Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1917-05-10
CONVERT coRpsEs INTO FERTILIZER.
CHASTITY Work Of Germans uader the
Name Of Eesremy.
Dispatch, May 1st.

uCDV OAS Wv soS~.SS
matically collecting the corpses
of their dead and shipping them
to rendering plants where they
are subjected to a process for re-
covering the oils and fats for use
as fertilizers seems incontestibly
borne out by the latest informa.
ton.
When such stories were first
published they were generally
disbelieved. American consuls for
merly in Germany who arrived
here after their recall said that
the Germans were distilling nitro
glycerine from the corpses and 80
obtaining the essentials OF explo'
sives. 1t now develops that the
German censors are allowing the
German papers to printaccounts
of, and even to boast about, the
efficiency which allows nothing to
be wasted. The Belgian news
paper L'Indepenrence Beige, OF
April 10, prints an accountofthe
industry, in which it says:
"We have long known that the
Germans stripped their dead be-
hind the firing line, fastened them
into bundles of three orfourbod-
les with iron wire and then dis
patched these bundles to the
rear. Until recently trains laden
with the dead were sent to a town
near Liege and a a.pointnear Brus
sells Much surprise was caused
by the fact that of late this traf-
fic has proceeded in the direction
OF GerOlstein, and that on each
wagon was written d. A. V. G.
German science is responsible
for the idea of the formation OF
the Lentsche Abfalls Verwertun-
sgesellschaft, or German Offal
utilization Company, Limited,
a dividend earning company with
a capital OF $240,000. The chief
factory has been constructed L.
600 yards from the railway con-
Meeting st. With, near the Belgi.
an frontier. with Gerolsteln, in
the lonely and little frequented
eifel district southwest of Co.
bentz.
"The factory deals especially
with the dead from the western
front. If the results are as good
as the company hopes another
will be established on the eastern
front. The factory is invisible
, from the railway and is deep in
the forest country. Electrically
charged wires surround it. The
works are about 700 feet long,
10 feet broad and the railway
runs completely around them.
"The trans arrive full OF bod.
les which are unloaded by work.
ers who live at the works. The
men wear oilskin overalls and
masks with mica eyepieces and
are equipped with long hooked
poles. They push the bundles o.
bodies to an endless chain which
picks them up by means ofhooks
at intervals of two feet. The bod
les are transported on an endless
chain into a long, narrow com
partment, where they pass thu
a bath which disinfects them
They 60 through a drying cham
ber and are eticaIly car
risd to a great cauldron, into
which they are dropped by al
apparatus which detatches then
from the chain
"They. remain six to eigh
hours in the, cauldron, wher
they are treated by steam, whicl
breaks them up while they ar
slowly stirred by machinery. Tn
fats are broken into stearine,
form of tallow and oils, which re
uuire to BE- redistilled before the,
can be used. Distillation is car
ried out by boiling the oil Will
carbonate OF soda and some par
Of the by-products resulting
used by the soap makers. The rt
f'ned oil ia sent out in sma