The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-28
PLANT IS INADEQUATE
THE DESIGNATING COMPANY NOT
PREPARED TO DESTROY GARBAGE.
Contract Requiring Destruction of
Refuse by Fire Is Being Violated
-McCarthy's Men Delayed.

Things are in bad shape at Sellers farm.
A Journal reporter visited the plant Of
the indianapolis Desiccating Company To-
Gated there yesterday afternoon and found
things as bad if not worse than reported
by Garbage Contractor Mccarthy. Instead
Of destroying all refuse offered as the
citys contract with the desiccating COM
pany requires, large quantities of decayed
matter is being spread out over the farm.
The plant is acknowledged by the company
to have a capacity of but forty tons a day.
For two weeks A. L. Wilson, an inspector
representing the Board of Health, has been
keeping a watch over the plant. He was
questioned yesterday as to how the plant
was operating. He was disposed to shield
the company somewhat, but answered ques-
tons without much reserve.
There has been as high as ninety tons
of stuff delivered here in a day." said IN
spector Wilson. THE company has a ca.
pacity for destroying forty tons day. 1
am told
Have McCarthy's men been delayed?"
Yes, they have" admitted Mr.. Wilson.
He was near the plant checking off the
loads of garbage as they were hauled up
by the drivers. noting the time each man
had TO wait. His book for Monday showed
that with the exception of the first few loads
delivered early in the morning and the last
two or three in the evening every driver
had been delayed from twenty to thirty
eight minutes. While he was talking TO
the reporter several wagons stood at the
bottom of the chute leading up to the
receiver waiting until those ahead of them
could unload. More came up shortly and
Joined the waiting procession.
Out in a field the reporter observed men
at work burning stuff that was evidently
being dumped from an old-fashioned gar
bage wagon near by.
What is being done out there?'
''Oh, those are the voluntary collectors.
bitches have been dug and they are dump
ing their loads into them. The desiccating
company can scarcely care for McC lrthy's
men to say nothing of the volunteers.
Inspector Wilson explained that the vol
unteers' were men who had volunteered to
help Mccarthy collect garbage.
Who pays them?
why, the people from whom they col
Indianapolis is paying $27 900 year from
the general fund to have all garbage col
lected free of charge.
How many volunteers are at work, Mr..
Wilson," asked the reporter
Il have not kept a very close watch on
them, but there are over twenty of them,
al least"
The reporter observed wagons from vault
cleaning companies driving toward town
from the lower end of the farm.
rs not the night soil hauled here by the
vault cleaners being disposed of by the des-
locating company, as the contract re-
CURES
Very little of it, Most of it is 'ditched'
down at the lower end of the farm. They
are experimenting on a new process for dis
posing of night soil, but do not know yet
whether the process will prove efectual.
Mr.. Wilson admitted that owing to the
present inedaquate facilities at the plant
1T is impossible to cremate the night soil.
He explained that all refuse which was
being ditched' was treated with lime and
afterward buried under gravel. In addition
cred by the volunteers twenty-five to thIr
ty loads day is dumped into the bitches
by the vault cleaners Mr.. Wilson was
unable to state whether the method OF
treating this stuff with lime killed all dis
ease germs. The stencil arising was some
thing horrible.
Yesterday the retort in which all gar
bage is supposed to be consumed at a high
degree of heat was being gorged and crowd
ed and stokers who worked below the re-
tort taking out the stuff that remained
after the garbage had been through the
furnace pulled out great loads OF refuse
that had been only half consumed. n col
ored man wheeled a barrowload to the high
bank on which the plant is located,
and dumped it over. great deal of 1t
stencil came up from the smoldering, smok-
ing mass. This was not considered remark
able, in view of Inspector Wilson'S state
ment that as high ninety tons day
had been delivered by Mccarthy, While the
plant can only destroy forty. other days
the delivery was lighter, but Mr.. Wilson
replied that the average amount delivered
was SeVenty-fiVe to eighty tons day. ThlS
is nearly double the amount the plant can
consume to say nothing Of me IRE refuse del nv
delivered by the vault cleaners, all OF winch
should be "cremated, according to the
contract.
work Mr.. Wilson,"
''Thrty-eight to-day. Most of them haul
two loads a day.
rs ali the stuff they collect delivered at
mo; last week some of the stuff McCar-
thys men brought down here had 10 be
'ditched. The plant was too much
By way of explanation it should be said
that the garbage wagons drive up an in
clined roadway and dump their loads into
two large hoppers at the end OF the fur-
naces or retorts. AS the operatives are
ready to burn it it is raked down from be-
meath and loaded into huge steel buckets,
which are attached to crane, and hoisted
again and run along bar over openings
into the furnace. There are three OF these
openings. 1t would appear to the average
observer that the garbage ought to be con-
sumed about as rapidly as 1t is delivered.
The hoppers into which the wagons dump
are capable of holding two or three days
accumulations, and are full all the time,
instead of being cleared out as rapidly as
they are filled. 1t will appear perfectly
plain, to any one who cares to visit the
place that the capacity of the plant ought
TO be tripled, or at least doubled, if the
amount of stuff delivered at present con-
tinueS. .
The city pays the Indianapolis ,Desiccat-
ing Company $1,000 year for destroying
ali garbage that is brought to its plant.
1t is stipulated in the contract that every
thing is to be destroyed by fire WITH the
TO a sufficient degree of heat to cause its
evaporation The contract is being T Vic cf
oficiaIs are making life burden to Con-
tractor Mccarthy and threatening to e; re- re-
ing fined for every violation that is report
ed to the board Sellers worst farm risa long
in this section of the country is bound to
become worse instead of better One OF the
was that all stencil and bad odors would
be practically eliminated and that ot the
destroy all disease germs microbes and
other life destroyers with which science is
ine hurled i'm the ground to spring up again.