How Manufacturing Water Works

self confidence. They're chuckings. So check. We have a huge problem, and by we I mean you and I and the rest of the human population on the planet right now. We do. We are having trouble with water, with safe, clean drinking water. The United Nations published a report a year or two back, and they found that in the global population doesn't have access to safe drinking water. Uh and they may have like a river nearby, but it

could be polluted. China, China's got a big problem with e waste right now in high levels of lead and mercury. Lake Chad in Africa has shrunk to a tenth of its size in the last like forty years. So water is running out and it's actually becoming a problem in the developed nations as well. Um, why with with this problem of of water and water being such a simple compound of just oxygen and hydrogen, why don't we just

make it right? And that's a great idea. And you would think that, you know, with all the technology we have today, we could just kind of throw it in a big kitchen aid and mix it up and you know, have a spicket at the other end. But it's really it's it's not as easy as that. You can't just mix them up. Um. In order to combine these two uh compounds, compounds, molecules molecules close, Yeah, you you have to have a big burst of energy and that you

know potentially could be really dangerous. Well yeah, it causes an explosion. You have to entangle their the orbits of their electrons, and yeah, it can be, like you said, very dangerous. Uh So I don't think it's so dangerous that it could never happen. I mean, we humans are pretty in g enius, but we can't do it right

now now. But you know there's other solutions there. There are I know when you were researching you found these other inventions that people have been able to pull water from the atmosphere pretty much, water right out of thin air, right, kind of like a big humidifier. Yeah, which you said that you do you use the de humidifier in your basement water your plan? I do. I have it hooked up to a hose. And you know here in Atlanta we're under a drought, so we uh, we use our

water to water our house plants. We need to get you some birkin stocks. Yeah, that's a great idea. So you want to talk about Aqua Magic their chuck, which I gotta say, I can't tell which one of these two inventions I like more. Yeah, you know, I like the other one better, But I'll tell you about Aqua Magic. Aqua Magic is these two guys invented this. Uh. It's it's you tow it behind a car like a trailer, and it basically just pulls all the water uh from

the atmosphere. And um, how much does it make per hour? It makes dred and twenty gallons of purified drinking water in twenty four hours twenty four hours, which is pretty good but significant. Yeah, the problem is that it runs on fuel. Yeah, twelve gallons of diesel fuel for and emissions, and so it's not exactly the best solution, but the

thing is it's portable. They debuted this thing um at a relief site after Hurricane Katrina, right, and you know, really, once your house is under ten twelve feet of water, you really don't care about the CEO two emissions exactly. You just want the clean drinking water. So it definitely has its benefits. Uh. The other invention that I came up with when I was researching this is the Whissen windmill. Yeah,

this one's really cool. Yeah. Um, it's named what is it? Uh, Well, he named it max Water, which you know all inventors have, they're cute little names, and that is a cute one too, it is. So this thing, uh is kind of similar, except it has the advantage of being totally green. It doesn't use any fossil fuels. They painted it green. No, No, it's like the the real kind of the new hip green. Yeah. Yeah, the eco friendly Macy's one day sale get a free

toepag green that kind of green. Um. So the whole thing runs exclusively on wind power, and um, basically it uses a refrigerant to cool the blades of the windmill, which causes the water and the air to condense. It collects it and there you have it, and it actually produces a lot more um. I think something like gallons per day, per day. Um. The problem is we have no idea what the impact would be on the water cycle,

you know, the rain cycle. Um if we started using these widespread across the globe to address drinking water, right, and I don't know how they could really project what could happen. We can't, We can't, which is kind of seen in that that British project from nineteen fifty two that you know about, right, Yeah, the air cloud seating, Yeah, Operation Cumulus. Yeah, that's crazy, and it was I think post World War two. They found out if they flew above the clouds and threw a bunch of silver iodied

and dryce and salt, it would actually make make it rain. Yeah. They were trying to rain out and front right, and it worked really really well. It worked a little too well, didn't it. Yeah. So basically this poor place called North Devon, which was near the site of the cloud seating, experience two fifty times the normal amount of rain. That's not in two weeks um thirty five people died. Damn's broke

bowlers and that was the end of the experiment. That's sadly yes, it's a testimony to how humans really shouldn't tamper with nature exactly. If you want to find out more about nature and manufacturing water in the like, read why can't we manufacture water on how stuff works dot com or more on this and thousands of other topics because at how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. Brought to you by the reinvented

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