The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-29
HOW MILLIONS ARE
 BEING WASTED
Fortunes Have Slipped From
 Somebody's Fingers
IN DISCARDED SCRAPS
John T. shafTer Gives some Interest," ing Figures on Needless Waste, Crime of Amer
 jeans
From the New York World.

From the New York World.
 Toward the close of the year some bory. or other of a mathematical or fru- gal turn of mind begins to figure out how much we mgnf have saved had we be- gun investing our pennies in oil and wine at the beginning of the year. This time it is John T. Shaffer, inventor of labor saving and waste-preventing devices, of Rochester, N. T., who leads the van with interesting financial statistics of what might have been.
 MT. Shaffer, by the way, was the first man to put wire into glass for practical commercial purposes, thereby causing a saving in bills for broken glass. He also applied the pneumatic cushion 10 our bumpers for the reduction of shock in rebounr, thereby causing a saving in nerves. His great hobby for thirty years has been a study of the conservation of wasted assets of the industrial world. According to data compiled by him, many millions of dollars were simply thrown away during 1910 because we let them dribble through our fingers. He has more statistics on the waste problem than probably any other man in the country. Of the long list of materials most grossly wasted in America corn cobs oily waste. cornstalks, sugareane stalks and waste leather straps are perhaps the most valu- able when scientifically treated for con- servation.
 According to Mr Schaffer, lubricating boxes on railroad car wheels are one great source of unconserved wealth. There are 10,249 462 car wheels in the United States on it's passenger and freight cars and locomotives. They require, on an average, thirty gallons of oil per year. which makes the annual consumption of oil for our car and engine wheels alone 907, SG0 gallons
 To soak up this vast amount of lubri- cator 51. .247, BIO pounds of waste are used, or an average of five pounds to each wheel. A demonstration of saving oil from waste used was made by MT. Schaffer, and from sixty pounds of the oily waste seven gallons and one quart of oil was squeezed
 If on the average. 100 pounds of waste produces eight gallons of oil, the amount possible to save from the oily waste used by the railroads of the United States in one year would reach the total of 4,097, ,7S4 gallons, and at an average price of only 33Is cents per gallon it's cash value would be s1, ,366,595.
 Discarded corncobs are another neglect ed source of wealth. Mir. Schaffer claims that they can be converted into wood block in many forms the most valuable of which are lumber, railroad ties and the basis of many kinds of furniture. He estimates that this years crop of approx lmstely 100000 bushels would produce l,650 O0O,000 bushels of cobs on the basis of b5 per cent cob, and these pressed into boards would yield 412.oO0,OO0 ties, which would be enough for 1S,7SS miles of rail- road. The cobs of the 1910 yield would, if pressed into lumber, make 150 solid piles the size of the Pulitzer building.
 Of ,the neglected and undeveloped sources of the wealth of this country peat : IS foremost Some of the richest peat deposits in the world are around Black lake, St. Lawrence county, New York The great Dismal swamp of Virginia is worth more than many gold mines. Cape Elizabeth, Maine, has a great vein of peat, located three years ago by the United States geological survey There are vast quantities in the Dakotas, Min nesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, the New England states, and their total value at g per ton has been estimated by several experts at. s3S ,00o0. .0o0, ,000- One of the most successful uses to which peat has been put is in the production of gas It has been used by the Notla steel works In Sweden for thirty years for the making of gas and from 13000 to 16000 cubic yards dry Kneaded peat are used for gas- making annually. Peat gas is used in several parts of Europe for glass melting and furnaces.
 A ton of dry peat will yield 43 gallons of alcohol when treated with sulphuric acid and a special yeast, and the alcohol will cost about one-fourth what potato alcohol does. Tar is also a product of peat. The use of peat for fuel is known the world over, and peat bricklets have proved successful in Furope