Millions from Waste

by Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

FOOTNOTES:

[1] From engine-room.

[2] From blast-furnaces.

[3] From power-station.

[4] Axle-box waste.

CHAPTER XIV
BY-PRODUCTS FROM THE WASTE-BIN

The exploitation of waste presents grand opportunities for pioneer research and investigation, not only to the chemist, but also to the layman who is fruitful of thought. In the praiseworthy determination to turn residues to advantage there is a tendency to follow the path of least resistance, and to apply them to the fields which most readily suggest themselves. This policy is regrettable. The true scientific solution to the problem lies not so much in the conversion of a refuse into a useful article, as the discovery of the precise province in which it is capable of giving the most lucrative and economic return.

This may appear to be a simple issue, but, as a matter of fact, it is one bristling with perplexities, invariably involving the expenditure of appreciable time and profound study. Some of the difficulties to be overcome are of an extremely abstruse technical order, and so can only be resolved through the indefatigability of the chemist, which goes to prove that the scientist really dominates industry and commerce. This fact was advanced many years ago, but it is only really acknowledged to-day.

A specific trade yields a conspicuous volume of residue of a distinctive character. From its composition and general characteristics it appears to be eminently adapted to a certain duty. But the chemist attached to the industry for which the waste is provisionally ear-marked delves into the problem, only to find that it is totally unfitted for what seemed to be an obvious application. He may even go so far as to assert his doubts as to the material possessing qualifications for any known use, owing to its unfavourable nature, or because application may prove to be too costly. In such an event that residue must remain an apparently redundant product until a possible field for its utilization happens to be found.

A case in point may be cited. In the manufacture of boots for the Services enormous quantities of trimmings accumulated, owing to the specifications relative to the selection of skins for official needs being more rigid than obtains for footwear designed for civilian use. These trimmings proved to be quite useless to the trade, and so endeavour became concentrated upon the discovery of some other attractive utilitarian duty for them.

The main objection to this residue—curried leather—was the grease. It was decided to remove it—a relatively simple and commercially practicable operation. But in solving the one problem another, every whit as perplexing, was precipitated. The degreased leather could be used, but what was to be done with the extracted grease, the contribution of which was imposing? In appearance this grease resembles the dubbin used for dressing footwear. Seeing that it was recovered from new leather the thought was entertained that this grease might be used in lieu of, or at least to supplement the supplies of, the conventional dubbin.

When the chemist took the proposal in hand he speedily shattered all hopes of turning the grease to such account. He produced an analysis which proved that the grease, instead of being a leather preserver as had been anticipated, was really a leather destroyer. The fatty acids were too predominant. Forthwith that grease had to be abandoned as a potential dubbin substitute.

Yet the chances are a thousand to one that the chemist will succeed in indicating a profitable use for this reclaimed fat from unused curried leather, because with war we have acquired wisdom. We are not so ready to throw away a substance just because we happen to be ignorant of an immediate industrial application therefor. Rather are we disposed to put forth a little exertion to strive to adapt, or to create, some useful range of service for it. There are hundreds of heads at work throughout the country attacking just such problems as the recovered grease from leather, and, consequently, from such a distribution and concentration of fertility of thought, it is only reasonable to suppose that such issues will ultimately be fathomed satisfactorily to one and all.

Such close union of brain power and ingenuity is not confined to any one industry. The search for the most promising fields for waste-products is far too fascinating. Even the private member of the community is taking a hand in the great game, and is contributing, in varying degree, to the widespread success which has been, and still is being, recorded.

The rural housewife, in her lonely remote home, contributes to the amenities of country life by bottling her own fruits, following this practice to avoid wastage arising from a glut of produce in her own garden, or in her appreciation of the prolific luscious contributions offered by the wild hedgerow. She knows that the rubber rings with which the bottles are sealed can only be used once. Hitherto, she has always thrown the spent rings into the fire to get rid of them. Now, true housewife that she is, she reasons that surely these rings, while useless to her for fruit bottling, are suitable for some other equally important purpose. Forthwith she makes inquiries to ascertain the quarter in which they are likely to find favour, even if it be only to swell the scrap-rubber melting-pot.

