Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-25
REFUSE BURNED IN MASS
Newest Way to Dispose Of New York's
Big Dirt Pile.
IDEA NAY SAVE SOME MONEY
rIant In RIohnond Borough which
E-aboaiss the Latest Achieve
nsnts OF the SANITARY
EnHineer.

fEv York, Oct. A-fmasn ne a refuse
PIC j.IIg feet hlgh. CT nearly twice the
hsiaht Of the Singer bu.ldins. and covering
a srses a. big as Bryant park. and you
will have an idea Of how big a Job It IL
zach year to keep Sew York cleaned up.
n all tao carnage, rubbish, ashes. and
street Hwee2inEs OF this eisy were not
hauled away promptly and disposed OF that
10 the size Of the pile that would be made IN
a year ana It wouldn't include the snow
pile either,
just about two.thirds OF this big refuse
hear would be made up OF the ashes from
the city's fires, a little more than one
sixth would wbe made up of street sweep
inEs. about one-seventh would be garbage
and the rest would consist OF tin cans.
old clothes, beds, rags u Inituye, CROKER.
and that heterogeneous mass OF rubbish
thrown on New York-s dirt pile every day.
New FORKS dirt pile grows at the rate
OF about 2Oo,o 900 tons a year. Every year 80
much more dirt Of all kinds bas TO be
cRrted away. to be burned or used for fill
ing in purposes. About one-third Of the
doirt pie goes to Riker's island, which has
already been increased in area 63ia acres
and in less than six years will be AZ acres
bigger thar It Is today. The big new pen
itentiary which the city proposes to build
m place OF the one on BlackwelTs island
will some day stand on this dirt pile.
Just now attention Is again being called
10 the question of the best way 10 get rid
Of the city's refuse because of the new
methods which have come into vogue since
sanitary engineering became a distinct
branch OF sclenceI Sanitary engineers all
over the world have been studying the
problem. One OF the best schemes they
nave devised Is to burn It without sorting
It at all, thus saving about 30 per cent Of
the present cost OF removal.
Eventually, II is predicted by some en-
gineers, every city will adopt this method
Of burning the refuse as fast as it accu-
mulates and burning II right in the city
itself. The refuse OF Cairo has been en-
ployed for centuries to heat the Turkish
baths in that city, so that the idea isn't at
all new, but by the latest achievements of
the engineers 1t has been made possible TO
throw all the varied forms of waste into a
furnsce and get no resultant smell.
Just now New York is trying this plan
down In Richmond borough. A plant
modelled on the English system has been
completed there at a cost of $4,000 and Is
daily burning mp many tons OF refuse, in
cluuhlg every thing from dead horses to tin
cans, without offenSc to people living not
200 feet away. Instead OF sorting the re-
fuse it is poured into the same hopper, the
mass is touched off and it then burns
itself.
The gases from the burning refuse pass
over successive CRATES and arc oxidlzed in
such a wa as IN arI1y pptnnIafn pnrn-
bustion. When the process is complete
there remain simply big clinkers like those
which clog up the crate OF a furnace.
These are puiverized and can be made
into cement blocks.
The Richmond plant is only a small one.
Tut is said to represent the very latest
achievements of the engineers who have
been tsckling the problem of how to get
rid of the city's big dirt pile In the quick
cat, cheapest and least offensive method.
Before It was erected Street Cleaning Com
missioner Featherstone OF that borough
made a trip to England to observe how the
English engineers had developed similar
plants and now the smallest borough of
the city Is b~osstlng Of being away ahead
rot only OF its sister boroughs but of other
cities OF the country as well.
\ year ago a special commission ap-
pointed by Mayor Mcclellan and consisting
OF f.. de p. Parsons, Rudolph Herring
and Samuel WINERY Investigated the big
problem Of getting rid of New York's big
REFUSE heap. and in their report they rec
commended that this method be tried IN
the borousls Of Richmond and Queens.
Rlchmond's refuse destructor. as it is
called. is the result Of that report.
. Until tho e1ufnaars A.,-tgal tIf- ..A-..-
Of burning mp refuse in mass one source
Of trouble in getting rid of the city's daily
refuse pile lay in the necessity Of sorting
It, All the garbage from Manhattan. The
Bronx and Brooklyn Mt present goes 10
Barren Island. where II Is treated hv the
reduction process, which was devised a
good many years ago. That means simply
that it Is stewed, and from that stew arises
a fine smell. A small percentage of the
residuum is useful. This IS done by pri-
Nate contract.
Some day. according to the experts. this
city as well as every other city will have
refuse destructors iTko the one in Rich
mond scattered around I'm convenient neigh
horhoods, and carts will simply go around
and pick m everything that people don't
want ard had " 10 the nearest Instructor.
where IT will he turned into clinkers and
ashes, This is the way that Dublin has
been treating its dirt pile for some years
now and they consider Il much better than
the way New York has been doing It. a. II
II not only much cheaper but also less OF 2
menace 20 health in that It does away will
long hauls and the offensive dumps enc
scows which are necessary here.
Furthermore. every 2,OOO pounds OF refls,
burned In this way is equivalent to IS
pounds OF coal, as experiments have shown
That would give New York's big refus,
heap a fuel value Of about 100 OO tons o.
coal. which might help toward paying som,
~ the city's bills.