WEBVTT - How Manufacturing Water Works

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know

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<v Speaker 1>from House stuff works dot Com brought to you by

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<v Speaker 1>Consumer Guidet Automotive We make carbine easier. Hi, and welcome

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<v Speaker 1>to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, a staff writer here

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<v Speaker 1>at how Stuff works dot Com. With me is arguably

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<v Speaker 1>the greatest writer at the entire site. Mr Charles Bryant,

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<v Speaker 1>are you Chuck and I am great and I am

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<v Speaker 1>a great writer? Yes, thank you. Heads off to your

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<v Speaker 1>self confidence. They're chuckings. So check. We have a huge problem,

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<v Speaker 1>and by we I mean you and I and the

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<v Speaker 1>rest of the human population on the planet right now.

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<v Speaker 1>We do. We are having trouble with water, with safe,

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<v Speaker 1>clean drinking water. The United Nations published a report a

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<v Speaker 1>year or two back, and they found that in the

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<v Speaker 1>global population doesn't have access to safe drinking water. Uh

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<v Speaker 1>and they may have like a river nearby, but it

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<v Speaker 1>could be polluted. China, China's got a big problem with

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<v Speaker 1>e waste right now in high levels of lead and mercury.

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<v Speaker 1>Lake Chad in Africa has shrunk to a tenth of

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<v Speaker 1>its size in the last like forty years. So water

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<v Speaker 1>is running out and it's actually becoming a problem in

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<v Speaker 1>the developed nations as well. Um, why with with this

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<v Speaker 1>problem of of water and water being such a simple

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<v Speaker 1>compound of just oxygen and hydrogen, why don't we just

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<v Speaker 1>make it right? And that's a great idea. And you

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<v Speaker 1>would think that, you know, with all the technology we

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<v Speaker 1>have today, we could just kind of throw it in

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<v Speaker 1>a big kitchen aid and mix it up and you know,

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<v Speaker 1>have a spicket at the other end. But it's really

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<v Speaker 1>it's it's not as easy as that. You can't just

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<v Speaker 1>mix them up. Um. In order to combine these two

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<v Speaker 1>uh compounds, compounds, molecules molecules close, Yeah, you you have

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<v Speaker 1>to have a big burst of energy and that you

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<v Speaker 1>know potentially could be really dangerous. Well yeah, it causes

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<v Speaker 1>an explosion. You have to entangle their the orbits of

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<v Speaker 1>their electrons, and yeah, it can be, like you said,

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<v Speaker 1>very dangerous. Uh So I don't think it's so dangerous

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<v Speaker 1>that it could never happen. I mean, we humans are

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<v Speaker 1>pretty in g enius, but we can't do it right

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<v Speaker 1>now now. But you know there's other solutions there. There

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<v Speaker 1>are I know when you were researching you found these

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<v Speaker 1>other inventions that people have been able to pull water

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<v Speaker 1>from the atmosphere pretty much, water right out of thin air, right,

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<v Speaker 1>kind of like a big humidifier. Yeah, which you said

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<v Speaker 1>that you do you use the de humidifier in your

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<v Speaker 1>basement water your plan? I do. I have it hooked

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<v Speaker 1>up to a hose. And you know here in Atlanta

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<v Speaker 1>we're under a drought, so we uh, we use our

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<v Speaker 1>water to water our house plants. We need to get

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<v Speaker 1>you some birkin stocks. Yeah, that's a great idea. So

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<v Speaker 1>you want to talk about Aqua Magic their chuck, which

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<v Speaker 1>I gotta say, I can't tell which one of these

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<v Speaker 1>two inventions I like more. Yeah, you know, I like

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<v Speaker 1>the other one better, But I'll tell you about Aqua Magic.

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<v Speaker 1>Aqua Magic is these two guys invented this. Uh. It's

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<v Speaker 1>it's you tow it behind a car like a trailer,

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<v Speaker 1>and it basically just pulls all the water uh from

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<v Speaker 1>the atmosphere. And um, how much does it make per hour?

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<v Speaker 1>It makes dred and twenty gallons of purified drinking water

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<v Speaker 1>in twenty four hours twenty four hours, which is pretty

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<v Speaker 1>good but significant. Yeah, the problem is that it runs

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<v Speaker 1>on fuel. Yeah, twelve gallons of diesel fuel for and emissions,

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<v Speaker 1>and so it's not exactly the best solution, but the

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<v Speaker 1>thing is it's portable. They debuted this thing um at

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<v Speaker 1>a relief site after Hurricane Katrina, right, and you know, really,

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<v Speaker 1>once your house is under ten twelve feet of water,

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<v Speaker 1>you really don't care about the CEO two emissions exactly.

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<v Speaker 1>You just want the clean drinking water. So it definitely

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<v Speaker 1>has its benefits. Uh. The other invention that I came

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<v Speaker 1>up with when I was researching this is the Whissen windmill. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>this one's really cool. Yeah. Um, it's named what is it? Uh, Well,

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<v Speaker 1>he named it max Water, which you know all inventors have,

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<v Speaker 1>they're cute little names, and that is a cute one too,

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<v Speaker 1>it is. So this thing, uh is kind of similar,

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<v Speaker 1>except it has the advantage of being totally green. It

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<v Speaker 1>doesn't use any fossil fuels. They painted it green. No, No,

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<v Speaker 1>it's like the the real kind of the new hip green. Yeah. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>the eco friendly Macy's one day sale get a free

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<v Speaker 1>toepag green that kind of green. Um. So the whole

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<v Speaker 1>thing runs exclusively on wind power, and um, basically it

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<v Speaker 1>uses a refrigerant to cool the blades of the windmill,

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<v Speaker 1>which causes the water and the air to condense. It

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<v Speaker 1>collects it and there you have it, and it actually

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<v Speaker 1>produces a lot more um. I think something like gallons

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<v Speaker 1>per day, per day. Um. The problem is we have

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<v Speaker 1>no idea what the impact would be on the water cycle,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, the rain cycle. Um if we started using

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<v Speaker 1>these widespread across the globe to address drinking water, right,

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<v Speaker 1>and I don't know how they could really project what

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<v Speaker 1>could happen. We can't, We can't, which is kind of

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<v Speaker 1>seen in that that British project from nineteen fifty two

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<v Speaker 1>that you know about, right, Yeah, the air cloud seating, Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>Operation Cumulus. Yeah, that's crazy, and it was I think

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<v Speaker 1>post World War two. They found out if they flew

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<v Speaker 1>above the clouds and threw a bunch of silver iodied

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<v Speaker 1>and dryce and salt, it would actually make make it rain. Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>They were trying to rain out and front right, and

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<v Speaker 1>it worked really really well. It worked a little too well,

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<v Speaker 1>didn't it. Yeah. So basically this poor place called North Devon,

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<v Speaker 1>which was near the site of the cloud seating, experience

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<v Speaker 1>two fifty times the normal amount of rain. That's not

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<v Speaker 1>in two weeks um thirty five people died. Damn's broke

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<v Speaker 1>bowlers and that was the end of the experiment. That's

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<v Speaker 1>sadly yes, it's a testimony to how humans really shouldn't

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<v Speaker 1>tamper with nature exactly. If you want to find out

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<v Speaker 1>more about nature and manufacturing water in the like, read

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<v Speaker 1>why can't we manufacture water on how stuff works dot

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<v Speaker 1>com or more on this and thousands of other topics

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<v Speaker 1>because at how stuff works dot com. Let us know

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<v Speaker 1>what you think. Send an email to podcast at how

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