The closely observant student of the countryside, during his autumnal rambles through the copses and spinneys, reflects upon the profusion of the hazel-nut, and the circumstance that this crop is permitted to fall to the ground to rot, or to suffer only partial appropriation by the thrifty squirrel. Surely, he ruminates, such wild fruit possesses some commercial value. The shell can be turned into a high grade charcoal for the laboratory, while the nut itself is rich in oil, which it ought to pay to extract, leaving a residue to offer an excellent winter-feed for cattle. As he ponders upon the problem the fact dawns upon him that the country is rather more disposed to import vast quantities of a similar product, derived from the coco-nut, palm kernels and other exotic fruits, than to exert itself a trifle to turn its domestic resources to account.

It is useless for him to try to rouse the country to realize the wealth it is allowing to slip through its fingers. Any suggestion concerning the recovery of the hazel-nut meets with the instant retort that there is no organization available to conduct the requisite collection of the nuts in due season, and that the end would not justify the means, owing to the time, labour, and expense involved. But when we come face to face with stress such potential wealth of wild rural Britain meets with recognition. Was it not stringency which prompted the harvest of the blackberry crop in 1918 to avert the threatened shortage of jam? Yet the very success which attended the gathering of the blackberry crop, and the zest with which the task was pursued by the juvenile section of the population of the country, should suffice to indicate that the hazel-nut might just as profitably, easily, cheaply, and efficiently be gathered to swell the output of margarine or to be turned to other industrial account. Surely, by the exercise of enterprise and thrift in this direction, we might be able to reduce our expenditure of upwards of £16,000,000—$80,000,000—a year upon oils and materials for the preparation of edible foodstuffs for both man and beast to a certain degree, and thereby foster additional native industries. If further testimony be required to demonstrate the facility with which such a wild home-product might be secured were collection attacked along the proper lines, does not the acquisition of the horse-chestnut crop of the country in 1917 suffice?

The photographer is another lamentable, albeit unconscious, contributor to the great wastage problem. There are hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic amateurs scattered up and down the country. Their consumption of glass negatives and films during the course of the year runs into colossal figures. Yet of the millions of exposures which are made how many can be construed into successes, or, if satisfactory, need be retained for any prolonged period? If preserved the negatives accumulate at an alarming rate, to present exasperating posers in regard to their safe storage.

What becomes of these ruined and superfluous negatives? So far as the films are concerned there is no mystery. They meet an unmourned fate in flames. But the glass negatives are somewhat more troublesome to scrap. Some idea of the immensity of the hoards of negatives possessed by both amateur and professional photographers was revealed during the war. The stupendous production of anti-gas masks was responsible for huge inroads upon our glass manufacturing facilities. When the United States of America entered the arena, and concluded arrangements in this country for the supply of this indispensable article of equipment to the American troops, the demand for suitable glass was forced up to such a level as to tax our producing capacity to a supreme degree.

The glass was required to furnish the eye-pieces to the masks. These were circular in shape, and about 2¹⁄₂ inches in diameter. Each eye-piece was made from two discs of glass which were superimposed, with a thin layer of xylonite between. The last-named was introduced to extend enhanced safety to the fighting men. A ricocheting shell splinter might strike the goggle, shattering the outer layer, but the inner section might possibly escape all injury. Even if the blow were sufficiently severe to smash both sections of a single eye-piece the goggle was not certain to be shivered like the window-pane struck by a stone. The intermediate layer of xylonite nullified the force of the impact to a striking degree, any starring that might be communicated to the inner disc not necessarily being in line with that produced on the outer glass, except, of course, in instances of a direct hit. Moreover, the glass was deprived of its characteristic tendency to splinter under a blow, owing to the intervening thin film of xylonite. Photographers will appreciate the situation from their experience with their glass negatives. When dropped the glass may be smashed into a hundred fragments, but they are invariably held in position by the attached film.

The glass required for this purpose had to be of a certain standard, not exceeding one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness, and free from flaws. The authorities discovered that photographic negatives were made of the very material desired, and realized that here was a peculiar opportunity to remedy the deficiency they were experiencing in regard to the supply of new material from the accepted manufacturing sources. Accordingly, appeal was made to all photographers to turn out their stocks of dismal failures and negatives which need be retained no longer, and to surrender them to the Government.

