Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-04-30
LONDON RUBBISH.
How It Is Brought Again Into
Useful Channels.

How It Is Brought Again Into
Useful Channels.
If any of our readers are in the habit
of passing a contractors or towns
yard. he will, perhaps, remember per-
ceiving, alongside the outer walls, a
busy scene going on, which he can not
exactly make out. A crowd of women
ftoiling and moiling amid heaps of rub
'bish, two or three barges laden with
vegetable refuse, he can distinguish
plainly enough, but it is not until he
sees o string of dustcarts slowly wend-
ing their way towards the distant
wharf, that the thought flashes upon
his mind that the busy human ants he
has been watching are scavengers,
sorting and arranging the refuse of the
great towns and cities. There is moth
ing particularly attractive in a scaven-
gers yard: neither the sights nor the
smells are pleasant; nevertheless, the
scene that here meets his eye, repellant
as it is. could not exist in any other
than ahigh state of civilization. When
we think of it, the dust bin is the tomb
of the householder; it is the grave into
which all our domestic surroundings
inevitably sink. OF old, in the ruder
states of society. this dust and refuse
found its final rest in mother earth;
but with us, its removal by the scaven-
ger is only the first stage of it's eleva-
ton to a higher existence, if we may
SO speak. In detail, as it exists in
every Aouschold, it is a nuisance to be
got rid of; in the aggregate. it becomes
"a valuable commodity, to be re-im-
!portcd into our arts and manufactures.
AS che great numbering carts arrive
in a dust-contractor's yard, their con-
tents are empticd into isolated heaps.
No sooner docs this take place, than
they arc each in detail attacked by
grimy men, who remove all the larger
articles, such as vegetable matter, old
~coal-scuttles, old crinolines-or rather
crinole.tcs-old hats and old garments.
" This is a kind of rough sitting which
prepares the heap for the attacks of
the women, who instantly settle upon
every heap like a flock of crows that
may happen to spy any carrion in a
field. Each woman as she settles upon
Che. heap ono sieve in hand and
spreads around her a number of bas-
kets; the man now fills the sieve and
the process OF separating the dust-heap
unto its elements begins. The first few
shakes of the sieve throw down all the
fine ashes and the coal dust. This de-
tritus becomes a very valuable COM
modify when collected and put to its
right use. 1t is used by brick-makers
ito mix with the clay, and does its part
in the ultimate baking of the brick.
I'm Che ncighborhood of most Of our
railways our readers may have noticed
'yastAeaps of fine black dust burning
with 4 slow combustion and with much
smoke. These heaps consist of bricks
which arc being baked. They are
placed in rows a little apart. and their
,interstices are filled with the fine
breeze as the c%oal-ashes are termed;
"a light is set below, and
gradually the whole mass fires
10 q dull rcd heat. the 'breeze'
intimately mixed with the clay helping
to bake the inside of the brick in the
most perfect ann without vitrify-
ing it. The breeze is the most valu-
able portion of the dust, and it rises
or falls in value according to the
amount of building going on and tc
the rate of its production; in the sum.
mel but little, comparatively, is made
Coal-dust, it must be remembered, is
entirely a distinct refuse from road.
dust, which also possesses a certain
value, as we shall show b%y-and-by.
When all the finer refuse has passed
through the sieve, the larger ant
coarser articles remain upon the top
There glistcn some pieces of broker
glass; this, Of course, only requires tx
be rcme1ted to be put once more int
circulation in the world. Considering
the brittle nature of this material ant
the enormous quantities of it employed
it is fortunate that it is almost indie
.structible. When we break a window
we only alter the arrangement of it
particles. Broken into a Thousand
pieces. it remains as good glass a
ever; time will not touch it. The rem
9nants Of glass that are found anon!
iti,a Roman remains that have beef
dying in the ground for two thousan,
years. arc as fit for the glass-pot a
though it had been made yesterday
phials and old bottles are rarely eve
Clipped. hence they are merely washe,
and they pass again into the drawer
of the chemist OF a~pothecary.
Bones form another constant contri
button to the sieve, and Il valuabl
item they are to the dust-contractor
There is Il grand tussle going on TO
their possession both by the manufact
nrer and the agriculturist. The large
bones are first boiled, in order to ex
tract all their fat and gclatine. Th
purposes the former article is put t
are too numerous to be mentioned;
good deal of the finer kind goes t
make pomatum and soap; the gelatin
is, We doubt not, used as the basis Q