Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1869-07-29
I The Manufacture Of Alcohol out Of
uarbngc.


manufacture spirits ont Of garbage,
and 80 little has been understood
concerning it, that it seems proper
to take the whole mnttcr out of the
domain Of fiction and Jest by a
statement Of the facts in the case.
Mr.. Peter Robinson, Of Joliet,
Illinois, Scotchmah and a prac
tical distiller, has invented a pro.
cess Of extracting spirits and soap
grease from ordinary city garbaL e.
1t was patented in February last
The patent is owned by Mr.. Peter
Robinson, Joliet, Illinois, Ed. B.
Newell, Cincinnati, J. X. Pollard,
Chicago, Warren E. johnson, Chic.
ago.
! This company has been at work
in Chicago, making proof spirits
from garbage, for some time, and
though recently stopped. owing to
a difficulty encountered in in the In
ternal Revenue laws, they are go.
ling on again; and as the enterprise
here is temporarily abandoned, Chi
cago will have the advantage o;be-
ing frs; in the market with gar.
bage alcohol and soap grease.
The process is to take the ordi.
nary garbage just as it is hauled off
in the city carts, and dumping il
into tight tanks, boil it six hours
at a temperature or 212 degrees
This dissolves the whcle mass,
which is run into fermenting tubs
and worked with a peculiar yeast,
in which, we are inRoimed, is the
excellence and prime secret Of the
invention. The soap grease and
impuritits rise to the top Of the
tubs, and are skinned off. and that
which remains is distilled In the
regular way.
1t is estimated that each barrel ofI
garbage will yield three pounds of
soap-grease and four gallons of
proof spirits There are about ten
barrels of garbage to the cart load, |
so that we have thirty pounds of
soap-grease and forty gallons of
proof spirits to the cart load of
garbage, and this city affords from
five to six hundred loads of gar
bdge per week. Say five hundred,
though 1t is said to be safe to
calculate on more than six,
and we have fifteen thousand
pounds Of soap grease and twenty
thousand gallons of proof spirits
every week odt of Cincinnati gar
bage.
The object of the garbage dis
tillers Is not to make whisky for
ordinary consumption, but alcohol !
for manufacturing purposes. We
infer however, that if the manufac-
ture of spirits from such material
becomes one Of the usual branches
Of metropolitan industry, consid-
efable quantity of it would find its
way into the decanters behind the
bars in our fashionable drinking
places.
Perhaps it may he in aid of the
temperance cause; but we do not {
propose to indulge any sanguine !
expectations Of that sort, for the
confirmed consumers of alcoholic
have heretofore shown {
themselves proof against alarm at
the worst poisoris and the most re- {
nastiness upon earth.- {
They who would not finch at the |
decoctioHs now called whiskey, and 7
by other pet names, would not be {
abashcd at the thought of a distill-
ment from garbage
The article Of proOfsplrits that /
we have seen, produced in Keck's '
experiment, is limpid as water, but &
rs an article ofperfumery we could n
lot conscientiously pronounce it +
Still, we are informed, it
sill not be difficult to deodolize it
Whether it will pay to distill gar n
,age is the question that determines
whether it will be done, The own -
RS Of the patent have much conf "
lerc3 in it This they manifested
II offering the Fcrtilizing Company tl
# this city eight thousand dollars
'er annum for the garbage that n
hey control; or they would take
lie garbage and divide whisky and ii
Dap grease even; or they would
ell the right to distill garbage to II
he Fertilizing Company for twen-
y-live thousand dollars, ten thous-
nd down, and the rest in spirits. },
After due consideration none of VI
he propositions were accepted, and
]hicago will go ahead ofus in max u
ng the experiment. The inventor zt
nd his company have grabbed the
,arbaee Of that city, and will lie it,
urning out copiously a fine article it.
# high. wines in a short time
)ur distillers here are, we believe, al
Wiling that they should have all W
he glory and profit attaching to the
Of the enterprise "
It must be confessed that if the y,
CURES of the patentees of the pro-
ess are correct, there is a good -
cal ofmoney in it, as they profess
, be able to get out Of the garbage ca
T Cincinnati about twenty. FIVE
lousand dollars worth per week is
f soap-grease and alcohol Gin. d.
'0mmercidI. IN