The demand was certainly pretentious. The eye-pieces were required at the rate of 500,000 a week. As two quarter-plate negatives were required to produce a single goggle—four for each mask—it will be seen that 2,000,000 discarded quarter-plate negatives were sought weekly to keep pace with demand. Of course, larger-sized plates enabled the discs to be cut more economically, but it is the quarter-plate which has the biggest vogue among the huge army of amateur photographic enthusiasts, owing to questions of expense, and so appeal was especially made for plates of this size, in the feeling that here was the richest mine to be tapped.

The negatives were stripped, the emulsion being dissolved from the foundation by the aid of chemicals. In this manner the nitrate of silver content was recovered to be turned to profitable account. The metallic yield from the individual plate is negligible, but, under quantitative treatment, as in this instance, the reclamation was rendered profitable. No attempt was made to exploit the emulsion, but there seems to be no reason why this should not have been utilized.

All trimmings from the glass in cutting the discs were carefully garnered. These formed what is known as “glass cullet,” which was returned to the glass-makers. Being of high quality the cullet commanded a ready sale, the glass obtained from re-melting being used for the fabrication of ink-bottles, salt-cellars, scent-bottles and a hundred and one other articles in urgent request, while an appreciable quantity was again converted into the base for further photographic negatives.

Plates exceeding the officially inscribed thickness of one-sixteenth of an inch were not unceremoniously consigned to the melting-pot, but after being stripped of the emulsion, were sold to the trade for contrivance into the passe-partout photographic mounts so much the vogue to-day among enthusiastic amateur photographers, for picture framing, and numerous other applications for which their dimensions and the quality of the glass rendered them eminently suitable.

Turning to another phase of industry, gloves of every description have soared in price, irrespective of the materials used in their production. Even those contrived from stout textile, which five years ago were readily procurable for a few pence, commanded shillings a pair. In this instance the rise in price was primarily due to the call for vast quantities by the munition factories to extend a measure of protection to the hands of the workers, more especially the women. Toiling Britain became converted to the gauntlet habit, so pronounced across the Atlantic, as a result of war.

As may be imagined, from the character of the work involved, these gloves suffered speedy deterioration, becoming saturated with grease and grime from the handling of metal and the operation of machinery and tools. One firm found itself saddled with 112 lb. of these dirty gloves every week, and the item “glove renewals” consequently grew somewhat impressive. Feeling that this expenditure might be capable of reduction, the firm sought a simple and inexpensive cleaning process for the removal of the grease, to give the gloves a new lease of useful life, the fact having been ascertained that the textile itself suffered little injury as the result of a few days’ wear and tear.

Experiments were made and the requirements of the firm were met very effectively. Not only were the gloves turned out clean and sound, enabling them to be used over and over again until the textile was worn out, but the oil and grease with which they were sodden was recovered. This was cleaned and found serviceable either as “cutting oil” for use with the tools, or as fuel oil for engines of the Diesel type.

I have previously referred to the reclamation of the grease from the leather trimmings accruing from the manufacture of boots for the Services. The trimmings represent pieces of good sound leather, of all shapes and sizes, some of the fragments being of relatively large dimensions. A selection of this waste from two large Northampton factories was secured. It was carefully sorted. The larger pieces were found to be useful for providing patches of varying sizes, capable of profitable use by the trade for the repair of civilian footwear. The larger sections of soleing leather were similarly sorted, having been found adaptable to what is known as “packing-up” in resoleing operations.

By the time this sorting had been completed only shreds and tatters of leather were left. These were degreased for the recovery of the dubbin-like fat already described, and to leave the leather quite clean, soft, and pliable. The fragments from the uppers were again examined, and found capable of further selection to serve as raw material for another industry which was being sorely harassed from the non-availability of the raw leather upon which it was normally dependent. This was the fabrication of the tiny, circular, serrated-edge leather discs or “tufts” used in the making of mattresses for bedding.

