…; donated by Louis Emile Constant Martin, London, to the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, 1864;¹¹A. Lemmers (ed.), Maritime Technology from the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam: Multimedia Catalogue of the Dutch Navy Model Collection 1698-1889, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1995, no. MC-1161. transferred to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-1161

Model of half a purifier, bisected vertically.

Seawater is led into the container through a pipe at the top, heated by superheated steam from the boiler and led through a number of gratings, which distribute the water evenly and on which the salt settles. The resulting steam is led to the steam dome via the steam pipe to the side, while the purified water is led to the lower part of the boiler. The gratings can be removed to be cleaned of the precipitated salts.

This patent model was a gift by L.E.C. (Emile) Martin to the Department of the Navy. In 1864, the purifier was patented in the Netherlands by Martin himself, who lived in London at the time. In the previous year, when Martin lived in Paris, D. van den Bosch had helped Martin to apply for patents of two other inventions in the Netherlands (NG-MC-1162 and NG-MC-1163.

A test of an appliance of Martin’s was done with the boiler of the ropery in Amsterdam in 1861, but it is unclear whether it was with this purifier.

British Patent, 12/1/1864, no. 86; Journaal Rijkswerf Amsterdam, s.l. 1861-93, manuscript in HSM, inv. no. A.2277(02), 15/11/1862; J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1161; G. Doorman, Het Nederlandsch octrooiwezen en de techniek der 19de eeuw, The Hague 1947, p. 454, no. 3707

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a Purifier for Naval Boilers, United Kingdom, 1864', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200316086