The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-06
CREMATORY WOULD
MAKE GOOD MONEY
City Could Operate It at Hand
some Profit
PENRUDDOCKE'S VIEWS
Answers Alderman McDowell's 0bjec-
lions to Building Suitable Plant for
Disposal of Garbage-Pres-
ent Dumps a Disgrace
PENRUDDOCKE'S VIEWS

L. Il. uuuOChtt cii6t-
neer, does not agree with Alderman Nc.
Dowell as to the inadvisability of erect.
ing garbage crematory in Birm0g.
ham. Mr.. Penruddocke maintains that
the plant would not only be self-sustain-
ing, but would yield the city a hand
some annual profit. He writes:
To the Editor of The Age Herald:
I have read with much interest In your
Sunday edition of The Age-Herald an
Interview with Mr.. Mcdowell, alderman
from the Sixteenth ward, and in this
note that he criticises the proposed ex-
penditure of $4,000 for a crematory
Mr.. Mcdowell says in part: TT also
seems that $15O,OOO for crematory is pay
ing high to get rid of waste. Interest
on this alone would be $500 a year; de-
probation and repairs would amount to
at least $4,000 more, and in addition
there would be operating expense Col
lecting the garbage would then, as now,
exhaust all the means of the street de-
partment''
Undoubtedly Mr.. Mcdowell would be
correct if the old style of crematory
was used, but the modern crematory or
Instructor as it is more correctly termed,
is very different proposition While
one of these up-to-date plants. which are
being used with excellent results in some
of our most progressive northern cities,
is more expensive to- build in the first
place than the old-style crematory, the
cost of operation is low and the plant
can be made not only self-sustaining, but
source of revenue to the city.
Aside from this financial advantage it
is absolutely sanitary, odorless and may
without objection be installed at any con-
venient point in the city to shorten the
haul.
Greater Birmingham has a tonnage of
garbage and city waste based on esti-
mates obtained from the principal Amer
lean cities, of approximately 100 tons a
day. From such a destructor as is in
operation in Milwaukee, Buffalo, New
York and other northern cities and of the
same type as is being built by the city
of Montgomery, there could be obtained
sufficient steam to operate about 600
street arc lights. There would also be
residue from the furnace of 40 tons
per "A hours of hard burned vitreous.
innocuous clinker, which is suitable for
making concrete. This clinker can be
readily disposed of for so cents per ton,
or net profit of 500 per day from this
portion of the waste.
Six hundred arc lights at $40 per an
mum would amount to $4,000 and this.
with $1,000 from the sale of the clinker
Ill. IT, Sc
800, less a very small operating expense,
which can be estimated as follows
Twelve men at $1.5o-$1S per day or $3.50
per annum. One superintendent at $1,000
per annum, making a total expense OF
s777O for labor. Oil and supplies, includ-
ing repairs would not exceed $500, which,
added to the labor (the only other ex.
operation up to S10,270, against an income
available of $4,000. Therefore, from a
financial standpoint Mr.. McDowell's OBJ
jections ought not to hold good.
| might add here that the destruction
of all classes and conditions of waste
matter is absolute and Is accomplished
without additional fuel, there being suffi-
cient combustion material In the refuse
to insure it's being destroyed at the high
temperature of 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.
The collection of garbage is an item that
l have not included in this estimate, as
that expense must exist regardless of
whether the city has a destructor or
dumps in lowlands for the purpose of
filing, which practice 1t is needless for
me to say is most insanitary and the
greatest menace to health that can ex-
list, as it forms a veritable incubator
for the Matching of disease germs and
their greatest of all carriers. the common
fly, which in turn are blown back into
the city, depositing filth from their germ
laden bodies, or maybe taking a bath
in your soup or glass of milk
Birmingham has outgrown these filth
piles. They are becoming surrounded
by residences. In these homes are men
and women and little children who sure
ly should enjoy Gods gifts of sunshine
and fresh, pure air. Is 1t right to render
unsightly these homes, and worse still.
to endanger the health and lives Of
these people by forcing on them breeding
grounds for disease? Is not the life of
one person worth more than the entire
cost Of Instructor plant?
1t is only necessary to refer to the
recently published report of DR.. Hark-
ness to see the immense amount of sick
ness that has prevailed among children
this summer, and the high rate of IA
tally from dysentery and kindred dis
eases, which can be traced directly to
that same housefy, which it breeds by
thousands in stables, surely increases to
many millions in the filthy garbage
dumps One only needs to take trip
to one of these dumps to be convinced
of their danger to health and the crying
need for immediate steps to be taken for
the proper destruction of city waste.
Yours truly, E. l.. PENRUDDOCkE.
Birmingham, July 5. 1910