Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-04-20
MONEY FROM WASTE
Refuse Now Converted Into Articles
Of Use and Beauty.
THE WORK OF APPLIED SCIENCE
Few Things Nowadays That Have
Not Some Value.
IN AGE OF MIRACLES

| Written for The Evening Star by Prof. Caldwell
! johnson.
| The saying that this is age of miracles
comes nowhere near the literal truth as
in the various processes devised by modern
science and industrial art for the CONVEX
sion of material once regarded worthless
| refuse into articles of real value and
fulness. Here the modern spirit may well
be typified in the form of a magician who
waves his wand over heaps of dust and
| garbage, when, presto, change we have
before our astonished eyes an array OF
beautiful forms for great variety of uses.
| Applied science has thus realized the
| dreams of the ancient alchemist, and in it's
| crucibles the meanest and coarsest sub
| stances are transmitted if not literally into
! gold, yet into things which have a high
| cash value
| What substance, for example would seem
to be more completely useless than the
refuse of mines and furnaces, or Stag as it
| is called! But Stag is now treated in a va
riety of ways and converted into number
of useful things, such as paving blocks,
Stag glass, Stag shingles and Stag sand.
| Stag bricks is one Of chief uses at pres
ent, and for these there is a considerable
demand. Mortar for building purposes is
another method of utilization, simply
achieved by grinding the Stag sand with
about per cent of slaked lime; artificial
stone. nodded into chimney pieces window
heads and sls wall coping and other or
| namental work for bunuers; and the latest
use Which has been found for it is in max
Ing wool or silcate cotton, so called from
| Its resemblance to cottonwood. This is
snow white IN color, and is chiefly used for
covering boilers or steam pipes, and being
a non-conductor of heat, it is admirably
adapted for these uses.
For Building Purposes.
| Coal Stag has been for years another
| troublesome waste. Now, however this is
being used for building purposes. The build
ers IN Lyons, France, are credited with be-
ing the first to use the waste which sur
rounds every coal mine. They wished to
ma a cheap durable and healthy material
LOT the construction of suburban houses
ana coal Stag mixed with slaked lime
treated as concrete, adopted. The mass
hardened rapidly. and even after few DAYS
the walls were firm enough to support the
Jolst trainings The strength and fire-re-
SlStnS properties of this new composition
nave been well tested, and one case is men
| toned where a nitro benzine factory was
burned down, the great heat even melting
the machinery. and yet the walls, built of
coal Stag bricks, were unconsumed their
| surfaces having a glazed appearance, and
| they sustained without repair the ceiling
| and roof of the restored building
| An establishment that works up brass and
| iron in about equal proportions for more
| than year mixed the drillings, turnngs
| and filings of both metals indiscrminately
and dumped them out of doors as useless
| rubbish to be got rid Of A separating ma
| chine was suggested. and 1t paid for its
| cost within three weeks. 1t is sef-operat-
| Ing, requiring only the occasional supply
| of the chips and the removal of those al
ready separated The mixed chips pass
through a trough in thin stream before a
| revolving cylinder composed of horseshoe
| magnets, the brass chips drop in front into
a box and the iron and steel chips are car
ried on the magnets to the under side and
| are brushed off by fixed brushes into an
| other box. Before being separated these
mixed chips were worthless. After being
| separated the iron chips had a marketable
value and the brass chips a value ten times
| as great.
Refuse of Furnaces.
| In certain machine shop worn out and
broken files placed in transverse
| holder on the grindstone frame, held
| against the face of the stone by springs
| given a traverse by a belt and a spiral
cam, and the result is bits of smooth steel
| just adapted for forging boring bar cut
| tiers and keys, with a further result of
| keeping the stone trued.
| In brass manufactures there is unavoid-
able waste of the metals in the scorae
| of the melting furnaces, in the rolling mill
| department and the wire drawing What
| ever of this waste, with the sweepings,
can be gathered is put into large mortars
| and subjected to the impact of piyoted
pestles until the whole is pounded to
| dust. Then it is floated in a running
stream of water through a chute over riff
| fes which catch the heavy metallic par
| tfcleS and allow the lighter trash to pass
off. The metallic residuum, packed in cru
| cibles with luted covers, gives back
profitable percentage of solid brass to be
| reused.
| Old Tin Cans Utilized.
| Tin cans and scrap tin, like the old and
| much-abused hoopskirts, for a long time
| resisted all attempts to convert them to
| second use. The empty can has at last
mission, and a profitable one at that.
| Emptied Of its contents Of peaches or to-
| matoes, discarded and thrown out at the
| back door, it may soon be sent in at the
| front door and find an honored place in the
| house. Thousands Of these cans are gath
cred in our cities every week and made
| into shining sheets, which are used to dec
crate or cover large travelling trunks. A
| number of factories for the conversion of
| old, buffeted and battered cans and other
tin refuse from the ash heaps have sprung
| up In recent years and the business Is a
| growing one. The cans are collected in va
rious ways, but principally from the city
ash heaps and the hotels and the large
boarding houses. At the factory the SOL
| heat In such a way that the solder runs
| into receptacle and is carefully saved and
| sold.
| 1t brings IL cents a pound. and the profit
| from this source alone almost pays the ex-
| pense of the gathering and handling of the
| cans The tops and bottoms of the cans
are melted and turned into window sash
| weights. The labels on the tin plates are
| easily taken off after having been thor
| oughly soaked in water, and the plates
themselves are rolled fiat by machinery
AS the insides Of the plates are not much
| discolored by the contents Of the can, they
| present a clean surface, and make excel
lent coverings for trunks, the seams being
hidden by the trunk braces, either of wood
| or sheet iron.