The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-03-01
ABOLISH THE # DUMPS. "
All City Garbage Should Be Destroyed
by Cremation.
The City of Lowell the First to Put
the Scheme In Practice-The
Ashes for Fertilizing.

Ashes for Fertilizing.
In the vicinity of nearly all cities are
maintained dumps" where garbage
gathered from the houses and back-yards
is thrown, and Sacramento is no excep-
ton to the rule. The dumps here are
just south of the city, and have always
| been menace TO the health of the
! people. Of late years cremation has been
talked of as the best method of disposing
Of garbage, but the city of Lowell is the
first municipality to adopt it. During
the last week there has been put into
operation a crematory erected by sani-
tary and cremation company of New
ork-a patented device, the distinctive
features of which consist in passing the
smoke, gases and other product of COM
| bustion OF garbage dumped upon a fire in
the furnace over a second fire in the same
furnace. By this means the smoke, gases,
ETC., are consumed and the sole residue of
| combustion, aside from the ashes, passes
| oil from the fires in a tilmy, white, odor-
! less smoke. A clean handkerchief was
/ held over the top of a crematory stack
without being disagreeably odorized or
| discolored.
In the crematory erected for the city of
Lowell, writes correspondent of the
Chicago Tribune, it is designed to destroy
garbage consisting of house offal and
refuse, not including ashes or sewage. A
crematory may, and some oft them do, take
everything that comes, organic and in
organic, from the carcass OF horse or
COW to coal ashes. Passing the latter
| through furnace is, however, a Superflu-
GUS operation and justifiable only when
| the city ordinances requiring separation
! OF ashes from all other matters are so
| loosely enforced as to make it advisable.
! Not ali domestics or housekeepers can be
relied on in the absence of inspection to
use sufficient care to separate the two
classes of waste. In Lowell, however,
there is a fair degree of care taken by in
dividual housekeepers, and it is thought
that second burning CLASHES will be I'M
| necessary to destroy the small percentage
of organic matters that may be mixed
| Herewith.
| COMPOSITION OF THE GARBAGE.
| The garbage of the Lowell crematory
| will, however, include table refuse and
all waste of private houses, the refuse of
markets, stores, ETC., street sweeping to
some extent, and the scayengerings of
the Health Department and back alleys,
around and in tenement houses, etc. This
is collected by the Health Department.
| The refuse of boarding houses and hotels
is taken away by swill collectors, who
are licensed by the Board of Health.
The Lowell crematory has a capacity of
seventy cubic yards per day. That is, it
will reduce to ashes that quantity of mis-
cellaneous garbage every twenty-four
hours. At present the city is furnishing
| about one-third that quantity.
! n location has been chosen something
less than two miles from the center of the
city, in sandbank passed by one of the
! public highways about fifteen feet above
the general level of the bottom of the
! sandbank. The location is selected for at
least two reasons, the first being that it is
comparatively isolated, and the second
that the furnace might be so constructed
that teams might be driven upon plat
form at the line of the street, out on top
OF the furnace and dump
DIRECTLY INTO THE FIRE.
So, in executing the contract, the fur
mace has been built parallel with the
street, covered with a galvanized CORFU
gated iron house 80 by % feet. and con-
nected with the street by a platform 10
feet wide by 80 feet long. Sliding doors
give access to the house, and teams back
| ing to the doors dump their loads upon a
chute of steel plating. The stuff slides
downward toward four circular openings.
and as the covers of fire-clay are drawn
aside the garbage falls into the furnace.
One of the openings is large enough to
take in the carcass of horse, and when
one is placed on the chute it disappears
among the flames below, which in an
hour leave only few pounds of ashes.
HOW THE FURNACE Is CONSTRUCTED.
The furnace is rectangular structure,
~ feet long, 80 feet wide and l21 feet high
having at one end a stack of 30 feet of
brick and 10 feet of iron. The furnace,
which is made of fire brick, each piece
especially nodded for its place, is inclosed
in jacket of ordinary brick securely
bound together with bolts. There is an
opening at either end into fire-box, and
between the fire doors two series of other
doors, one above the other. The upper
are for stocking or stirring the material on
the CRATE, and the lower are to rake out
the ashes.
| A fire kindled at one end passes over
and through the garbage. All the smoke,
gases, ETC., are then conveyed over and
| through the fire at the other end of the
furnace and consumed. The united heat
OF both fires then passes back under the
garbage CRATE, heating and burning the
stuff upon the bottom, and finally, de-
scending under the fire-box of the first
fire, passes off into the chimney. Damp
ers OF tire-clay enable the operator to con-
troll the draft and 10 direct all or part of
one or both fires into the chimney
The ashes of garbage, especially of ami
NAL matter, have positive value. Chem
ical analysis show that they contain from
. to Il per cent. Of potash, phosphoric
acid and phosphate, or substantially the
| equivalent of wood ashes of the same
bulk. Under favorable conditions the
ashes will offset the cost of fuel used in
producing combustion. By screening
out the debris from the ashes, such as
tin cans, broken crockery, glass, ETC.,
about per cent. Of the original bulk OF
wood ashes bring about $24 per ton.
COST OF OPERATING.
The cost of operating the furnace in
! Lowell cannot be accurately fixed at
| present. 1t requires about one and a
half tons of coal a day and two men.
The consumption of fuel, however, de-
| ponds largely upon the conbustibility of
the garbage. Sewage which is say % per
cent. water can be burned; that is, the
liquid can be evaporated and the solids
| burned, but it takes more fuel than it
| does to consume a load of fat horses
| Other elements come in also to offset
| the relative expense as compared with
methods previously in vogue, such as the
| haul to the crematory and similar
features. The cost of fuel also varies in
| different places.
The United States Government has
| adopted this form of crematory at two of
| its military posts, and the company is
now negotiating for the destruction of the
sewage on the Worlds Fair grounds at
| Chicago. During the recent cholera cpl
demic furnace in New York was found
invaluable for the destruction of infected
bedding, and all such material surround
! in u ,t o5tr