The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-11
MAKE FERTILIZER OF GARBAGE
Cleveland Plant Converts Waste Into
 Article of Commerce.. HIa1,aiand cpanial


 Getting rid of a great city's garbage is one of the sanitary problems of the times, and one which presents many difficulties IIntil A few years ago Cleveland had no scientific garbage system. Hog raiseIs sent wagons about the streets or the city
 and gathered whatever garbage tney
 could conveniently use. This was eX,
 trerneIv unsatisfactory. The wagons used
 were not suitable for the work, ana
 nroved to be very offensive and unslght- iv Only a small part of the garbage was disposed of in this manner, leaving much to worry householders and property oWh- CTS. .., l., By the installation of the system now m vogue all these difficulties are overcome. steel box wagons, equipped with covers and water tight, hold the garbage secure The streets are not filtered when they
 pass through, and the pedestrian IS not compelled to seek the windward slde or them. But the gathering of the garbage Is but
 small part of the benefit which follows
 the new order of things. The garbage It.
 self becomes useful and a product or commerce. It is made into valuable fer tilizer and finds a ready sale. The sta ton where the 150 and 200 tons or garpase
 are daily reduced to fertilizing materlal is located on the Baltimore and ono Railway. a few miles south of the city
 
 Newburg Reduction Company has located
 Its plant It is the most complete, per feet and scientific garbage reduction works in the country, as well as the lare est, with the possible exception Of one m St. Louis and also in one other great city It Is also one of the newest works or the kind and even yet the process Of deVel-
 opment and perfection is going on by ad-
 dition of new machinery. This plant in one way or another makes away with eV- erything, and even the water that Is dis- charged from the plant into the rlVer IS purified and inoffensive, Science has not only made all this possible, but has also made 1t pay.
 The reduction company sends about 200 steel wagons through the city to gather the garbage at stated hours. The house. holds of the city know when the garbage wagon will be along. and these have the garbage waiting. The wagons have boxes made of sheet steel, so there is no pos sibility of leakage The boxes have curv- ed ion covers. which fit tightly, and pre- vent the odor from escaping. The com pany furnishes covered cans for every house in the city. and the drivers of the wagons dump these cans into the wagons. All of the garbage collected in Cleve- land one day is in the reduction works | before dawn of the following day The amount runs between 150 to 200 wagon loads. All of this has to he reduced tr fertilizer material which is called tank
 ag ge." and be out of the way before dawn | next day Special switch engines take the i garbage trains out of the city, It Is af- 1 ter the garbage gets there that the com
 plicated part of the work begins.
 The train carrying the wagon boxes is run into the main building, and the boxes
 are hoisted forty feet into the air and then conducted over an aerial rail to a
 platform that surrounds the top O. the
 great digesters. The digesters are i'm
 mense iron tanks. twenty feet deep ant fifteen feet in circumference. made strong
 to resist tke pressure of steam forced inside them when the process of digest. ing the garbage is under way. There art
 fourteen of these digesters, and eacf
 holds five tons of garbage At the toI of each is an opening through which tho garbage is shoveled in. When the di l gester is full the top is bolted on anC the steam turned onto the mass inside The stream is kept at about 300 degrees so that everything inside of the digestel than can be cooked is cooked to a sof pulp during ten hours the contents are lef in the digesters. There is a gang oi
 workmen on the platform over the di
 gesters, whose duty 1t is to pick out oi
 the garbage pieces of tin, wood and other