Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-06
WAR AGAINST WASTE
TRIUMPHs OF PROGRESSIVE IN
GENUITY.
New Processes By Which By-Products
Are Observation-Disclosures
Energy.

From the Boston Transcript.
A careful Swimming of the engineering
and technical newspapers and maya zines
for the current week will give the cream of
industrial progress. 1t is here one finds
just what is being. dQne today to thrust the
material world forward. An examination
of the evidence there collected reveals the
truth of the proposition set down by
writer who finds human philosophy in so
hopeless a docunrrH- as the patent office
report. He analysed the latest bulletin of
successful inventions and discovered that
more than SBper cent of them are desinged
either to prevent waste of material and
energy, or TO render human life more Sc
cure from danger. From this it is argued
that science and industry are moving to-
day chiefly toward economy of energy-and
toward human safety. which, broadly
speaking, is the same thing.
The scientific lauEsls at today are for the
man who deals in by-products, the man
able to accomplish what Armour did when
he succeeded in making cows hoofs into
glue and could then say to sightseer In
his packing house, What do do with
the waste? Why, sir, there Is no waste"
The inventors and discoverers of the past
presented US With "pfodigal giants of en-
ergy, steam, electricity, coal. Oil and gas.
They appeared so limitless in their strength
preach careful economy in the use 0f them,
but today science and industry are busy in
a process analogous to that of making, by
Chinese closeness Of cultivation, two
blades of grass grow where one grew be-
fore.
Coal Freight Cars.
An unimaginative person would look puz-
zled If you should say that extravaganza
is an attribute of coal cars; but one who
has seen long string Of empties' hauled
from the city back to the mines will I'M
derstand what is meant. Still more surely
does the president of the railroad which
pays the bill for steam, labor and time
wasted In hauling the empty cars know;
even more surely yet did the inventor who
had patented a coal car which can be util-
lied to carry ordinary freight on the return
trip understand The new car has a double
bottom, one coal-dumping floor, the other
the usual level floor placed directly above
and made in sections that can be folded
back against the, sides and ends of the
car After the load of coal is dumped
man enters the car with compassionate
hose and rapidly plays condensed air over
the black smudgy inside. In a few min
utes 1t is as clean as it was on the day it
first came from the shops. The upper floor
ing is dropped and the car Is loaded with
ordinary merchandise for it's trip back
toward the mines. In this there is a saw
ing which will soon jingle In the pockets
of the stockholders, as the first ones are
III d lew WeehS " De put lillO uSc III
sylvania.
Street Refuse.
A few weeks ago Maj. Woodbury., street
cleaning commissioner of New York said
that the city now pays out millions of dol
lars annually to keep it's streets clean.
Within twenty years, he said not only will
the city pay out nothing; it will actually
be making money out of the work of col
lecting ashes, papers and a thousand kinds
n filth from its streets alleVS and back
yards. Much is already done. The ashes
are carefully separated and made into fer
tiliZers, fluid garbage into oils rags into
paper. To find a use for the great bulk in
which the humblest junk dealer can see no
value is the present problem for Maj. Wood
bury. He works on it daily. Last Monday,
at the New York city moderator, Mr..
Woodbury. began a series of experiments
with a new ipcinerating plant for the pur-
pose of ascertaining whether sufficient pow
will be generated to run an electric light
ing plant or pumping station by burning
street and store SWeepingS, Soiled paper and
discarded furniture. The preliminary ex-
periments are said to have been successful.
Further tests are to be made in the next
few days to determine whether the scheme
would be economical Commissioner Wood
bury said that so far as the combustion of
the material tested was concerned 500 9, 600
candle-power arc lights could easily have
been run from the power generated during
the test. AS the amount of material used
was only small fraction of the total
amount available, and as there are only
about 1000 arc lights in use in Manhattan,
DR.. Woodbury. believes il, would be possible
to generate sufficient power to run ma
jority of the pumping stations.
Waste Lands.
To the scientist and the captain of indus
try, who thinks Of economy and waste in
the broadcast possible. sense, the wide
stretches of swamp which lie along the
railroads for miles beyond Jersey City have
long been an eyesore. But science has
made the first step and within the present
generation the Jersey swamps will blossom,
not with roses, nor yet with wheat, but
with modest houses for people of moderate
incomes who prefer a lawn and a garden
to a dumb waiter and,a janitor. The work
will be done-is being done-without state
aid. 1t is commercially profitable because
the improvements planned in New York's
suburban transportation facilities are max
ing land valuable. About year ago some
citizens of Morristown,r N. j., organized
"Betterment" association, which had two
ultimate objects-to ~rfd the neighborhod
of mosquito breeding zee ssWamps and to beau
tfy the surroundings of their country
homes. They Were energetic, and now
Speedwell lake, a sheet of thirty-five acres
of sluggish, water. with nearby swamp
of twenty acres, has disappeared from the
map and is being -plowed- this week for a
crop of oats. The "Betterment' associa-
ton Is turning tits attention to Great
Swamp, which contains $500 acres. By
how many million millions the number of
mosquitoes has been reduced no man can
estimate.
Nowhere is the scientific approach to per-
feet economy so apparent as in increasing
the output of gold mines and making it
possible, by new processes, to work mines
which it was Improbable to develop by
the old means.
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