This discovery proved to be extremely opportune. Leather had grown so scarce that the normal supplies for this range of duty had been summarily cut off. Yet mattresses cannot be made without these tufts, and the bedding trade had been striving diligently to discover the suitability of certain suggested substitutes, when along came the suggestion that degreased uppers waste from the boot factories might possibly satisfy all demands in this direction.

The ability to exploit the residue in this manner provided the Lord Roberts’ Memorial Workshops with an additional field for activity, of which due advantage was taken. Then it was found that the soleing leather might be put to equally useful service. Many trades were reduced to a quandary from the inability to obtain leather supplies from which to make washers. This waste was found to fill the bill very neatly, because as with boots so with washers—there is nothing like leather. Certainly no substitute therefore has yet been found able to fulfil the required duty so efficiently as the hide from the cow, although there has been no lack of enterprise in this direction. The wisps and scraps of uppers and soles of leather remaining from this selection—mere shavings and shreds—are ground up and converted into fertilizer.

That leather trimmings from the boot factories, hitherto regarded as absolutely useless, are forthcoming in sufficient quantities to fulfil the claims of the tuft and washer trades have been definitely ascertained. The residue is far more imposing than might popularly be conceived, especially in connection with the production of Service boots. Organized collection alone is required to bring this source of possible supply into contact with the market. From three factories alone approximately 2,300 lb. of trimmings are obtainable every week. Multiply this yield by the number of boot factories in the country, and it will be seen that this leather waste could supply adequate material to allow tufts and washers to be turned out in their millions during the course of the year.

Even the manufacture of civilian footwear, especially of feminine fancy boots, yields its quota of waste. But the contribution is not so pronounced as with Service footwear because wider scope exists for working up the surplus. Nevertheless, all waste, no matter what its character may be, has a utilitarian value. The cloth remnants find a ready market for the manufacture of paper. The cork sole cuttings, composed of cork, with cotton and wool attached, are similarly retrieved by the ton. Sorting enables the cork to be recovered for the manufacture of linoleum, the cotton for the paper mills, and the woolly component for shoddy.

Finally we get the floor sweepings—a collection of leather, textiles, and other materials recovered by the aid of the broom. So far as Northampton is concerned—the system probably prevails in other boot-making centres—the practice has been for the municipal authorities to collect these accumulations and to remove them to the dust-destructor for incineration. This was regarded as the simplest, cheapest, and most efficient method for their disposal.

Salvage experts examined these sweepings. They found a far more utilitarian use for this waste. It was worth £2—$10—a ton for conversion into fertilizer. Seeing that about 1,000 tons a year of these sweepings are recoverable from two or three factories it will be seen that we have been content to send £2,000—$10,000—annually up the chimney of a dust-destructor from sheer lack of foresight and the expenditure of a little thought and trouble during the very period when our land is clamouring for nitrogenous fertilizers.

Before leaving the boot trade I might refer to another recent development concerning a certain waste which is of decided interest. Patent cuttings presented quite a different proposal from the odds and ends of ordinary leather. The glossy finish was held to be a drawback, because obviously it would have to be removed before the material could be submitted to any of the purposes described. It was anticipated that such preliminary treatment might prove too expensive to render the recovery worth while. But a simple and cheap process for securing the patent in the form of a fine dust—“curriers’ powder”—was found. This left the leather free for further exploitation. Then the question of turning the reclaimed dust to account arose. Inquiries were made, but there appeared to be no opening for it. It looked as if this curriers’ powder would have to be set on the shelf in company with the recovered grease against a day of brilliant discovery upon the part of the indefatigable chemist.

But a firm specializing in a peculiar phase of activity came along. It was experiencing distinct difficulty in finishing off the work with which it is identified with the requisite degree of satisfaction. Suddenly it had occurred to the technical staff that this fine dust might possibly extricate them from the dilemma with which the firm was confronted. The dust was submitted to trial. The tests are not yet conclusive, but the results so far recorded have fully justified the utilization of this material; certainly the firm in question is disposed to concede its employment as the solution to their difficulty. Should these expectations be fully realized there is every indication that the demand for curriers’ powder will become exceedingly heavy, and from a quarter which will arouse widespread surprise. The consumption in this realm will eclipse that ever likely to be recorded in connection with footwear. While industrial ethics preclude the mention of the precise application in question, it may be added that it is about as closely allied or has as much in common with boots as the use of cheese in the production of steel.

