chlorine in a swimming pool? history of pool chlorination? first used to sterilize swimming pools? Why do we use chlorine? of Chlorine as a Swimming Pool Sanitizer. people swimming pools conjure summer afternoons dedicated to carefree indulgences like lime daiquiris and a satisfying bad novel.   Pools are pleasure ponds and symbols of suburban arcadia." (S. Garbarino, The Pool in Film: Deep and Lovely And Full of Sharks, New York Times, 2003, July 27, ST1) History of Chlorine Use Has Been Submitted to the Bulletin publication of the American Chemical Society. this page is to provide a quick answer to the question, who invented believed that the ancient Romans were the inventors of the swimming public baths, they were actually latecomers to the idea. For much of western history, bathing was performed only infrequently and very few people even knew how to swim.  The nineteenth century British enjoyed public baths in India and Japan and they brought the modern swimming

swimming pool to open in the United States was in the town of introduction of sterilization technologies most swimming pools werecarpet cleaning san diego same day keep them somewhat clean and the water was changed frequently.carpet steam cleaner fluid producers began making Bleaching Powder in the 1890s when cheapcheapest carpet cleaning gold coast electricity from central generating stations became available.rent a steam cleaner stop and shop is calcium oxychloride (CaOCl2) although it is often erroneously calledpool vacuum hose extension

hypochlorite [Ca(OCl)2 * 4H2O]. Bleaching powder was made by reacting chlorine gas with lime.cost to install a pool in san diego supplied as a by-product of the electrolytic production of sodiumcarpet cleaning orlando reviews current through a concentrated solution of sodium chloride liberates and hydrogen as gasses and leaves behind concentrated sodium hydroxide.  Sodium hydroxide was commonly known asIt was, and still is, used in a great variety of industrial processes including soap and first use of chlorine to disinfect potable water goes to the British Woodhead who used "bleach solution" as a to sterilizing agent during a typhoid outbreak in Maidstone, Kent. use of chlorine for potable water treatment was at Jersey Citys Boonton Reservoir, in Boonton, New Jersey in 1908.

1900's waterworks engineers had mastered the use of chlorine and professionals appreciated the value of swimming for physical fitness.  All of the elements of the modern swimming pool were in place. near as the author can determine, the first attempt to sterilize a pool in the United chlorine was at Brown University in 1910. The 70,000-gallon Colgate Hoyt Pool was chlorinated by graduate Hygenie of the Swimming Pool, American Journal of Public Hygiene, 1910 (20:4), 810-812.) hyperchlorite of lime (sic) to 2 liters of pool water at a remained sterile for four days. Brown University experiment, the Lancet was publishing papers related contamination of swimming baths and means to sterilize them, including the twentieth century compounds consisting of chlorine with cyanuric became available for swimming pool use. Like earlier forms of chlorine sterilizers, these materials a source of hypochlorous acid, which is the active sanitizing agent.

correctly, the combination of dichloroisocyanurates and cyanuric acid stabilizers provides long lasting chlorine, good solubility, ease of application, and will not affect the pH of the water. residential pool owner uses a combination of chlorine-containing into slowly dissolving tablets for steady, long term chlorination, and hypochlorides for periodic "shock treatments." Public Health Service first published a model ordinance governing the construction, sterilization, and use of public pools in 1961. fissures in the summer love affair of chlorine and swimming came in chemists first discovered that halogens could react with organic drinking water to create chloroform and other trihalomethanes. average swimmer be concerned about chloroform exposure? studied the subject and published a number of documents. The interested reader should consult Chemistry and Biochemistry Support Staff Click Here for the HomeScientific foundation for this article was provided by Zach Hansen, technical services engineer at BioLab.

Mr. Hansen has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University and an MBA from Georgia State.Chlorine for pools, bromine for spas. That’s the conventional wisdom for sanitizing, but like most conventional wisdom, there are circumstances when it’s not so wise.Over many decades, chlorine has been tried and found to be a true and lethal germ-killer and waste oxidizer in outdoor pools, but it’s sister halogen, bromine, makes a good case for use in an enclosed space. Mostly, that argument boils down to the fact that bromamines (a major by-product of bromine pool chemistry) are a lot easier to deal with than their counterpart, chloramines, especially in commercial pools with large bather loads.There are no doubts about chlorine’s ability to kill and oxidize pool invaders. The halogen’s problems begin after it’s done its work.Once chlorine has reacted with another molecule and become combined chlorine (chloramine), it becomes quite feeble as a sanitizer. But when bromine reacts and becomes a bromamine molecule, it retains its sanitizing efficacy.

