New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-05-09
WASTE MIKES POWER.
Woodbury. WM Sell City Rubbish or
Heat 1t Generates.

DR. John McGaw Woodbury. Commissioner OF
Street Cleaning made an interesting and i'm
portant statement yesterday regarding his ex-
periments with an incinerator OF ruoplsh at
North Moore end Varick SITS. Commissioner
Woodbury's first incinerator was built at Forty
seventh-st and the North River. and the heat
derived from it regarded only as a by
product only enough steam being made to run
the engine necessary to handle the belt con-
veyor. The otLer by-product, ash. has been
given to the Park Department and used with
success in revivifyng and fertilizing Central
Park The material is valuable not only as
fertilizer. but in the manufacture of potash. and
is worth from $40 to S12 cord This is about
the commercial alue of Canadian wood ash.
I'm the experimental plant erected at North-
Moore-st.." said Commissioner Woodbury. we
have derived from the burning of this material
two horsepower to the cubic yard. That u.s. one
half a cubic yard of this material eVaporales
thirty-two pounds of water. The water taken
from the main is metred, then run over Her-
curry holding thermometer which gives the tenn
perature of water entering the boiler. Inc
safety valve is set at ten pounds of pressure.
The sum is to find out how much material is re-
ouired to evaporate the thirty-two pounds OF
water necessary to produce one horsepower
The material is fed into a furnace having
wrought iron CRATE bars in the upper conslruc-
ton chamber and friedrich crate bars IN the
lower combustion chamber
1.-The heat generated passes underneath d
boiler of the return tubular type. then through
the tubes and f1ues of this boiler. promoters
are set in the stack and in the CONFUSION cham
Der The experiments of yesterday showed 1,ooo
degrees Fahrenheit in the combustion chamber
in the base of the stack $50 degrees and IN the
top of the stack $50 degrees. There is no ooor
whatsoever from the combustion of this rup-
bish, as no garbage of any sort is burned IN the
furnace. There is smoke further than tha1
of an ordinary house chimney.
1.-The interest in these experiments is that you
are taking absolute waste ard doing something
with it, We are turning this waste which was
formerly thrown into the sea, into actual use
those who desire fuel for electric light. There
will be present representatives of the Metro
politan Traction Company and the Manhattan
Elevated Railway. These experiments nave
been made with the assistance of PROFESSOR I al
sons of the steam engineering department OF me
Troy Polytechnic Institute, and Engineer mn
of the Department of Water, Gas ana Elec-
tricity and are being conducted by Engineer
Stearns of the Street Cleaning Department an
the experiments have been carefully Watcneo oy
Battalion Chief Guerin of the Fire bepartlheIit
We will sell the power where we can, or we VIM
so many heat units. and l want the manu-.
fact1lrer who wants power and with coat at
present prices to try it. .
Commissioner Woodbury. added that the cost
of final disposition of the ashes and ruDplsh
wa stes of this city in 1901 was SoI,2l4, whlie
The cost in 1902 was only $547, oil, which should
also he credited with the increased land at
Riker's Island