1. The great Importance of having a sufficient Supply of fresh Water in Ships, has been the Occasion of many laudable Attempts to make Sea-water fresh and wholsome; but all the Attempts and Discoveries hitherto made, have laboured under this great and material Objection, _viz._ the great Quantity of Fuel that was necessary to distill, with a slow Progress, a small Quantity of Water, by any Methods of Distillation hitherto known. But I have lately happily, most unexpectedly, discovered an easy and effectual Method to distill great Quantities of Water with little Fuel; which I was led to by the following Incidents, _viz._ Mr. _Shipley_, Secretary of our Society, _for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce_, brought me acquainted with Mr. _William Baily_ of _Salisbury-Court_, the Author of many ingenious Contrivances; who shewed me, in a small Model of a Tin Vessel, a Method, by which he has happily increased the Force of the Engine to raise Water by Fire, _viz._ by lifting up some of the boiling Water, at every Stroke, by means of a conical Vessel, with small Holes in it, full of Tow; whereby the Quantity of the ascending Steam or Wreak was considerably increased. This led me to think, that a greater Quantity of Liquor might also by this Means be distilled; but on Trial I found the Increase to be only one twelfth Part, tho’ considerable in the expanded Form of a Steam. Hence I was led to try what would be the Effect of causing an incessant Shower of Air to ascend thro’ the boiling Liquor in a Still; and this, to my Surprise, I found on Trial to be very considerable. There was another Circumstance also, which probably conduced to lead my Mind to this Thought, _viz._ About six Months before, Mr. _Littlewood_, a Shipwright at _Chatham_, came thence purposely to communicate to me an ingenious Contrivance of his, soon to sweeten stinking Water, by blowing a Shower of fresh Air thro’ a Tin Pipe full of small Holes, layed at the Bottom of the Water. By this means, he told me, he had sweetened the stinking Bilge Water in the Well of some Ships; and also a But of stinking Water in an Hour, in the same manner as I blew Air up thro’ Corn and Gunpowder, as mentioned in the Book on _Ventilators_.