Bromamines floating around in the water will be able to attack and kill bacteria just about as effectively and quickly as either free chlorine or free bromine.So while bromamines are a positive good in pool water, chloramines pose a problem in any pool. They build up over time and must be eradicated through breakpoint oxidation. The standard practice in the industry is to dump in a large amount of chlorine to shock the pool, usually in a 10-to-1 ratio of free chlorine to combined chlorine.ClName: Chlorine Atomic number: 17 Atomic weight: 35.453 Melting point: -150.7 °F Boiling point: -29.27 °F Standard state: Gas at 298 K (76 °F) Group name: Halogen Group in periodic table: 17 Color: Yellowish green Classification: Non-metallicBut there are problems with this procedure (beyond the obvious expense and hassle), especially when performed indoors and at a magnitude necessary to treat a commercial pool. Large doses of shock react with organic contaminants to form chloramines on a grand scale.

Even without the addition of shock, chloramines are volatile and have a strong tendency to “gas off” and become airborne. This is a problem in indoor pools, where comparative lack of ventilation holds concentrations of airborne chloramines within the building and close to the waterline.Most people are familiar with the odor problem chloramines present — what is often described as a “chlorine smell.” That is simply an indoor chloramine cloud being sucked into one’s olfactory and respiratory system.This is even more of a problem for swimmers who, as they churn through the lanes, pant along with their mouths just above the surface where chloramine concentration is heaviest.Some are more sensitive to these chemicals than others, but intuition — supported by the general protest of the eyes, lungs and mucus membranes — suggests airborne chloramines cannot be good for us. The scientific community has reached no definitive conclusion on the matter, and research continues on the topic.

Bromamines, on the other hand, are much less likely to become airborne. They do not gas off, but remain in liquid state, held within the volume of pool water, where they actually do some good.BrName: Bromine Atomic number: 35 Atomic weight: 79.904 Melting point: 19 °F Boiling point: 138 °F Standard state: Liquid at 298 K (76 °F) Group name: Halogen Color: Red-brown, metallic luster when solid Classification: Non-metallicA third, considerable problem with indoor pool chloramines is they attack the building. Owners of indoor pools with stainless steel fittings will be familiar with the severe corrosion that results when chloramine-filled vapors condense on cool steel. This chloride-rich mixture will eat away at almost any steel component of the pool’s surrounding structure, be it window frames, door hardware, ductwork or HVAC equipment.So to summarize the pro-bromine argument, bromine pools do not need to be shocked to treat combined bromine (a positive contributor to pool health) in the way that chlorine pools must be shocked to treat combined chlorine (a bad actor, both in and out of the pool).

The chlorine shocking procedure has costs, both monetary and in terms of the pool environment. And chloramines tend to go airborne, where they are a general nuisance.Of course, chlorine has some great advantages. (It didn’t become the king of pool sanitizers for nothing.) Stability in the sun is one of them.Bromine can’t be stabilized the way chlorine is stabilized with cyanuric acid. So in an outdoor pool environment, bromine is highly susceptible to degradation by UV from the sun. For that reason, bromine in an outdoor pool would be an expensive proposition, as it would have to be added quite frequently. Indoors, however, that objection is largely removed.Another nice thing about chlorine is that it can be applied conveniently. It comes in handy tablets, which can be placed in an erosion feeder where the chlorine is released at a controlled rate.You can tablet bromine, too, but it’s much slower to dissolve, so it's not typically dispensed in this way.You need special equipment to apply bromine in pools, which means upfront expense, whereas with chlorine, you can apply with tablets or use granular chlorine, like dichlor or cal-hypo, which will dissolve rapidly.

With chlorine you have both options — a slow-dissolving, slow-release sanitizer product or a quick-release shock product. (Both chlorine and bromine can be applied with automatic feeders.)Bromine is also a less powerful oxidizer than chlorine, so when you’re using it to break down bather waste in a pool, it’s not quite as effective as chlorine. Basically, that means the homeowner or service pro must stay on top of things or he’ll be buying oxidizer — either monopersulfate or chlorine shock — to eliminate waste buildup. (Yes, you can use chlorine shock in a bromine pool or spa, subject to certain caveats.)The biggest obstacle to bromine use in pools, however, is probably experience. Chlorine has long been the most prevalent sanitizer in the pool industry, and most pool managers, whether professional or amateur, are trained in the use of chlorine as a sanitizer.It’s an educational barrier, however, that often leads to the selection of chlorine as the sanitizer for a new indoor pool without the consideration of the benefits of bromine.