The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-01
WASTES AND BY.PRODUCTS
WoNDERFCL PROGRESS OF RE-
 CENT TEARS

SUI @~1EAASE EEONC69OA DA
 Were Thrown Awny-The Worlds Increment of Wealth Dependent Upon Finding Economical Uses for AndustEtaI substances-SOme of the
 Ways i'm Which Factory and
 Other Refuse .s Now Made PIO- duetiye.
 The following extracts are taken from 3 report by Henry T. Kittredge of Bos- ton to the Director of the Census upon the utilization of wastes and by-prod- ucts in manufactures. MT. Kittredge is a we'll known expert in manufactur- ing processes:
 "Nothing in the arts of manufacture is more indicative of economic efficien- cies than the utilization of products that have been rejected as waste or residues in the industrial processes. The acme of industrial economy is the profitable employment of every atom of material in whatever form it may be presented or however obtained. Every particle of an organic or inorganic sub stance has a useful part to play in con- tributing to human necessities or pleas ures, and when it performs no function toward some useful end or remains dor mant, it shows that the ingenuity and enterprise of man have not reached their fullest development, or that the arts of the laboratory have not revealed all the secrets of nature. The refuse of to- day is source of profit tomorrow; and this has been going on for years and probably will be going on for years to come, notwithstanding that even now there is little that is thrown aside as absolutely useless except as it may be utilized in the economies of nature. New revelations and new uses are con- stantly being found for substances of all kinds, whether in their original forms or in their changed forms due to outside agencies. The worlds increment of wealth is largely dependent upon finding new and more economical uses for materials however exalted or hum- ble they may be in the industrial scale and especially the elevation of the hum- ble to higher plane of appreciated usefulness. If a thing is unused for mans enjoyment, it is because it has not yet found it's place of utility.
 For nearly a century the worlds main supply of soap depended on soda, which was obtained as a product of the sulphuric-acid industry Notwithsiand- ing soap was known to the ancients, it was regarded even in the middle ages as a luxury, and when it was not readily obtained, the lack of cleanliness was concealed by fine clothes and by per- fumes. The soda industry being brought to standstill in France during the French Revolution, the National Con- vention of that country appealed to the chemist to discover some method for making soda from common salt, which X had been shown by Du Hamel, in 1736, to contain the same base as soda. About forty years thereafter, Scheele found that caustic soda could be obtained from salt by the action of lead oxide; but the production of soda by chemical processes was unimportant from an in- dustriaI standpoint until Le Blanc se- cured results that gave to the world one of it's principal industries. His discov- cry was based upon the treatment of chloride of sodium with sulphuric acid farming hydrochloric acid and sulphate < of soda. The hydrochloric acid was re- garded as by-product of so little value that it was allowed to pass off into the air, to the great detriment of vegetation in the neighborhood. To remedy this Eyy,er icI CnyrarpY1 tnply tion against the soda works to compel them to condense the acid and keep it out of the way, and this led indirectly to the discovery that hydrochloric acid could be used as valuable agent in the bleaching industry, which, however, was at that time far from having at- tained it's present height of develop ment. For use in this way it was found necessary to employ some agent { to decompose hydrochloric acid, so that chlorine could be obtained from it, and the best agent was found to be the binoxide of manganese, which the acid dissolves, setting free part of the original chlorine of the acid or of the salt and forming manganese chloride. Previous to about forty years ago this latter product was allowed to go to waste and it was not until the demand for manganese oxide was so great and the price so high that reclamation of the spent manganese was looked upon as desirable, that this was accomplish ed, adding greatly to the resources of the chlorine industry for bleaching.
 The choicest perfumes that are plac- ed upon the market are no doubt ob- tained from oils and others extracted from flowers; but there are many oth- CTS which are artificialIy made, many out of bad-smelling elements. The fusel oil obtained in the distillation of spir- its has an odor that is peculiarly dis agreeable. yet it is used, after treat Tnent with proper acids and oxidizing agents, in making the oil of apples and the oil of pears; and the oil of grapes and the oil of cognac are little more than fusel oil diluted. Oil of pineapple is best made by the action of putrid cheese on sugar, or by distilling rancid butter with alcohol and sulphuric acid One of the most popular perfumes may be obtained from one of the products of gas tar, out of which is also obtained the oil of bitter almonds, so largely consumed in the manufacture of per fumery soap and confectionery.
 The refuse of cities throughout the civilized world is now generally collect. ed and disposed of for sanitary reasons though in many instances it $ utilized