Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1902-08-11
NOTHING is WASTED.
VALUE OF CAST-OFF THINGS IN
INDUSTRIAL WORLD.
The Means of Utilizing Articles that
Formerly Went to Waste, Provided
Inv SCIENCE, Result in Great Profit
Some Things Worked Over.

]
world. Men OF science are ever at
work tearing byproducts and waste
! material to pieces, to regroup the ele-
| ments into new material which has a
! commercial or industrial value.
Old iron is worked over into new
/ iron Linen rags are reiucinerated and
| live as paper. Wooden rags are shred
ded and made into shoddy. Bones are
made into bone black. to clarity sugar
! syrup. Old rubbcrs. bits of garden
hose. exploded bicycle tires and any
castotfs in which rubber is Il part are
made over into new rubber. Worn
steel rails are rerollcd into lighter sec
lions. Old rusty pipe is drawn down
into bright new pipe. The tin cans
which are gathered up in alleys and
from garbage boxes are melted down
and cast into window sash weights and
counter weights for bridges.
| Rags ana old carpets are cut into
strips ami woven into handsome rugs.
The list of old castotf things that are
rcscued from ash piles and garbage
dumps to be born again can be cX-
tended for columns, and the list would
never cease growing, for every day
some new Use for some wasted product
is discovered.
There was time when tons OF blood,
fresh from slaughtered cattle, flowed
unhrcdrl through the sewers under
the stGclyarls in Chicago. To-day this
blood is saved, put through several
processes and comes out as Il fertilizer
or in the form of cakes, which are sent
to sugar retinerics to assist in clarity
| ing the sweet liquor. Some of the
handsome buttons worn on new dresses
once ran as warm blood through the
veins of fat steers.
Heat ana hydraulic pressure are the
agents which separate the water from
the alb,lMen in the red fluid, and pre-
pare the dried blood for the pulverzing
process which fits it for use as IA tertil-
izer After being boiled down, pressed,
crushed and ground to Il powder. the
dried blood Is mixed with potash and
phOsphorc acid and sent out as com
piee fertilizer.
| Shoddy is il useful product of waste
mat crial. 1t is never used alone, but in
combination with new woods. The wool
en- rags from which shoddy is made
are first thoroughly busted by machin-
cry before they are sorted. Any cot
ton which may be in the rags is got rid
of by dipping the rags in a boiling
mixture of sulphuric acid.
Long experience has demonstrated
the exact proportion of the acid re-
quired to eat out the cotton tibers with
out destroying the wool. The effect of
dipping the rags into the water and
acid Is to rot the cotton so that the
WOODEN part of the fabric falls to pieces
easily After being dried the rags are
run through a machine that removes
every biz of dust. leaving the pure,
! clean wool. The wooden rags and cloth
are dyed. and then run through a ma
chine whose thousands of steel pins
not only shred the rags, but split the
threads 50 that the rags which enter
the machine leave it in the form Of
wool tibers.
The wool Is put through carding
machine. which ...orOughly combs out
the WOODEN particles. mixes them and
turns them out in the form of long
fluffy rolls. which are packed in bales
ready to be shipped to the wooden mills.
where the shoddy is mixed with new
wool.
While wooden rags are sent to the
shoddy mills. linen rags naturally
start from the ragman's storeroom to
the paper mill, whence they issue as
fine linen paper.
The odd iron" which forms half the
burden of the ragmans song is the
basis Of a business whose output is
valued annually in millions of dollars.
Every piece Of old iron. wrought or
east, rusty or clean, can be utilized.
The old cast iron is sent to foundries
and pudding furnaces. the old wrought
iron, bars. sheets and plates, is sent
to the rolling mills. Cast iron sent to
foundres is remelted with pig iron. and
UeHlIlS Il ueW NE Oh tSeI uIDeSS unupf
new forms and shapes. The wrought
iron goes to the scrap piles in rolling
mill yards.
A profitable business has been found
in the redrawing of old iron pipe and
boiler tubes. Most of this waste ma
terial is thickly covered with rust when
1t arrives at the factory. and the rust
is removed by the simple process of
heating the old pipe to Il cherry red
and punging it into water. The sudden
contraction looscnS the rust scales, and
the pipe is sent to the heating furnace
clean and bright. \ good welding heat
prepares the pipe for the redrawing
process. This consists in pulling the
white hot pipe through die, which not
only reduces its diameter but makes
it solid. 1t is heated again and drawn
through a smaller die and the process
is continued until the pipe is down to
the required diameter. Then the new
pipe is Strengthened and is ready for
the market.
1t vas not SO many years ago that
| tao coal tar which Is produced in the