Fannie Merritt Farmer

Water (H2O)

Appears in
top 1000The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book
The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book

By Fannie Merritt Farmer

Published 1896

  • About
Water is a transparent, odorless, tasteless liquid. It is derived from five sources, — rains, rivers, surface-water or shallow wells, deep wells, and springs. Water is never found pure in nature; it is nearly pure when gathered in an open field, after a heavy rainfall, or from springs. For town and city supply, surface-water is furnished by some adjacent pond or lake. Samples of such water are carefully and frequently analyzed, to make sure that it is not polluted with disease germs.

The hardness of water depends upon the amount of salts of lime and magnesia which it contains. Soft water is free from objectionable salts, and is preferable for household purposes. Hard water may be softened by boiling, or by the addition of a small amount of bicarbonate of soda (NaHCO3).