Water Purifier
Having thus acquired the slave—no, Ivan Novikov—Hwiyeom set about the temporary water-control works in Guizhou Province in high spirits.
Proper water-control engineering began with building dikes to hold back river floods and constructing dams, and ended with laying separate water-supply and sewage lines. But with neither the time nor the resources for anything so thorough just then, Hwiyeom kept only two things in mind.
First: securing sources of drinking water.
Second: purifying that water.
In other words, drilling wells and turning undrinkable water into something people could actually drink.
Guizhou had no factories of its own, so Hwiyeom secured a plot of land with the help of the provincial administration office and set up a temporary kiln site there.
“What do you need us to do?”
“Build kilns for charcoal and start firing charcoal. And set aside any sticky clay left over from building the kilns.”
“Charcoal’s useful enough, but why the clay…?”
“Haha. Everything has its use.”
“Ah… yes…”
Jang Seong-pil, the clerk in charge of the official slaves the Guizhou provincial office had assigned to Hwiyeom, tilted his head with a look that said What kind of children’s game is this?, but he did not argue.
Just then Lee Jinmyeong came trotting into the room with Dang Su-jeong—who lately seemed half Hwiyeom’s bodyguard and half Jinmyeong’s—and delivered his report.
“Young Master, the supplies and laborers from the main house in Sichuan have arrived.”
“Good. Work should pick up speed now.”
“Um… everything else I understand, but why do we need this ‘blast-furnace ash residue’?”
“Ah, that. I’m going to use it to purify drinking water.”
“What?”
“Clerk Jang? Perfect timing. There’s something to mix into that clay. Follow me.”
“Yes, sir.”
Following Hwiyeom to the place where the goods had arrived, Clerk Jang’s mouth fell open at the sight of the bright-red, rust-blooming ash heap that came out of the wooden crates.
“Isn’t this just rusted iron powder mixed with ash?”
“It’s the ash residue pulled out of the blast furnaces.”
“And you want me to mix this into the clay?”
“After that, form it into quail-egg-sized balls and fire them.”
“But why…?”
Watching the clerk make no effort to hide an expression that screamed This bastard really is playing house, Hwiyeom gave a short laugh.
“If you don’t understand the reason, just do as you’re told for now. I won’t complain later.”
“…As you command.”
The ceramic balls—formed by rolling the clay into soft dumplings anywhere from thumbnail to pinky-nail size and firing them at high heat in the kilns—adjusted pH and adsorbed heavy metals when placed inside a water purifier. Their role was especially important for purifying drinking water here in Guizhou, where alkaline soil was the problem. The blast-furnace ash, rich in acidic iron oxide or iron sulfate, would help restore pH balance. Of course this only made sense in a place like Guizhou Province with its strongly alkaline soil; elsewhere the same method would throw the water’s pH off and leave it slightly acidic.
To deal with heavy metals he also used smaller ceramic balls fired without furnace ash, plus charcoal. Charcoal had always been excellent at adsorbing heavy metals and even had a sterilizing effect, so no filter could do without it; the fine ceramic balls matched charcoal’s efficiency when it came to heavy-metal adsorption alone.
The simple purifier Hwiyeom intended to use was a primitive filter that required no great leap of imagination for a modern person. It was nothing more than the familiar layered filtration of stones, gravel, sand, and charcoal (activated carbon), with the two kinds of ceramic balls added. He stacked the layers inside large jars and bored a hole in the bottom of each jar to seat a water pipe. Now all one had to do was pour water into the top of the jar and purified drinking water would flow out the bottom. The jars themselves could be fired at the kiln site, and gravel and stones were everywhere; so long as there was wood for charcoal and fuel for the fires, the filters could be made as cheaply as anyone liked.
Their effect, however, was anything but cheap.
In Yijong Village of Geumsa County, Guizhou Province, the farmer Jong-geun answered the soldier who was suddenly rounding people up with a distinctly unenthusiastic question.
“What is it? Something wrong?”
“No, nothing like that. Some high official’s handing out good things and told the county magistrate to gather folks.”
“…They’re not trying to force some weird junk on us again, are they?”
“The mood didn’t seem bad, so come take a look.”
“Fine.”
After clearing away his breakfast, Jong-geun went to the well in the center of the village and found people already gathered and murmuring. There stood an enormous jar he had never seen before, along with several men who looked like warriors in dull green uniforms talking with a few officials from the county office.
“Everyone seems to be here, so please begin.”
At the official’s cue, one of the warriors in dull green— a member of the Sichuan Dang Family’s Dokwadae—spoke up.
“All right, everyone, a moment of your attention, please. The reason we’ve taken up your busy time today is to introduce this jar to you and show you how to use it.”
Naturally every gaze turned to the huge jar that had already been drawing curious glances. It stood taller than a man and looked heavy even at a distance.
“This jar is a water-purifying device produced by our Sichuan Dang Family in cooperation with the Guizhou provincial administration.”
“Water-purifying device? What’s that?”
“A device that cleans water, just as it sounds.”
The crowd began to murmur. Water had lately become a source of trouble in the village. People who had started planting sugarcane had begun drawing water for their own fields, sparking quarrels with the traditional farmers, and drinking water itself had grown far scarcer. The villagers had dug wells here and there on their own, but in this limestone country where water drained so easily, sinking a well was hard enough; even when they managed it, the water that came up was often unfit to drink.