The one overwhelming obstacle to the commercial utilization of waste is organized and cheap segregation and collection. This difficulty is aggravated when the refuse in question happens to be in a combined form, that is to say, when two or three—perhaps more—widely divergent substances are associated to produce the one article. Possibly only one of the constituents possesses a known market, or it may so happen that each of the component substances has a distinct market but only in its individual form.

As a rule any waste of this character from industry is regarded with contempt by the approved specialists in waste collection—the itinerant merchant or the marine store dealer. Both these traders prefer to conduct their operations with approved straight and unadulterated materials. If the waste happens to be of the combined character, they realize that they must expend a certain amount of time and labour in its separation before carrying out its sale to advantage. As they are not inclined towards such exertion they refuse to accept the residue.

It is a foolish policy and one which directly reacts against their own interests. Such combined waste can generally be procured at a trifling figure. The factory in which it accrues cannot afford the labour or time necessary to bring about the separation of the constituents. Yet when separation is completed each class of material at once attains its true value. Resolution of combined waste into its components does not involve any skill, while it is immaterial how roughly the task is performed. The merchants to whom allusion has been made will also spurn waste of undoubted market value if it has been dressed or impregnated with another substance. They will jump at rags no matter how soiled and loathsome their appearance. They know the dirt can be removed readily and cheaply, but they never pause to reflect that substances used for impregnating textiles may be eliminated just as easily. Moreover, unlike dirt, the recovered dressing may possess a distinct commercial value in itself.

Waxed flannel is a recognized commodity, and, in fabricating articles therefrom, appreciable quantities of trimmings are obtained. One firm was in a quandary as to the disposal of this waste. No rag-and-bone merchant would touch it. The firm was quite prepared to sell the refuse at a low figure, fully confident that it could be turned to some profitable purpose. The material was investigated, and the separation of the wax from the woollen base was found to offer no supreme or expensive difficulty. Yet the extraction of the wax made all the difference in the intrinsic worth of the waste. At that time the de-waxed flannel fetched 85s.—$21.25—a hundredweight, while the wax, which was a high-grade product, was also of distinct value because it was available for re-use.

A similar problem cropped up in connection with oil-skin trimmings resulting from the manufacture of garments and other articles. The factory concerned stated that the waste was somewhat pronounced from the magnitude of its business, but what to do with it was beyond their knowledge. Experiment proved the separation of the oil to be an easy matter, and so the release of the cotton textile was secured. In the degreased form the trimmings fetched from 50s. to 60s.—$12.50 to $15—a hundredweight at the time, while the oil was also a valuable by-product and was readily absorbed by industry at a favourable figure.

It is a moot point whether any other textile enters so extensively into industry in some form or other as cotton. Consequently cotton refuse is recoverable in immense quantities from the factories and workshops where this textile is converted from the piece into garments and other utilitarian articles. These trimmings for the most part are unsoiled, but equally imposing are the contributions from the domestic rag-bag and the refuse bins of other trades, whence the residue is forthcoming in a more or less soiled condition. But a simple cleaning process renders it suitable for further use. Should all possible or promising applications be exhausted to no effect then this residue can always be absorbed by the paper-mill. The paper-making industry may truthfully be described as the salvor’s sheet-anchor; certainly there is no excuse for consigning any cotton fabric to the flames while the paper-maker’s craft flourishes.

But in the majority of instances this waste, as already mentioned, is associated with some other substance, for the simple reason that it constitutes an ideal inexpensive base, or foundation, for carrying the medium desired. Take the rubber mackintosh sheeting as a case in point. Here the cotton sheet foundation is impregnated with rubber to secure the desired waterproofness of the material. But the trimmings need only to be submitted to a solvent treatment to bring about the removal of the rubber, when the cotton base at once becomes released for the paper-maker. The rubber is also retrieved to advantage because it is quite pure. Emery cloth, which has been discarded as too worn for further use, may be similarly treated, the recovery in this instance being of triple value when conducted upon a large scale, comprising respectively the emery powder, the oil, the fabric base, and possibly the metallic dust.

