Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-11-28
SALVAGE BY THE ATOM1ZER.

me dlsPosai OF CITY sewage IS becoming a more
and more difficult problem. As cities become more
numerous and more pepnlous, the difficulties of the
problem increase. The country has long since
reached the point where it is no longer safe to use
for domestic Islrposes water taken from any flow
ing stream unless it has first been sub jected to a
purifying process. Surface wells are decidedly TN
safe, and deep wells are not always to be depended
For many years engineers have studied the
problem with a view to devising some plan of dis
posal which would remove the menace and the TN
sightliness Of great streams Of sewage flowing
through the country, and which, at the same time,
would not be of prohibitive cost. Paris. for one
city, has near by its great sewage farms, where the
contents OF the sewers are pumped from time to
time over the land, and the soil thus enriched yields
wonderful crops That practice, however success
tl comm crcially, leaves something to be desired
from the esthetic standpoint.
Walter III. DickeTsuil, Il New York chemist, DE
scribcs machinery which has recently been invested
Tor the recovery Of waste by reducing the liquids
containing it to fine mist, through action similar to
that IN the ordinary vaporizer, and passing the fine
ly divided PARTICLES through heated air which car
ries off the moisture and permits the solids to fall
IN the form of fine powder.
a similar process is used in the preparation of
certain milk powders. 1t is now applied on a large
scale, and with gratifying success; to the recovery
OF valuable material from the washings from fish
oil plants, paper mills, wooden factories, and other
plants where valuable material is otherwise carried
away in the waste waters.
Mr.. Dickersol uses his imagination to some
purpose, for he speaks of the possibility of running
the Chicago river through a machine of this sort
and thus recovering the vast quantity Of valuable
solids which now run TO waste. He says that the
plan would bes entirely feasible if the waste heat
which now escapes from the hues of manufacturing
plants in the business district could be used for
drying operations. ~e q
The commercial uses of the plan at present are
manifold. In paper manufacture, chemists have
found, only about fifty per cent of the wood used i'll
making pulp goes into the paper. The remaining
portion OF the wood passes off i'll the waste waters
from the plant. Analyses showed that these waste
waters contained high proportions of lignin-the
adhesive material in wood. This is not required iii
paper but is very useful for the making of binders
cores tor use in making niolds used i'll f%oundries,
and IN making coal briquettes. The spray drying
process makes the recovery of the lignin a profit
able operation.
terias good for fertilizer and for poultry food.
I Waste waters from wool cleansing plants give
grease, nitrogen and potash. -
Other industrial uses of the process INCLUDE a
new method Of making starch, in that it can be re-
duced to the form Of fine powder, through the atom
izcr and drier. cheaper and faster than BY old meth
DDS OF drying.
Wastes from the sugar mills of Cuba and
Louisiana are being made into stock foods and the
pineapple Juices which heretofore were allowed to
run into the ocean from the calming plants i'll
into fine sugars.
In the manufacture of powdered milk one of
the difficulties encountered has been that Of tenn
p%eratures control. The product often has a burnt or
caramel taste. BY the spray drying process this
has been eliminated. 80