Cleaning Dirty Water with a Rag

[@TheKnobCalledTone.]

I guess you could always boil the "cleaned" water off to make it drinkable. It'd probably still be cloudy and taste a bit nasty, but it's better than dehydration.

[@dickJohnsonpeter]

Even if you boiled off the muddy water it would be totally clean. Distillation results in nothing but pure water provided there's no oil or chemicals that also can turn to vapor.

[@cejaybee]

Aha. I'm travelling around Australia by motorbike right now -- and while I do have an MSR ceramic filter and Lifestraw bottle, they can't cope with very dirty water (like from an outback creek near cattle stations..) that I've been wondering how to manage if I needed too... Obviously there's boiling to do after, and such, ..but lets not have me coming back saying The Curiously Show saved my life. :)

[@pumpkinhill4570]

There’s that polyglu powder that might fit your requiremts.

[@gregiles908]

Growing up in Highbury we knew as kids where Rob's house was, it was urban legend. Loved Prof Sumner-Miller in the late 70's and Rob and Dean through the 80's. Your science education helped me to become a self taught brewer Rob.

[@CuriosityShow]

Great to hear - keep at it - Rob

[@mackit]

I was skeptical at first, but after the second scoop of dirt I was convinced. Yes, that is convincingly dirty water.

[@MeetAnEcoregion]

A nearly perfect yield in about one hour? That's actually very impressive. I think with a second or third round, you could have some very nice clean looking water, which could easily be made safe for drinking by boiling.

[@trevorlambert4226]

You're making the assumption that subsequent iterations will remove proportionate amounts of contaminants. I don't think that's the case. As he mentioned, the stuff that made it into the glass didn't make it there by random chance, it made it based on small particle size. There's a lot of reason to suspect it would wick through the rag just as much every time you did it.

[@benji274]

Still better than Adelaide tap water 😉

[@MrBimos555]

Not 100% clean, but it's a really great start. Thank you.

[@mce_AU]

Try it on your dirty handed friends.

[@chriskaser3445]

Now i know how to get dirty water almost clean haha thanks for the hint 🙏💙

[@Kargoneth]

Very clever.

[@iggytse]

Put it through a Brita filter jug. Then boil and distill. Probably still taste weird as natural minerals make spring water palatable but should be clean.

[@SaturnCanuck]

Osmosis?

[@CuriosityShow]

Capillarity - Rob

[@SaturnCanuck]

@@CuriosityShow Right. Got it

[@peety675]

Hi Rob i am a huge fan of The Curiosity Show can you please upload more full episodes from 1987 and 1988 and 1989?

[@CuriosityShow]

Many thanks, we'll look into it - Rob

[@GalactusOG]

better than nothing.

[@JuliusUnique]

you could filter it again, maybe have a setup of 10 rags and then there will be clean water at the end

[@ulogy]

Can just use a napkin or other paper product to do the same as a second stage, followed by running it through some very clean sand. Wouldn't get rid of microbes, but you'd have something more palatable once boiled.

[@false_positive]

If you repeat the procedure several times, maybe it gets crystal clean? 🤔

[@Lembobwaii]

probably not because the microscopic particles are still smaller than the fibers in the rag

[@essjayschwingle6981]

@@Lembobwaii maybe you could use a rags with increasingly tighter fibers as you repeat

[@Lembobwaii]

@@essjayschwingle6981 maybe but it will still never be as clear as it was, you will be able to just make it “drinkable”

[@false_positive]

@@Lembobwaii possible, but if it was matter of surviving, I guess I would ‘consume’ that ‘beverage’ after few cycles of filtering 🤔🙂

[@Lembobwaii]

@@false_positive let’s hope you’re in an environment where you can wait a few hours to keep doing that lol

[@Mango-vd1nn]

Sick!

[@editgalore3928]

Yasss I hate to say it but first ❤🎉 in both comment like and view 😮

[@Pauluz_The_Web_Gnome]

You can also wash your hands with the filthy water, and clean your hands under a faucet afterwards.

[@dickJohnsonpeter]

What would be the point of that?

[@bananawiz4381]

First

[@mr.d5314]

Nicely done, I was so late I didn't even bother declaring my position.

[@mr.d5314]

@@andymerrett Competitive commenting is actually one of the fastest growing new sports with spectator numbers also climbing rapidly. They reckon it could be as big as football in a few years.