The extraction of nicotine from tobacco is a flourishing industry. This trade has been built upon the commercial utilization of waste, the raw material comprising tobacco declared as unsuitable for the generally recognized commercial applications. The nicotine is extracted for the preparation of insecticides and other commodities for which the juice is eminently adapted.

To obtain the nicotine the discarded tobacco is placed in linen bags. Subsequent treatment follows certain lines. As may be imagined, owing to the extremely oleaginous or gummy character of the juice and grease, these bags become clogged during the extracting process. In course of time they become so saturated as to be unfit for further use, not through any failure of the actual fabric, but because the fine mesh of the material has become choked. Owing to their admitted repulsive character the bags were thrown away or burned.

One firm specializing in this industry accumulated soiled bags to the extent of approximately 2,000 per month. It had never contemplated the feasibility of subjecting them to any treatment, probably because new bags were relatively cheap. But, as a result of the national demand for linen for more vital purposes, and the exceeding scarcity of the basic raw material, which had the effect of sending the price of flax from £54 to £280—$270 to $1,400—per ton, the idea of recovering the bags assumed more pressing significance. A sample was taken and submitted to a degreasing process. It was discovered that the combined action of steam and centrifugal action speedily separated the clogging gummy constituents from the fibres of the linen. When examined after treatment the bags were found to be quite free from every trace of the nicotine, and it would have been difficult for the uninitiated ever to have identified them with the industry of nicotine extraction. The tobacco juice was recovered in appreciable bulk, but what was far more important was the reclamation of the bags. In the cleansed condition they were worth from £20 to £40—$100 to $200—per ton.

To enumerate all the industries from which odds and ends of cotton-waste are derivable would demand too much space. There are stalks and ends of plumes from the fabrication of artificial feathers, tangled bundles of loose tatters, fragments of silk in a thousand and one forms, mercerized and natural, and so on. The yield from a single factory or workroom may be trifling, perhaps, while there is the rag-merchant to hand to take delivery of this residue. A firm may readily concede the preservation of its waste until it assumes a formidable bulk to be more troublesome than it is worth, as well as littering the factory or occupying space which can be put to more valuable account. So it generally throws the residue into the furnace, but the utilization of such waste as fuel represents the most costly method of disposal which could be practised.

The losses arising from such action are immense and deplorable, more especially when it is remembered how easily and readily they might be avoided. It is somewhat consoling to reflect that, to-day, despite the many perplexities involved, the salvage of this refuse is being attacked along serious lines. Factories and workshops are beginning to appreciate that these residues can always command good money from the pulp-makers, the result being that much less residue is being lost through the too handy furnace than formerly. Parings from ladies’ velour hats, felt trimmings, odd pieces from billiard-table cloths—woollen fragments in a thousand different forms are now finding profitable utilization. All such waste is being snapped up greedily by the shoddy mills. During the war some of this waste was somewhat freely absorbed for carrying out elaborate camouflage schemes to screen the movements and disposition of troops, guns, and transport from the prying eyes of the enemy, but to-day it is all being released for the reproduction of clothing material, blankets, and other articles innumerable—all of far-reaching import to the community.

My Lady, when she contemptuously discards her straw hat, does so without venturing a thought as to its possible further value, except, perhaps, as a lighter for the kitchen fire. But the abandoned headgear, together with the straw refuse plaiting from the factory, now possesses a market apart from that for making paper. It is being used extensively for stuffing the backs and seats of cheap furniture. During the period of war this waste was found suitable for another mission and one which still obtains. This was as a substitute for wood-wool, which virtually disappeared from the market. Wood-wool is prepared from wet wood, and, naturally, a certain period of time must elapse to allow it to dry before it can be set to its designed service. When wood was cheap and plentiful this delay presented no handicap, manufacture being continuous, but during hostilities wood became counted among the luxuries of commercial life. It was far too valuable to be shredded into wool, except in severely limited quantities, to act as packing.

