. 00:04:17.720 --> 00:04:20.370 Hang it from a tripod of poles or branches. 00:04:20.370 --> 00:04:28.620 Make sure the tripod is fastened tightly at the top so that it doesn't collapse. 00:04:28.620 --> 00:04:34.650 A box of calcium hypochlorite ampules, a powder which purifies by chlorinating - 00:04:34.650 --> 00:04:38.750 and a bottle of orthotolidine, a test for sufficient chlorine - 00:04:38.750 --> 00:04:41.300 are issued for use with this bag. 00:04:41.300 --> 00:04:51.820 When you purify water by this method, first be sure you get your water from the best available source. 00:04:51.820 --> 00:04:59.500 If the water isn't clear, let it stand until the dirt settles to the bottom. 00:04:59.500 --> 00:05:11.090 When the water is cleared, pour it into the bag carefully, making sure that the dirt stays on the bottom of the bucket. 00:05:11.090 --> 00:05:14.380 Fill the bag to the 36 gallon mark, 00:05:14.380 --> 00:05:20.770 or if there isn't one, to within 4 inches of the top. 00:05:20.770 --> 00:05:28.090 Then run about a teaspoonful of water into your canteen cup. 00:05:28.090 --> 00:05:39.250 Break an ampule of calcium hypochlorite into it, 00:05:39.250 --> 00:05:46.060 and with a clean stick, mix the purifying powder and water into a paste. 00:05:46.060 --> 00:05:58.640 Once you've done that, add more water until the cup is two thirds full. 00:05:58.640 --> 00:06:04.390 Stir thoroughly. 00:06:04.390 --> 00:06:08.530 Empty the solution into the Lister bag. 00:06:08.530 --> 00:06:13.950 Then, stir it with a clean stick that's long enough to reach the bottom of the bag. 00:06:13.950 --> 00:06:18.780 Check the time on your watch. The water is not immediately ready for drinking. 00:06:18.780 --> 00:06:24.410 It takes 30 minutes for the chemicals to kill any germs that may be in the water. 00:06:24.410 --> 00:06:27.020 While you're waiting, flush out each faucet. 00:06:27.020 --> 00:06:32.140 This permits some of the purifier to come in contact with the inner surfaces of the faucets. 00:06:32.140 --> 00:06:39.590 You pour this water back into the bag. 00:06:39.590 --> 00:06:45.740 After the calcium hypochlorite has been in the water for at least 10 minutes, run off a small amount. 00:06:45.740 --> 00:06:56.530 And then run some into a clean canteen cup to a depth of about half an inch. 00:06:56.530 --> 00:07:04.230 Take the bottle of orthotolidine to test the mixture. 00:07:04.230 --> 00:07:06.790 Use the dropper cap from the bottle. 00:07:06.790 --> 00:07:25.300 Fill the dropper to the mark, and then add the preparation to the water in the canteen cup. 00:07:25.300 --> 00:07:34.750 Rotate the cup gently to mix the water and chemical, and allow the solution to stand for 5 minutes in the shade. 00:07:34.750 --> 00:07:42.140 At the end of 5 minutes, the water should take on a deep yellow color, to indicate the right amount of chlorination. 00:07:42.140 --> 00:07:55.170 If it doesn't, break another ampule of calcium hypochlorite into a separate cup. 00:07:55.170 --> 00:08:03.250 As you did before, use your stick and mix the powder and water into a paste. 00:08:03.250 --> 00:08:10.900 Draw some more water from the faucet. 00:08:10.900 --> 00:08:14.660 Stir thoroughly. 00:08:14.660 --> 00:08:18.210 And add the solution to the water in the bag. 00:08:18.210 --> 00:08:27.940 Stir the mixture as before, and repeat the color test in another 10 minutes. 00:08:27.940 --> 00:08:34.810 If you get an orange color, you've added too much calcium hypochlorite, which gives the water a bad taste. 00:08:34.810 --> 00:08:42.090 You can correct this by adding more untreated water to the lister bag, after which the color test should be repeated. 00:08:42.090 --> 00:08:47.090 If it comes up a deep yellow color, you're alright. 00:08:47.090 --> 00:08:50.460 Thirty minutes after the correct amount of calcium hypochlorite has been added, 00:08:50.460 --> 00:08:59.370 the water is ready to drink. And brother, this is safe water. 