Here is an experimental idea I had for a bamboo water still assuming you end up stranded on a island or jungle place surrounded by mostly saltwater or have a area with allot of bamboo,so here it goes and bear with me on this one.
First off one wants to keep the bamboos internodes intact then cut a small hole at the upper part of the bamboo side and make a smaller hole in the top internode, This is where one will pour the water into the top of the still, one will want to produce a cork to seal the top hole which can be made from anything such as a sliver of bamboo to the sealing materials one is working with, which will later be mentioned.
(if it is an emergency and one messes up and only has one precious piece of bamboo one can use a smooth rock and use it as a seal on the top where water is to be poured in)
Next we must make an impoverished still caparm where there is none (the still caparm is the straw tube that vertically condenses the gas into a liquid more efficiently), also note that you never want to put the caparm or "straw" deep into the still because there is a danger of explosion you want it to just be conjoined at the openings never channel it into the still.
Here are my ideas on how we can make this impoverished caparm because there are more then one way to do it:
Note this should not be used if obviously you have some tubing already of some sort to use, always use practicality.
Method 1; Chinese finger trap as a straw, believe it or not the older Chinese finger traps are made of bamboo slivers we can use this same idea to make an impoverished straw from the materials we are working with, here are instructions of how to make a Chinese finger trap
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Chinese-Finger-Trap
We can seal around it with anything that can act as a seal but heat will not transfer into the water we wish to purify so we might want to add long strips around it then tree sap or pulverized materials mixed with mud , this would make a rather thick straw but it would work.
Method 2; If you have a knife which I would think you would have to do most of the cutting or puncturing necessary, for this you could cut the curved bamboo along its side carefully and trim out most of the edges starting from bottom and going to the top and scraping away the inside of these internodes as well then conjoin both parts, when looking at the straws front it would look like a oval at its ends and it should be thin as possible.
Note* this wold require the hole we made in the water still part to be larger along the holes edges , one can either twine around this type of straw or seal along the edges with what ever you have.
Now one must attach a still caparm for the hole at the upper part of the bamboo side that we have previously made this can be sealed at the conjoining parts with tree sap or *mud mixed with pulverized fibers which have a high starch content or resins, ratio 2 to 1, 2 parts pulverized fibers with resin with 1 part mud
*note this must be further tested if mud is a good medium.
This idea was inspired by this video of a balloon held over a flame until water boils http://www.liveleak.com/view?c=1&i=fbd_1238947439 which I believe describes the physics of why the bamboo water still would not fail in operation
never try to make a still from aluminum,plastic or rubber when exposed to flame as it will leach toxins into your water even if it doesn't end up melting or you cant see it do so. also the solders they use in buckets or containers made from these materials even if made of stainless steal but not used for food could use lead based solder to join the edges which will cause brain damage if used as a still.
First off one wants to keep the bamboos internodes intact then cut a small hole at the upper part of the bamboo side and make a smaller hole in the top internode, This is where one will pour the water into the top of the still, one will want to produce a cork to seal the top hole which can be made from anything such as a sliver of bamboo to the sealing materials one is working with, which will later be mentioned.
(if it is an emergency and one messes up and only has one precious piece of bamboo one can use a smooth rock and use it as a seal on the top where water is to be poured in)
Next we must make an impoverished still caparm where there is none (the still caparm is the straw tube that vertically condenses the gas into a liquid more efficiently), also note that you never want to put the caparm or "straw" deep into the still because there is a danger of explosion you want it to just be conjoined at the openings never channel it into the still.
Here are my ideas on how we can make this impoverished caparm because there are more then one way to do it:
Note this should not be used if obviously you have some tubing already of some sort to use, always use practicality.
Method 1; Chinese finger trap as a straw, believe it or not the older Chinese finger traps are made of bamboo slivers we can use this same idea to make an impoverished straw from the materials we are working with, here are instructions of how to make a Chinese finger trap
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Chinese-Finger-Trap
We can seal around it with anything that can act as a seal but heat will not transfer into the water we wish to purify so we might want to add long strips around it then tree sap or pulverized materials mixed with mud , this would make a rather thick straw but it would work.
Method 2; If you have a knife which I would think you would have to do most of the cutting or puncturing necessary, for this you could cut the curved bamboo along its side carefully and trim out most of the edges starting from bottom and going to the top and scraping away the inside of these internodes as well then conjoin both parts, when looking at the straws front it would look like a oval at its ends and it should be thin as possible.
Note* this wold require the hole we made in the water still part to be larger along the holes edges , one can either twine around this type of straw or seal along the edges with what ever you have.
Now one must attach a still caparm for the hole at the upper part of the bamboo side that we have previously made this can be sealed at the conjoining parts with tree sap or *mud mixed with pulverized fibers which have a high starch content or resins, ratio 2 to 1, 2 parts pulverized fibers with resin with 1 part mud
*note this must be further tested if mud is a good medium.
This idea was inspired by this video of a balloon held over a flame until water boils http://www.liveleak.com/view?c=1&i=fbd_1238947439 which I believe describes the physics of why the bamboo water still would not fail in operation
never try to make a still from aluminum,plastic or rubber when exposed to flame as it will leach toxins into your water even if it doesn't end up melting or you cant see it do so. also the solders they use in buckets or containers made from these materials even if made of stainless steal but not used for food could use lead based solder to join the edges which will cause brain damage if used as a still.