A hot topic today, along with the debt ceiling, climate change and weather, apparently is the toilet. Suddenly, something that seems to be useful but mundane has become quite exciting.
One of the lesser publicized achievements of the recent, and last, voyage of the shuttle Atlantis was the astronauts' testing of the "baggie system." This system is intended to recycle sweat and urine on the mission into drinkable water. It has been reported that the system can make about a litre of "sports drink" in 4 to 6 hours. The energy potential for such drinks in sports and politics may have no limits.
This month, the Gates Foundation announced a new program to "reinvent the toilet." A spokesperson for the foundation acknowledged that there are no silver bullets in reinventing the toilet. Given the price of silver, that is understandable. The concern, of course, is that over 2 billion people in the world are said to have no access to flush toilets.
A university scientist who received a $400,000 grant from the foundation is reported to have developed a solar-powered portable toilet as a solution. The sun powers an electro-chemical reaction to break down water and waste into hydrogen gas that in turn could be stored in fuel cells to provide energy for cloudy days and night use. In one of those useless catalogs that clog one's mailbox, I once saw an automatic toilet seat that went up or down depending on use and user. I wonder whether sun power could be used for that, too.
All this news again causes me to reflect upon the cottage outhouse days of my faded youth. The outhouse worked on both sunny and cloudy days and at night. It required no maintenance except for some painting, which was my job. It also provided shelter for many spiders and other varmints. Frankly, the current "modern" toilets sometimes frighten me. They remind me of the system of pneumatic tubes that were used to send messages to different departments in department stores years ago. The toilets today flush with such a whoosh that it causes me to fear loss of flesh were I not jump up quickly.
And so the mundane can be exciting.
Fresh water is essential for life and commerce. However, its scarcity is resulting in increased regulation of water resources and their corollary, wastewater. This blog will discuss developments in such regulation. It will be my clepsydra measured by the flow of water law.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
THE PHILOSOPHY OF WATER
Recently, I lumbered through an antique shop, in my most serious hunter-gathere mode, grazing for whatever might catch my eye and release my checkbook In one jumbled booth, I spied a vintage cast iron hand water pump--you know the kind that would tower over kitchen sinks in most rural houses many years ago. It had been painted many times over its many years, but was primarily red, peppered by rainbow chips peeking through.
The paint on the handle was worn where many hands had grabbed it. Excitedly, I grabbed the handle, too, and vigorously pulled and pushed it up and down. But, only air flowed from the spout. How silly! A pump sitting on a shelf in an antique store can produce no water.
One of my college philosophy professors enjoyed repeating that "philosophers bake no bread." In other words, they do not produce anything tangible except for thoughts. In a way the vintage hand pump on a shelf in an antique store is like a philosopher. It pumps no water. But, what stories it could tell if it could talk. Who grabbed its handle over its many years of use? Where was it used? Why is it now on a shelf in an antique store?
Of course, answers to such questions are unlikely, and so the pump's history remains mysterious. But then again, water, which it once pumped, remains mysterious as well. A recent study has found that in the top layer of a water surface, about a quarter of water molecules have one hydrogen atom which actual vibrates in the air. (Science News, July 2, 2011, page 13.) "Despite covering roughly 70 percent of Earth's surface and constituting about 60 percent of the human body, water still puzzles scientists. For example, according to water's structural properties, it shouldn't be liquid, but rather gas, at everyday temperature and pressures." (Id. at p.13).
Well, who knows--maybe when I grabbed that handle of the pump on the shelf, I may actually have been pumping water in some form! Oh yes, I did not purchase the pump after all that--but, I may be back.
The paint on the handle was worn where many hands had grabbed it. Excitedly, I grabbed the handle, too, and vigorously pulled and pushed it up and down. But, only air flowed from the spout. How silly! A pump sitting on a shelf in an antique store can produce no water.
One of my college philosophy professors enjoyed repeating that "philosophers bake no bread." In other words, they do not produce anything tangible except for thoughts. In a way the vintage hand pump on a shelf in an antique store is like a philosopher. It pumps no water. But, what stories it could tell if it could talk. Who grabbed its handle over its many years of use? Where was it used? Why is it now on a shelf in an antique store?
Of course, answers to such questions are unlikely, and so the pump's history remains mysterious. But then again, water, which it once pumped, remains mysterious as well. A recent study has found that in the top layer of a water surface, about a quarter of water molecules have one hydrogen atom which actual vibrates in the air. (Science News, July 2, 2011, page 13.) "Despite covering roughly 70 percent of Earth's surface and constituting about 60 percent of the human body, water still puzzles scientists. For example, according to water's structural properties, it shouldn't be liquid, but rather gas, at everyday temperature and pressures." (Id. at p.13).
Well, who knows--maybe when I grabbed that handle of the pump on the shelf, I may actually have been pumping water in some form! Oh yes, I did not purchase the pump after all that--but, I may be back.
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