Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-04-29
SALVAGE OF BIG FIRES.
A STRANGE BUSINESS THAT FLOUR.
IsHEs IN CHICAGO

How silks, wOoIens, Groceries and Cigars
That Are Saved from Fires are Rejuve-
mated and Sold as Good as New to an
UnsuspectinG Public.
There is but one house in the city, or in
fact in the country, that makes a business Of
rehabilitating the salvage of great fires, and,
as that house takes care of salvage of any
and ell kinds from fourteen different states,
something of the scale upon which it is con-
Quoted can be imagined AS, of course, all
the goods saved from the flames are badly
| injured by water, they must all be subjected
to drying process. For this purpose there
| is upon the second floor of the main building
an immense drying room, which occupies the
! entire floor. In one corner of the room is an
engine with huge pipe extending the length
OF the room, from which short pipes open
downward above a triple row of stats about
fifteen feet long, which extend across the
room at right angles to the wall the entire
length of the building at intervals of three
feet. These stats are set in galvanized hooks
and depend from strong timbers; from them
when visited by the writer hung festoon
upon festoon of cloth of every hue and kind,
some scorched at the edges, others whole and
perfect, and all soaked
| The steam caused by their rapid drying
and the intense heat of the room made the
atmosphere almost unbearable although the
air is kept constantly in motion and con-
stantly changing by the great revolving fans
in the open windows.
au THE PROCESS OF DRYING.
Connected with the engine is an ingenious
arrangement for renewing the pile of plush
and velvet goods injured by water 1t CON
sists of a large square box filled by steam
from the engine. This box has perforated
zinc top, and while the manipulation turns
the plush from side to side it is brushed by
revolving brush; the air from the revolving
FANS near one of which tits placed, constantly
circulating over the surface of the goods,
dries it at the same time by evaporating the
steam. When this room is given over to the
drying of dried fruits, nuts, beans, rice, to-
bacco, coffee, cigars, and groceries of every
kind, they are arranged upon huge perfor-
ated trays set upon Stats in tiers one above
the other The air, at a moderate heat, is
kept circulating over and around them by
means of fans, and they are thus dried by
evaporation without injury
Flour is very little injured by water, as a
paste forms upon the outer surface which
preserves the -four within from damage,
therefore it is simply necessary to remove
the slaves of the barrel, scrape off the outer
paste from the -four, and place it in large
bin, from which it Is sifted through an inn
mense sieve, and reweighed and barreled
Tea preserves itself in somewhat the same
way quantity of tea saved from the
burning of a tea warehouse aggregating ,200,-
900 pounds had been dried and was ready
for reboxing, when it was found by chemical
analysis to be unfit for food on account of
the river water with which it had been satu-
rated. Although to all appearances it was
as good tea as one ordinarily buys, aud there
was nothing unusual in its taste, being unfit
for food it could neither be sold nor given
away What was to be done2
As last resort it was decided to feed the
furnace with it., and for five months was the
entire building five stories) heated with tea
for fuel.
HOW THE SALVAGE Is HANDLED.
Upon leaving the drying room and ascend
ing'to the third floor the writer found num-
berless women and girls busy asserting the
dry goods which had just been returned from
the drying ROOM Some that were so badly
burned at the edges as to be useless for any
other purpose were thrown aside to be sold
to manufacturers of cottage carpets or to
the paper mills, to whom thousands of tons
of such refuse are sold every year Other
pieces, mainly cotton cloth, which is very in
fiammable, while not too badly burned for
use are still damaged so much as to be I'M
salable These goods are given to aid socie-
ties and the poor, and when suitable, to hos
pitfalls for bandages.
The fourth and fifth floors are devoted to
dc into holt
and clipping off burned edges, the clipping
being done by huge knife worked by lever,
which clips and presses a whole bolt by
single movement They are then ticketed
and made into lots and are ready for market.
Hats and caps are subjected to pressure to
sxpel the water, and are then dried and re-
blocked. 1t was interesting to observe the
busy workmen and watch them take from
the bin, which must have contained many
thousands of hats, a crushed, shapeless thing,
and watch it under their hands become as
perfect hat as could be bought from a
fashionable halter.
The other buildings, which are part of
the retaining establishment, are devoted
mainly to the care of groceries and tobacco,
to rebagging coffee, spices, nuts, etc, and to
the renovation of cigars. This branch of
the business Is skillfully done. Tobacco,
which quickly molds when wet, must be
slowly and carefully dried in order that its
flavor may not be injured, as must also
cigars The original packages are carefully
counted, and an affidavit of their number
made to the revenue department of the gov
ernnent which furnishes free of charge the
stamps for the new packages. Cigars receive
new wrappers and boxes, and are sold in
wholesale lots.
All the processes described have been in
vented and experimental with one by one.
1t has been the work Of lifetime to bring
them TO their present perfection. The appa-
ratus which is used for measuring cloth, as
we'll as the many contrivances for brushing
and polishing goods of all kinds injured by
smoke and water, from pecan nuts to brass
bedsteads, was invented by the head Of the
house, as well as all the other processes re-
ferred to in this article,
Great skill is required in removing stock
from the ruins, as lack of skill in this partic
ular would add greatly to the losses
The large cheap stores, as well as many
wholesalers, are the purchasers of reclaimed
salvage. The goods when they come into
their hands are almost as perfect as when
they came from the factory. Chicago Trib-
une.