As a result of the experiment induced by stringency, plait from old hats, and the factory waste, were found to be quite as good as the wood-wool in this capacity. The colour of the straw, faded or otherwise, constitutes no disadvantage. Consequently, to condemn the abandoned summer friend of the head to serve as a fire-lighter represents approximately its least economical application, although it may come as an equal surprise to learn that the perfect dream of the milliner’s creative faculty may reappear as the protective covering to chocolate and confectionery during transit from manufactory to the retailer in its familiar wooden box.

Discarded umbrella coverings may not appear to possess any further attraction except to the paper-maker. But the waste-expert declares otherwise. A flaw in the silk covering or possible damage wrought while attaching it to the frame no longer constitutes a passport for the material to the dust-bin or flames. Finger-stalls and eye-shades may be contrived from this waste. For making eye-shades it is only necessary to cut a piece of cardboard, likewise retrieved from the waste-bin, to the desired size and shape. Then, by the aid of a little glue the silk section cut from the abandoned umbrella covering may be fastened to the cardboard base.

During the course of the year thousands of tons of string are made in these islands. What becomes of it all? One industry utilizing this material found itself saddled with about ten tons of odd lengths, which, thrown into the waste-bin, became a tangled mass. The bewildering array was examined by an expert. He found that whereas some of the pieces were of only a few inches, others ran to three, four and even more feet in length. He contemplated the pile and concluded that it would never pay to unravel the tangle. It was a task calling for weeks of labour and infinite patience.

His first inclination was to hand over the bulky pile to the paper-mills to be pulped. But further consideration of the quantity of the long lengths of string in that junk heap prompted an alternative. String, neatly prepared in large balls, is furnished to prisons to serve as raw material to the prisoners engaged in the overhaul and repair of bags. Why not send this collection of waste to the penitentiaries? There the time occupied in unravelling the tangled jumble is of minor importance. Prison labour does not count, while the task is no less fruitful than that of picking oakum. Forthwith the string was forwarded to these establishments, and was found to meet the purpose very satisfactorily. Not only did this waste release an appreciable quantity of new string for more valuable applications, but it also enabled an appreciable saving in cost of bag repairs to be recorded, while the work was just as neatly and efficiently fulfilled with the odd lengths as with new string.

In another case a farmer of a thrifty turn of mind saved all the odd lengths of binder twine accruing from the use of the self-binder to harvest his crops. When untying the sheaves for threshing he threw the lengths into a bin, and in this way amassed quite a respectable pile. It was promptly acquired by paper-makers who paid him 25s.—$6.25—a hundredweight. This satisfactory result should prompt all our farmers to exercise like economy in this connection. They would find it to their financial advantage to do so. The annual consumption of binder twine in these islands runs into big figures. In 1917 we imported 115,086 hundredweights for which we paid £417,168—$2,085,840—while in the previous year the figure was 212,639 hundredweights valued at £550,104—$2,750,520.

To assist in the harvesting of the 1918 grain crop the Food Production Department purchased 20,000 tons of this apparently insignificant material to ensure farmers receiving adequate supplies. When the grain is taken in hand to be threshed the recovery of this waste should be an easy and simple matter. It is only necessary to provide a few sacks to receive it. Even at 12s. 6d.—$3.12—a hundredweight it would prove a profitable by-product to the farmer, and enable him to recoup a certain proportion of its outlay upon this item, while it would tangibly assist another industry. The recovery of 75 per cent. of the above-mentioned 20,000 tons, provided through the instrumentality of the Food Production Department, would have represented approximately £140,000—$700,000—and have contributed towards the production of 2,500 to 4,000 tons of paper.

