Filter Canteen

[Confederal]

looking for info on the so called filter Canteen. When were they issused, did both sides use them. Where they really any good at filtering?
Ron Orange

[Thad Gallagher]

You'd typically see these as a private purchase item. Filtering sediment and such, they might have been okay, depending on which canteen and what it used as the filter (cloth, sponge, etc.).

The bigger issue would be the microbes that it did not filter out of the water and would cause disease.

[Spinster]

Ron, the holes in them are about as big as those in the metal salt shaker your mama (and mine) kept by the stove.

About all they do is take the lumps out......

[hanktrent]

Years ago, Mike Murley showed me his Bartholamae canteen during an event. He explained that you inserted a filter in one of the tube-like thingies, which could filter more thoroughly than the holes in the canteen itself. That fits with the Bartholamae patent here (http://books.google.com/books?id=LL1AAAAAcAAJ&pg=PT456&output=html), which says (on the next page) "This tube f has any suitable filtering medium h placed in it."

That still doesn't filter out microbes, of course, but both charcoal (http://books.google.com/books?id=u-YXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA525&dq=filter+charcoal+canteen+date:0-1865&output=html&cd=5)and sandstone (http://books.google.com/books?id=Ux81AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA451&dq=filter+sandstone+date:0-1865&lr=&output=html&cd=12) filters were known. Don't know what most people used in patented filter canteens, and I don't know if a small sandstone filter would draw fast enough in a canteen or whether something coarser like charcoal, cloth, etc. like Thad Gallagher mentions would be necessary.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Confederal]

Thanks for the info.
Ron Orange