water boiling in a glass bowl, common now, but not then like HDMI splitter’s today.  slightly new and archaic at the same time…

Boiled Water.-The insipid taste of water which has been boiled is due to the absence of air. Many gases besides air may be artificially or naturally mingled with water, and some, like ammonia or nitric acid, are freely soluble in it. In sea-water, the presence of common salt, with small quantities of sulphate of soda or Glauber’s salt, and, of the compound of magnesia and chlorine, called chloride of magnesium, render it entirely unfit for drinking, as many a hapless shipwrecked sailor has found to his cost.