00:08:59.370 --> 00:09:02.060 Here's another way that orthotolidine is issued: 00:09:02.060 --> 00:09:08.290 in a kit that contains a bottle of orthotolidine tablets, slipped inside a testing vial. 00:09:08.290 --> 00:09:24.220 These tablets are used instead of the liquid solution to test for chlorine. 00:09:24.220 --> 00:09:44.830 After removing the inner bottle and flushing the faucet, fill the outer vial with water from the faucet, up to the yellow band. 00:09:44.830 --> 00:09:57.130 Drop in one tablet from the bottle. 00:09:57.130 --> 00:10:02.020 Shake gently until dissolved, and note the color produced. 00:10:02.020 --> 00:10:06.730 If the color is about equal to the yellow band, the water is satisfactory. 00:10:06.730 --> 00:10:09.920 Sometimes there won't be any orthotolidine around. 00:10:09.920 --> 00:10:17.410 If that happens, after you've added the hypochlorite, get one of your men who hasn't helped out in purifying the water. 00:10:17.410 --> 00:10:20.970 Have him smell and taste it. 00:10:20.970 --> 00:10:24.260 Make sure this man hasn't handled any of the hypochlorite, 00:10:24.260 --> 00:10:30.180 because the odor of chlorine on his hands will make it difficult for him to smell it in the water. 00:10:30.180 --> 00:10:52.280 If there's just a faint odor or taste of chlorine in the water, it means that it's safe to drink. 00:10:52.280 --> 00:11:02.260 Sometimes, however, there may be too much chlorine in the water. This gives it a bad taste. 00:11:02.260 --> 00:11:08.310 Rather than drink it, some thoughtless men may drink untreated water, just because it tastes better. 00:11:08.310 --> 00:11:11.190 That's a sweet way to start an epidemic. 00:11:11.190 --> 00:11:18.250 This sergeant has the right idea. 00:11:18.250 --> 00:11:25.370 He knows that all you have to do is just add a little more raw water, wait 10 minutes and retest. 00:11:25.370 --> 00:11:31.680 Remember, a mild flavor and odor of chlorine is the guarantee of safe, dependable water. 00:11:31.680 --> 00:11:35.870 If you don't have a Lister bag handy, use a 5 gallon can, 00:11:35.870 --> 00:11:39.430 or even a 10 gallon milk can will be satisfactory. 00:11:39.430 --> 00:11:44.500 When using these containers, break an ampule of calcium hypochlorite in your canteen cup, 00:11:44.500 --> 00:11:57.790 and mix in the same manner as you did for the lister bag. 00:11:57.790 --> 00:12:03.010 Fill your cup about 2 thirds full with water from the can, and stir again. 00:12:03.010 --> 00:12:06.640 But you don't pour all of this mixture into the can. 00:12:06.640 --> 00:12:26.460 For a 5 gallon can, pour in about 6 tablespoons full. 00:12:26.460 --> 00:12:31.860 For a 10 gallon can, use about one third of the mixture in the canteen cup. 00:12:31.860 --> 00:12:41.430 Stir it thoroughly, and then test with the orthotolidiine, or by smelling and tasting. 00:12:41.430 --> 00:12:47.940 Soldiers operating alone or in small groups have to purify their own drinking water. 00:12:47.940 --> 00:12:50.960 Enough food can be carried on a march for several days. 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:55.720 But water's too heavy and bulky, and you've got to know how to purify it, 00:12:55.720 --> 00:13:05.250 since each man usually needs one gallon a day for drinking and other purposes. 00:13:05.250 --> 00:13:07.230 The corporal has picked a flowing river, 00:13:07.230 --> 00:13:13.930 because river or lake water is usually purer than water taken from puddles, swamps, or other sources. 00:13:13.930 --> 00:13:19.890 But no matter where you get it from, all water must be treated. 00:13:19.890 --> 00:13:24.820 In this case, an ampule of calcium hypochlorite is being used. 00:13:24.820 --> 00:13:40.800 Let it dissolve for 5 minutes. 00:13:40.800 --> 00:13:46.140 Each man fills his canteen in the river. 