The purpose of this book is to make available to engineers, plant managers, students, and technical men in general a description, under one cover, of the several purification and other processes that are applied to water. The construction and operation of the different types of filtering, softening, and treating apparatus are described and illustrated by diagrams and photographs. The chemical reactions occurring in the treatments are also given. Book includes descriptions of processes include organic ion exchange materials for water softening, acid absorbents, equipment for the demineralization of water, the latest methods of treating boiler water to prevent embrittlement, new equipment for accelerating the lime and soda ash softening process, new developments in the use of chlorine for sterilization, and the stabilization of water to prevent deposition of scale in pipe lines. A relatively large amount of space is devoted to boiler feed water, because this department of water treatment is of interest to perhaps the largest group of engineers, and because of the complexities of the subject. While for many industrial purposes a hard water need merely be softened, the treatment of boiler feed water involves a number of special considerations that affect the choice of softening process and of the supplementary treatment that may be necessary.

In summarizing the available information on these subjects, the author has supplemented the knowledge gained in seventeen years experience in this field, with information contained in the transactions of engineering societies and the technical press.