The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-05-24
FROM THE GARBAGE HEAP
HOW WASTE PRODUCTS OF A GREAT
CITY ARE WORKED OVER.
Thrown Away ns Rubbish to BE
Transformed Into Useful Mer-
chandise.
PhIladelnhIa Record.


one another. opposed to one another, in a
superlative degree. For the cake Of soap is
pure, sweet-smelling, an agent that makes
for cleanliness; the bucket of garbage is i'm
pure and foul. And hence it is almost i'm
possible TO believe that out of garbage soap
is made.
But this wonderful Transformation is &C
compiished by the American Product Com
pany, whose plant is situated at Morris
street wharf. on the SchuylkiH. Here. last
year. 279.333 tons of garbage were converted
and the product Is now travelling about the
world in the shape of soap. oil. fuel and fer
tilizer. 1t is interesting to visit the con-
Nerting plant. interesting to see refuted
there the maxim that silk purse may not
be made out Of a sow's ear. The buildings
are Oh the river, and the garbage is brought
80 them on scows. From the dock out to the
scows line of conveyors extends. The con-
yeyors are steel troughs. Blades are at
tached TO them at right angles. The garb-
age is thrown upon the troughs. and, by an
endless chain process. 1t Is carried quickly
forward to the boilers. or digesters.
These are vertical steel cylinders, 515x14
feet in size, that stand in rows. upright.
Each cylinder has a capacity Of ten tons.
arrangement, the garbage falls from the
conveyors. Before digester IS charged
water TO a depth of three or four feet is adj
nttted into it, Then, after the garbage has
been put in, the machine Is shut up. and a
cooking begins that lasts for eight hours.
AS the cooking progresses the temperature
Increases. The boiler pressure Is from 30 TO
-J0 pounds
The cooked garbage has an appearance
HNaNWVr n or . &c
now gone and II has taken on a uniform
brown hue. 1t passes into receiving tanks,
14lz feet long, 121s feet wide and feet deep.
The tanks have bottoms that slope to the
center. and at the center there is an open
ing, through which the garbage is dis
charged upon presses.
The presses stand side by side and are
worked by means Of huge screws. In them
the garbage Is placed, and they give to II
pressure OF 100 pounds to the square inch.
This powerful treatment squeezeS out all or
its oil. The oil is caught in traps, or tanks,
underneath. The solid matter passes upon
cars 10 a drying room. The driers are hori-
Zontal steel cylinders, and in these the
1ankage-for the solid garbage now has that
name-is stirred by means OF revolving
cylinders while 1t dries. At the end of the
process 1t runs forth automatically upon
coEveyors TO the screens.
The screens are rotary, and the screened
tankage, tobacco-colored, coarse powder,
Is bagged and sold as fertilizer. 1t makes an
excellent fertilizer, and on the market it
fetcheS good price. The tailings from the
screens-the stuff, that is to say. that is too
coarse TO pass through the perforations-is
made into fuel. The tailings supply part OF
the power that runs the plant.
MADE INTO SOAPS.
The liquid that the presses extract during
the pressing process falls into tanks. Here,
by cooling, the grease and water separate,
and the grease-a black substance of the
thickness OF molasses-is taken out and
barreled The water remaining is pumped
Into altering tanks. and now more grease is
obtained from ii by skimming. Still, how
ever. there is a substance of value in this
water, and evaporization extracts it. This
final substance is called stick" and it is
mixed with tankage: The mixture gives
ordinary tankage.
The Transformation into soap of the black
grease drawn from the garbage does not
take place in America, but in Germany.
The grease is shipped into Germany and
there IL Is changed into soap and other mar
ketable products. America, in the perfect
utilization OF wastes, is behind Germany.
So far as America goes, however. in this
work her methods are as sanitary and as
economical as those of any country in the
world.
But garbage is only one portion of the
waste OF Philadelphia. Another and a great
portion, is the waste from the slaughter
1.200-pound steer. This animal yields 200
pounds Of meat. The remaining 500 pounds
used to be thrown away. Now all of it is
used. The horns are cut off close to the
head, and OF their pith glue Is made. while
they themselves. taking, they do, a high
polish, make an excellent substitute for tor
tOise shell. Their tips make mouthpieces for
tobacco pipes The bones, polished, look like
ivory, aud serve for the handles OF knives
and tooth brushes. The bone scraps become
fertilizer. The hoOfs become glue and gela-
tine.
The hide, of course becomes leather The
hair Is converted into felt for hats while
the hair OF the tail becomes the costly COM
modify known as "curled hair" The blood
makes finishing substance that is applied
to leather, and the fat becomes oleomarga-
rine, butterine and glycerine.
HOW RAGS ARE BORN AGAIN.
The rags OF the city-all the old clothes,
shirts, stockings. pantaloons and what not
that are annually thrown away-these rags
become shoddy. After. by devious ways,
they have come TO the shoddy dealer they
are laid out upon great tables. and women
sort them, dividing them into grades, ac-
cording TO the percentage Of pure wool that
they contain. After their separation into
uniform grades the rags are cut up and put
into machines With big, comb-like teeth that
shred them, rsconverting them into the orig
inal wool that they were made from This
wool. after being thoroughly washed, is like
new wool from a Sleeps back, only ii has
shorter hairs In it-it has shorter staple
and. furthermore. il lacks elasticity: il is
less strong. Shoddy is never new wool but
IL figures, all the same, in cloth manufac-
turing TO a large percentage. There are
many shoddy mills in the world. Large for
tunes are invested in the shoddy business.
~ great waste converter is the dump boss
There are number of dump bosses in the
neighborhood OF League island. These men
live on dumping grounds, and the owners of
the grounds pay them small salaries for see
ing 10 il that the land is leveled By the
dumpage as 1t should be. The dump bosses
make the greater part of their living by
tain sorts of bottles they get or 3 cents
apiece. Old shoes, matter how diIani-
dated they may be, bring good price. Tin
cans are OF great value. Even broken glass
will sell.
The broken glass is ground up melted in
furnaces into paste and pressed into arti-
fetal stones that used by builders Tin
cans are sufficiently valuable to fetch IS a
load. There Is a factory near New York that
converts tin cans. They are melted first and
the solder is extracted from them-this
solder brings over 10 cents a pound. Then
the cans themselves are unrolled-an ordi-
nary tomato can gives nearly square
foot or finland are made into sheets for
roofing.
Coal dust was for a long time waste but
IL Is now a good fuel. IL is made into
briQuettes that burn. Sawdust also was a
clay and made into building bricks. and
mingled with glue and other substances, IL
becomes an artificial wood. Sawdusr, again,
mixed with tar and pressed into bricks,
makes fuel much used by gas plants
Munich. the BaVarldn town that is noted