00:13:46.140 --> 00:13:55.850 After 5 minutes have gone by, a canteen capful of the strong solution the corporal has mixed is poured into each canteen and shaken well. 00:13:55.850 --> 00:14:01.780 Wait one half hour to give the solution a chance to work. 00:14:01.780 --> 00:14:14.070 If there's just a faint odor and taste of chlorine, the water is safe to drink. 00:14:14.070 --> 00:14:33.530 If hypochlorite ampules are not provided, water purification tablets will be issued to men who may be separated from their organizations. 00:14:33.530 --> 00:14:35.770 This is how to go about it. 00:14:35.770 --> 00:14:52.240 After you've filled your canteen, add two tablets. 00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:56.720 Screw on the cap, and shake well for several minutes. 00:14:56.720 --> 00:15:01.460 Wait 30 minutes before drinking this water; then it will be safe. 00:15:01.460 --> 00:15:06.780 When on his own, a good soldier doesn't wait until his canteen is empty before refilling it. 00:15:06.780 --> 00:15:17.550 Whenever he finds water, and his canteen is less than one half full, he takes a drink from the canteen, and then refills his canteen and adds the purification tablets. 00:15:17.550 --> 00:15:22.410 In this manner, the water will be purified when he again becomes thirsty. 00:15:22.410 --> 00:15:25.210 Sometimes there won't be any clear water handy. 00:15:25.210 --> 00:15:41.450 In that case, you may have to use puddles, swamp water, or water from pot holes. 00:15:41.450 --> 00:16:01.840 When this happens, use four tablets to purify it. 00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:06.680 Don't wait until the last minute. Whenever possible, treat the water the night before. 00:16:06.680 --> 00:16:09.970 You can disinfect in larger containers with these tablets: 00:16:09.970 --> 00:16:19.450 40 tablets for 5 gallons of clear water, 80 tablets for dirty water. 00:16:19.450 --> 00:16:41.230 By preparing the water in advance, these boys have made it safer, and better tasting, and ready without waiting for it. 00:16:41.230 --> 00:16:44.610 There may be times when you haven't any purifying agent. 00:16:44.610 --> 00:16:47.450 If this happens, you won't have to do without water. 00:16:47.450 --> 00:16:51.360 You can sterilize it by bringing it to a boil for one minute. 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:55.230 Be sure you let it boil. 00:16:55.230 --> 00:17:02.030 Allow it to cool, then stir it vigorously. This gets air into the water and takes away the flat taste. 00:17:02.030 --> 00:17:14.920 There's another method of aerating, and that is to pour the water from one container into another. 00:17:14.920 --> 00:17:18.530 Cholera - just as vicious as a Jap bullet. 00:17:18.530 --> 00:17:22.530 Dysentary - as effective as a Nazi bayonette. 00:17:22.530 --> 00:17:28.120 The sixth, seventh, and eighth columns. 00:17:28.120 --> 00:17:31.470 Troops needed at the front, knocked out of battle - 00:17:31.470 --> 00:17:34.410 by beautifully clear water. 00:17:34.410 --> 00:17:39.930 Water that contained filth, dirt, and pollution, from a hog wallow, 00:17:39.930 --> 00:17:41.780 from a cow pasture. 00:17:41.780 --> 00:17:45.630 This one forgot to use his purifying tablets. 00:17:45.630 --> 00:17:49.090 This soldier drank untreated water. 00:17:49.090 --> 00:17:53.530 This poor guy thought well water was better than water in the Lister bag. 00:17:53.530 --> 00:17:56.300 Use the Lister bag when you're on your own. 00:17:56.300 --> 00:18:01.370 Don't help the enemy. Don't jeopardize your own life or your buddy's. 00:18:01.370 --> 00:18:06.320 Drop in those purification tablets. Boil it if you can't do anything else. 00:18:06.320 --> 00:18:17.530 But - purify your drinking water. 00:18:17.530 --> 00:18:23.200 [The end. T.F. 8 1174.] 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:30.020 [This film is restricted.]