Sensing he had their full attention, the Dokwadae man put more force into his voice.
“Look here—you can see the muddy water we’ve drawn in advance. It comes from that failed well you recently dug beyond the hill. Even if you let it sit so the grit settles, it’s bitter water you can’t drink, isn’t it? Scatter that on a field and the crops are liable to wither and die. All because the water’s nature is far too bitter.”
Instead of launching into an explanation of acids and bases, the Dokwadae man simply called it “bitter water,” and the people seemed to understand easily enough. He raised a hand and gave the big jar a solid thump.
“Watch carefully from now on. This jar is a device that turns this undrinkable water into water you can drink.”
While the villagers watched with fascinated “Can that really work?” expressions, the Dokwadae man climbed the small wooden platform set beside the jar, opened the large lid of the purifier, lifted the jar of muddy water, and poured it in.
Shhhhhaaa—
As the muddy water spilled over the stones at the top of the purifier, the people simply stood and watched with faces that asked what on earth this was supposed to accomplish.
“Inside this purifier are several layers of purifying materials. The principle is simple, folks. When you cast a net into a river, it doesn’t just catch fish—leaves and pebbles get caught too, right? This purifier is like having many layers of those nets, and it also contains our family’s secret materials that turn bitter water into drinkable water. Now just wait a little for the purified water to come out… ah, it’s starting to flow.”
Clear water began to trickle from the small pipe fixed to the bottom of the jar. It collected in the bronze bowl waiting beneath, and anyone could see how clear it was.
“Ohh…”
“Just running it through a jar and the water comes out this clear? Amazing…”
Even that alone drew a good response. But it was not finished.
“Now then—this water is no longer bitter; it’s turned sweet. A person can drink it, and you can use it for farming as well. Anyone care to try a taste?”
When the Dokwadae man called out, the people only eyed one another; no one stepped forward first. So the Dokwadae man lifted the bronze bowl, gulped the water down, and set the empty bowl down with a sharp clack.
“Ahh…! Good. There—I’ve drunk first. Anyone with a little courage?”
At last Jong-geun, the one with the most nerve among them, thrust up his hand.
“I’ll taste it.”
“Excellent. Just a moment.”
The Dokwadae man waited until the bronze bowl was full again, then handed it to Jong-geun. Jong-geun held it a moment, fretting, then squeezed his eyes shut and tossed it back in one go.
His eyes flew wide open.
In all his life he had never tasted water so refreshing. A cry of wonder escaped him before he knew it.
“What…?! How can water taste this good?”
Water that had passed through alkaline soil was slippery, thick, and left a fishy bitter taste that made it almost impossible to drink plain; even soap barely raised a lather. In countries with such soil, people could not drink the water as it was and so developed substitute beverages—German beer and French wine being classic examples. The common claim that Chinese tea culture arose because of the muddy Yellow River is only half right. Tea culture spread widely across the entire Central Plains, not just the Yellow River basin. If the water were merely cloudy from grit, one could simply filter it; putting tea leaves in and boiling would never remove grit that still crunched between the teeth. Tea culture was created to erase the bitter, thick taste and musty smell of the water itself.
Yet the water that had passed through the purifier tasted pure, like modern bottled spring water. The iron-oxide component had neutralized the alkaline elements, and the heavy metals had been adsorbed by the activated charcoal and ceramic balls, producing water that was nearly neutral. The activated charcoal even possessed a sterilizing effect against E. coli. Of course boiling the water once more would complete the sterilization in the fullest sense—but it was already water that could be drunk without trouble.
From a modern standpoint it would barely scrape past hygiene standards, the lowest grade of bottled water; yet to Jong-geun, who had lived his whole life on water that left a faint bitter sting and a musty smell, this was no different from Evian.
“Ha—another bowl!”
He craved the water like a man dying of thirst, and only after downing three bowls in succession did he shout,
“This… this is the best-tasting water I’ve had since the day I was born!”
“What, Jong-geun, is the water really that good?”
“Come try it yourself! Words aren’t enough!”
Before long the people were lining up, murmuring, and the Dokwadae man kept pouring more water into the jar for them.
“All right, all right—there’s plenty of water, so no fighting, form a line!”
“It’s… sweet! Who knew water could taste like this…!”
“Have I been drinking filthy ditch water all this time…?”
Of course, even within the same Guizhou Province, places where the water quality was better and the alkalinity milder did not produce such dramatic reactions. There were villages that simply shrugged and wondered what the fuss was about. But in places where drinkable water was so scarce that the whole village simmered with tension, the clear water flowing from the jar could only draw cheers.
Once the first wave of excitement passed, the people began casting cautious glances at the Dokwadae man. They worried how much he would demand for this miraculous water jar.
But the Dokwadae man said,
“From this moment on, this water jar belongs to the village. Manage it together, and if any problem arises, inquire at the Sichuan Dang Family or the Guizhou provincial administration office.”
“H-how do we pay for it?”
“Payment has already been made.”
“What?”
“Aren’t you diligently growing sugarcane and selling it to our family? This is a small token of gratitude from the main house. Please accept it.”
“…?!”
A few days later, the Sichuan Dang Family had become the god of Guizhou Province.