Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-07-27
Il CREMAT0RY.
AN ARGUMENT IN Favor OF ITS eoNsTRUc-
TI0N.
sPubHe Health Demonstrates that the Apparatus
Would be a Decided Benefit
to the City.
ma the Ednor Of Reaiaer:

To the Editor Of the Register:
SIR: A plan and specifications for a ere
matory for burning nightsoil and garbage,
with natural gas, viii be presented to COun-
Gil this evening by the Committee on
Health. On the subject of erecting sucha
crematory our people are divided in opin-
ion. A large majority seem to favor 1t,
while a very spectacle minority oppose
it. They (the minority contend that the
furnace will add to the burdens of tax
payers, both in the original cost OF con-
structiOn and in the expense of operating
it; that it will create a new office; that 1t
will accomplish no good for Il city or
1 Bellaire and Benwood, as it is claimed 1t
will, and that no harm now results to the
people in Bellaire from drinking polluted
river water, if it is actually polluted by
our nightsOil being dumped into the
river mt Forty-eighth street. This
class of people claim that running
water will puri y itself in II hundred
feet distance: that if hundreds of tons of
night soil were thrown into the river
above our water works, at that distance,
none of it would be pumped up to our
basin.
Another class insist That more than two
thirds of our night soil and garbage now
passes through our sewers into the river,
and that a crematOry would not destroy
more than one-third. TO these persons
we ask space for a few words.
TIE amount of money which Council
can raise by taxation is limited to 80 cents
on the hundred dollars and that has been
fixed for this year. The cost of the fur
mace will come out of this amount, and
can by no possibility be made TO
be an extra burden. Whatever
it costs will be paid out of
the contingent fund, a fund which Council
very wisely sets aside each year to meet
expenditures, like thecost of this f%urnace)
which are not known of, at the time of
distributing the yearly income OF the city.
This will not interfere with the workings
ofany other department of the city govern
ment.
Now for the new Office and the cost of
operating the furnace. The fuel being
natural Gus, will cost the city nothing, and
the a OF the one man who will be re-
quired to attend to the furnace, will be
the entire cost cooperating 1t, necessary re-
pairs of course to be added. II the salary
is fixed at 500 per month, the same amount
paid to the police, it will amount to $3.50
Der wear. We think that we can
show that this need not be a
burden ON our taxpayers, but that
not only this salary and the cost Of build
ing the furnace can be paid out of fees
charged for burning night soil, in the first
year after the furnace is built, but that a
large sum of money can be saved our pcO-
pie in less charges paid for cmptylng
vaults. The amount OF solid and fluid
matters which compose night soil i'll a city
OGOur size. is $50 tons of solid and II, 4OG
tons of liquid matter. Estimating one hail
OF the liuuid matter SOakS away into the
ground and allowing four Scavenger bar
rcls to hold Il ton, it would require 27,Sl2
barrels each year 10 remove night soil.
We have in this city 1000 houses, $500
vaults and about 800 water closets 40 Of
them belonging TO hotels and factories
The water closets are connected with the
public sewerage and the $500 vaults are
by ordinance expressly forbidden to con-
meet or in any manner to dis
charge their contents into the sewers.
Allowing that 2,Sl2 barrels Of night soil
bass into the sewers from the water closets,
, 5000 barrels will he the amount to be re-
moved from the vaults. The price fixed by
ordinance is 81 per barrel. If Council
would ordain that - cents be paid to the
Scavcngcr and - cents to the crcmatOry
the city would receives 81, 250cach year; far
more than enough to pay for building the
,r,,. n,l ,r,nrDfinp II and pnr nannl9
would pay no more than isSIOw paid. If
Council would wish that the crematOry
should become a practical benefit, IN the
way of saving in the cost OF removing
night soil, the price per barrel could be
fixed ut - cents, 60 cents for the scaven-
Ger and ID cents for the CrcmatOry. The
citizens would save So, 80 per year and the
city would be paid So, $50 for the crematory.
Sixty cents per barrel was the price paid
when the city permitted the ScavengerS to
dump ut the E0!f street landing. 1t was
increased 10 a dollar . barrel when the
dumping ground was moved to Forty-ci@hth
street. At sixty cents per barrel one Scav-
cnger made Il clear profit of 81, 200 per year.
All the rest did as well.
The above figures may seem large, but
are rs correct Us can well be. The quanti-
ty of night soil for a population of 30, 300
is calculated from tables prepared by emf
nent English authorities. The amount
allowed to be discharged by water closets
is greater in proportion than from an equal
number of vaults, as forty of them are con-
ncctcd with hotels and factories.
The city pays 81, 700 every year for col
/ lectiny garbage from the houses and re-
moving it entirely beyond the city limits.
The length of the haul adds One-half
to the cost. 4 furnace in which
it could be burned, situated near the
middle of the city, would reduce the gar
bagc burden one half. The saving in this
work, $3.50, would pay the whole cost of
operating the furnace. Add to this sum
the amount saved to mr. citizens, Sc, go,
if the price of moving night soil be fixed at
- cents per barrel, and, we ask, is it like
" that the CcmatOry will become a tinan-
cial burden on our city!
That the destruction by fire of the many
tons of night soil and garbage, which ac-
cumulatcs in this city, would very mate
rally benefit, not only our own people but
the citizens of Bellaire, no one, willing to
he convinced of the truth, can refuse to
believe. The claim is not made that all Of
orr might soil can be kept out of the river
all ofOm' gdrbdgc IA
There being but 500 water closets, and
they distributed over Il space !! miles IN
length, and their contents being poured
into them, at intervals during the twenty
four hours, and always largely diluted
with water, 10y the time Bellaire is reached
. the additional dilution by being mixed
with the water in the river, reduces the
danger from them to a minimum. The
danger is in the immense amount OF filth
taken from the $500 vaults of our city
and dumped into the river ut Forty-eighth
street. Several persons here and in Bcllaire
assert that her rjrer water is not the Il
of the sickness known to be there, but that
it is to he charged to the water in the
wells, which many persons persist in
using. Bellaire has had in the lat ten
months almost four hundred cases of ty-
phoid fever, and is known as the most I'M
healthy town in Eastern Ohio. DR..
Steere. the Health Officer, sent five jugs of
water from the river, in front of Bellaire,
/ above the water works. TO the Ohio State