The record-union., 1893-05-13

| LoHl VI tneSe IaukS, ana tnlS Sluuge is
forced back by the compressed air appa-
ratus to the furnaces through a four-inch
] pipe. At the detractor station it is mixed
with street sweepings and sold as fer
tilizer, bringing about fifty cents a load.
If 1t should ever be desirable to burn the
| sludge it can be done very easily. since
experiments show that about two tons
can be consumed in twenty-four hours
in each furnace without odor or increased
| smoke. The boilers also furnish steam
| to engines driving dynamo for the pur-
pose of lighting the works. The residue
from the combustion of the refuse con-
sists of hard clinkers and fine, sharp
ashes, which are used in making road
foundations, paving slabs and mortar,
| the latter bringing about 81 80 a cubic
! yard.
WHAT 1T COSTS PER TON.
The cost of burning an average of a lit
! tie over fifty tons of refuse day is about
! seven cents ton. The total expenditure
in 1891 was 81, 900 and the revenue from
all sources was 800. The use of clinker
| for making mortar is common in the
English cities which burn their garbage,
and in Newcastle the concrete bed in
! which the sewers have been laid for nine
| years past has been made with this ma
terial.
NO LONGER EXPERIMENTAL.
Enough has been said above to show
that the burning of refuse has passed be-
| yond the experimental stage in England.
There is very little odor about the works
| except when putreScible natter has been
! allowed to accumulate. Generally every
thing is burned within few hours of
| collection without nuisance aud at cost
which compares tavorably with the old
system Of dumping the refuse. \ valu-
able means is at the same time provided
| for effectually disposing of infected bed
! 6intr and pinthinCr pnnAanlna1 nd
provisions and the carcasses Of dead ami
mails. In some places the furnaces are
located but a few feet from inhabited
buildings, as at Whitechapel. London.
but the complaints after the furnaces have
been once started are not many or serious
under good management.
THE FIRST FURNACE IN THE UNITED
STATES.
The first garbage cremator to work sue
cessiully for any length of time in the
United States was probably the diminu-
tive furnace erected on Governors Island
in New York Harbor, in 1888. by Lieu
tenant II. l. Riley. The garbage of the
post had been buried for years, but the
ground finally became saturated with the
decaying offal and gave off odors which
were extremely disagreeable, especially
in summer.
LIEUTENANT RILEY AND HIS EXPERI-
MENT.
Accordingly Lieutenant Riley built a
box of brick, which was feet long, feet
wide and feet high inside. In the bot
tom was a CRATE, with an ash-pit below.
Iron doors were placed in the top of the
box, through which the garbage was
shoveled into the interior. There We're
| two inclined gratingS OF iron bars, which
caught the swill as it fell through the
doors and held it over the flames until it
| was dry enough to be shaken through to
! the fire below. Draught was furnished
! by tall chimney, which gave so good a
pulp that when the furnace had been
thoroughly heated with a preliminary
wood or coal fire the garbage furnished
its own fuel. This furnace cost only $3.50
| to build, and the operating expenses We're
very light, the services of one man being
required for few hours each day. 1t
ran with perfect satisfaction for six years,
when it was pulled down and larger one
of the same sort built in its place. The
| low cost of such a cremator and its very
/ successful operation are strong points in
its favor.
DIES MONIES TRIES IT.
| About the same time that Lieutenant
| Riley built his first cremator at Gov
| ernor's Island furnace of different
! type was built at Des Moines, Ia, by a
man named Andrew Engel, and since
| then over thirty others have been put in
| 1A6So CIGDldbOTS are EGCldI-
gular brick structures with openings on
| top through which to feed the garbage
! There is a fire at each end aud garbage
CRATE between them sustaining the mate
rial to be destroyed in such a way as to
cause the smoke and gases from the COM
! bustion of the garbage 10 pass across one
or the other of these fires and so destroy
the fumes, just as the fumes from one of
| the English Instructors are destroyed in
+ the 'fume cremator" already described.
THE ENGEL TYPE.
One of the largest furnaces of this type
/ is forty-two feet long, nine and one-half
| feet wide and twelve and one-half feet
! high, with Il snokstack ninety feet high.
| In the top are four circular openings
which can be closed with sliding slabs of
| fire clay; three OF the openings are about
two feet in diameter, and the fourth about
three feet. At the bottom of each end of
one side of the furnace are two large fire
doors, and along the bottom of the fur
mace, between these fire doors, are a
number of smaller openings, through
which ashes can be raked out, while
through which the garbage is stirred
about. Half way between the top
and bottom OF the interior are set
the bars which catch and re-
tain the garbage fed through the circular
holes on top. Below is a platform or
| IcdI llls OiSLlGIl lON ait lAt CtultI, W ulCn
catches whatever matter, liquid or solid,
falling through the garbage CRATE, and be-
low the hearth is long ttue running the
/ whole length of the furnace and going
| directly into the stack. The direction of
the draught through these passages is
controlled by dampers.
OPERATIONS OF THE ENGEL FURNACE.
! When the furnace has been charged
with garbage, the fires are first lighted on
the CRATE nearer the stack and afterward
at the other end. The flames from the
| first fire pass over and through the mass
of garbage piled on the CRATES, driving the
smoke and gases into and across the sec
ond fire, where they are consumed. The
/ flames from the second fire are brought
/ by the action of the strong draught
| underneath the garbage CRATES, intensely
heating the mass from below. When
| LIQUIDS are TO be destroyed. part of this
heat and flame is directed under the hearth
| or pan, and all the contents are quickly
evaporated or burned. All the odors,
gases and products of combustion are
passed through one fire or the other, there
| being no outlet save across the flames.
/ As the ashes fall from the CRATE they are
I raked out of the side doors and the
gal bage stirred through the upper range
of holes already mentioned.
SOME DETAILS.
The garbage CRATES were formerly made
OF rails or pipes in which water was cir
culated, but recently fire-clay blocks,
keyed and braced together, have been
substituted for them since they were in
jured by the intense heat. The entire
furnace is lined with massive blocks of
fire brick, u inches by 9 inches by
inches. weighing sixty pounds each. All
| the openings are protected by specially
nodded blocks and the aim of the build