The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1915-06-26
MAKING SOAP FROM SEWAGE

"
The Actual Results Have Been Ac-
complished By Engineer c. W. Hen
drick.-Announcement by Expert
of Sewerage Commission.-Speci-
mems of Manufactured Article ON
Exhibition-City is Not Going Into
Soap Business, but Enough Fats
Can Be Extracted at Disposal Plant
to Make It Profitable to Municipal
ty-How This and Other By-pro-
ducts of Sewage Have Been Put TO
Practical Use.
Baltimore American, June 7, 1915.
A bar of very fne-scented toilet
soap has been manufactured from fat
substances extracted from the sewage
which passes through the sewer
pipes of the city, and Baltimore is
about to develop a source of revenue
which may run into a big figure. Bal
timore already stands first among the
cities of the world in regard to utiliz-
ing byproducts of sewage disposal
and Calvin w. Hendrick, chief engin-
eer of the Sewage Commission, has
found it possible to reclaim the i'm
mense amount of soap fats which
pass through the sewer pipes and go
to waste. :
Mr.. Hendrick has several samples
on his desk in the office of the Sewer
age Commission in The American
Building. One bar of soap has been
scented and is of a very fine quality.
The other sample is unscented, but is
also a good quality of cleanser. Be
fore the soap was made from the
sewage it was brought up to a point
of absolute purity and then turned in
to it's present shape from the crude
substances of fat taken from the wa
ter.
1t is not probable that the city will
go into the soap manufacturing bust
ness, although this would be possible
at the sewage disposal plant at Back
River. 1t would be a very expensive
undertaking and it is said that the
city would obtain a better revenue
by retaining the fatty substances
and selling it to other soap manufac-
tories. The tests which are being
made by Mr.. Hendrick show that the
retaining of soap substances from
the sewage can be developed to a big
source Of revenue.
Similar tests have been made in
other cities and the progress which
Mr.. Hendrick has met with has elic-
tied the attention of engineers
throughout the country. He has been
working on the soap fat idea for
many months and now that practical
results have been obtained the inter
est has been made more profound and
Mr.. Hendrick is very much elated.
Sewage DISPOSAL is now recogniz-
ed as a scientific problem in the same
class as the making of high-grade
steel rails" Mr.. Hendrick said yes
terday. Formerly the only idea was
to put it underground and dump it in
the nearest stream as quickly as pos
sible. But we look upon the problem
in an entirely different light now.
"The solids are now separated from
the sludge and are being sold for fer
%tilizer, bringing in a material reve-
nue. to the. city. The demand is
greater, however, than our supply.
The disposal of the LIQUID is utilized
in an equally beneficial manner AS
it goes through the pipes it turns
turbine engines, these operate dyna-
mos which furnish light to the plant
and power for pumping. So we have
already light, power, fertilizer and
revenue as sewage byproducts.
GIN continuing my investigation
for other b~yproducts, the soap fat re-
covery idea occurred to me and / at
once started experiments looking to-
ward this end. If anyone will stop
for a moment to think of the immense
amount of soap that is used in Balti-
more every day and realize that this
soap-water eventually finds it's way
into the sewers, it is easy to see how
valuable it's recovery would be. Be-
sides, there are other fats which pass
into the sewers that can be reclaimed
and purified and used to produce as
good a soap for laundry, bath or