It requires art and experience to prepare a distilled water suitable for the manufacture of an imitation mineral water. To secure the best results requires that apparatus be scrupulously clean and so adjusted as to be easily kept in proper condition. The ordinary pot still is the apparatus usually recommended. In the operation of this still, however, certain precautions must be observed.

Most waters which are used for distilling purposes contain certain odoriferous particles in solution, and these must be removed. The process which is most commonly used requires the proper amount of water in the still for one operation. The distillation is then started and about one-third of the contents evaporated. This first third is allowed to run to waste, because it contains the volatile odoriferous materials above mentioned. The process of distillation is then continued rather gently until a second third of the contents is evaporated. This is received into a condenser where the vapor is converted into water and this water collected in absolutely clean receivers, built of materials on which the distilled water does not appreciably act. The remaining third of the water in the still, which contains concentrated mineral matters, is then allowed to flow in the sewer. Thus, of the whole volume distilled, only half is reserved for the purposes of manufacturing artificial waters, and of the whole quantity of the contents of the still, only one-third.