Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-03-07

Last evening the City Board of
Health, which includes Health Officer
S. L. Jepson in its membership, met at
the City Hall and devoted an hour or
more to the favorable consideration of
a new proposition for the disposition of
the city garbage and night soil. The
proposition, as outlined to the Commit
tee, met with very favorable recep-
ton, and an adjourned meeting was
called for Friday evening, of this week,
at which the City Solicitor and the
Committee O.. Ordinances will be in
vited to attend, that the matter may
be brought before Council at the
be acted upon as soon as possible.
At last evenings session, in addition
to the Councilmen and the Health Off
Ger. there were present Messrs. R X.
Gifin, George Hook and Morris Hork-
heimer, of the reduction company pro-
posing to operate the plant
Mr. Giffin acted as spokesman for the
Company, which now has a plant in
successful operation at Marietta, Ohio,
and was assisted in his remarks by
several blue prints of the essential por-
ton of the apparatus, which were PIN
ned to the wall of the committee room.
His proposition, in brief, was as fol-
lows
That in consideration of free site
for the works, north of the present
crematory and between it and the new
city reservoir, free gas for steam MAX
ing purposes, and free water, and IN
the further consideration of $4,000 per
annum, to be paid to the company by
the city, the Company would erect
sanitary plant capable of destroying
all the garbage, night soil and other
collectable refuse of the city, the city
to collect and deliver the refuse at the
plant Just as it now does to the Gre
matory owned and operated by the
municipality.
He presented a model of the essen
tial portion of the apparatus, and eX-
planned its workings. The reduction
portion consists of a large jacketed
tank, with an opening large enough to
receive a dead horse or COW. What
ever is to be reduced is dumped in
to this tank, and is Theoretically sealed,
steam at pressure of forty, fifty or
sixty pounds to the square inch is in
jected, and is kept at that pressure for
several hours While the cooking pro-
cess is thus going on, super-steam at
higher pressure is forced into the space
between the jackets of the reservoir, and
the digesting process is continued I'M
til not only have the contents been en-
tirely disintegrated, but have become
thoroughly dried. During this process
brine is forced from another reservoir
into the digestiDg apparatus, and ali
the grease floated to the top, where it
is run off. At the conclusion OF the
operation the steam in the cylinder is
condensed and run off as Cdorless waste
water while the brine used to float the
grease is again conveyed through tubes
into the original reservoir, to be used
over again, and the gases arising from
the process are consumed in the fur
mace used in making steam.
Mr. Giffin said the consumption of
gas would not be one-half what was
used in the present furnace, and prob
ably but about one-fourth as much, as
enough gas to run fifty-horse power
boiler would be sufficient for the plant.
He could have the plant ready for
operation in thirty days, and would
prefer a contract or privilege for ten
years, with annual appropriations by
the city during the life of the agree
ment.
The question of whether or not the
city could enter into an agreement
with the gas company so that the eX-
listing contract for free gas for the city
would not be violated, was extensively
discussed, and a committee, consisting
of Chairman Waterhouse, Dr. Megrail