To indicate how organized collection influences the value of so-called waste and its economical use, the experience of an importing house in the City of London deserves narration. This firm accumulated an appreciable quantity of the special packing paper with which the wooden cases are lined. This paper is very tough and is strengthened with thick cotton netting of open mesh, while it is also waterproofed. The firm did not know what to do with the waste, but was reluctant to turn it over to the paper-maker. Inquiries were conducted, to result in the discovery that a similar paper was used for packing motor tyres. Thereupon a motor tyre dispatch firm was approached with the suggestion that it might find it profitable to acquire this residue. The tyre-packers were buying the paper specially manufactured for wrapping purposes, but test revealed that this packing case lining was equally adapted to the duty. Thereupon it expressed its readiness to take over all the residue from the importing house at 25s.—$6.25—a hundredweight. Unfortunately, in this instance, the offer could only be met immediately with some 56 lb., but if all the firms importing from the United States and other countries were to conserve the paper lining to the cases coming into their hands, and to dispose of it to other trades for which its peculiar construction renders it specially suitable, there would be a material reduction in the strain imposed upon our domestic paper-mills, while a proportionate quantity of this indispensable commodity would be released for other applications.

We are all familiar with the little disc of metal having a bent-over corrugated rim and a cork lining which has displaced the glass stopper and driven-in cork for sealing bottles. It is commercially known as the “Crown Cork.” A slight angular prise and the cap flies off. It is one of those little inventions which have proved a great boon to many trades, especially to those identified with the bottling of beers, mineral and drinking waters. Incidentally it has proved a great money-maker.

An observant mind discovered that the tiny cap suffers little or no damage from its summary removal. Why should it not be used again? So he reasoned, and conducted experiments to establish the feasibility of such a suggestion. He has succeeded completely in his task. By a simple, inexpensive process, which he has devised, these crown corks can again be rendered as serviceable for their designed purpose as new corks. As a result of his brilliant ingenuity, and saving turn of mind, this observant and practical waste exploiter is readily disposing of the renovated article at eightpence per gross—16 cents—which is 300 per cent. below the price of the new article.

That inventiveness in its application to economy is fascinating and profitable is demonstrated very convincingly by the array of contribution of sound practicable ideas which are being contributed towards the “save the waste” problem. The potato-peelings attracted one economist, who with this apparently useless material and no other contrived an attractive biscuit. Another experimentor, securing a few ounces of fat from a whale, which had been cast upon the beach to the peril of the residents in the vicinity, converted them into a solid white block somewhat reminiscent of candied sugar, by submitting the fat to the hardening process. Another effort represents a bold attempt to turn the spent tea-leaves to economical account. In this instance this waste was mixed with another residue—sawdust—and some inexpensive, readily combustible agent, such as naphthalene, also waste. The mass was then pressed, and offered a presentable and effective cheap fire-lighter.

Within the space of this volume it is impossible to exhaust the many efforts which are being made to turn apparent waste into something useful. Sufficient has been narrated to indicate that there is no limit to such manifestations of ingenuity. Matter is indestructible. Properly handled, it can be used over and over again. Now that the ball of economy has been set rolling in grim earnest, strenuous endeavours are being made by the thrifty and provident to redeem the English-speaking race from the indictment of being woefully extravagant, with which it has been freely assailed for so many years.

CHAPTER XV
THE LIFTING-MAGNET AS A WASTE DEVELOPING FORCE

Waste is precarious to handle. The very nature of the material demands that it shall be worked up in the most economical manner. Under the fickle influences normally prevailing upon the market, the margin between profit and loss may suffer such attenuation from inefficient exploitation as to submerge the factor of profit, thus endangering the very practice of utilizing the residue. It is immaterial whether time or labour be the adverse circumstance. The one influence can be quite as ruinous as the other. Should the cumulative effect of the two forces be experienced simultaneously, then the results are almost certain to be devastating and prompt in their action. Consequently, to secure the uttermost benefits attainable it is imperative that the most economical and efficient methods should be employed.

This is particularly the case in the iron and steel trades. The competition between the various nations in this manufacturing field is excitingly keen. It must not be forgotten that, in this industry, waste plays a very prominent part as a raw material. It may be tins rescued from the domestic dust-bin, turnings from the lathe, a worn-out locomotive boiler, or the battered hulk of a steamship snatched from the jaws of the hungry seas through the ingenuity of the salvage engineer.

In the handling of scrap and junk the designing engineer has been strikingly ingenious, resourceful, and free with his expressions of resource. The cranes and other mechanical handling devices, which he has evolved, compel attention for the simple reason that they have been introduced to secure a reduction in the cost of moving the material. In this direction finality is impossible of attainment; the necessity to reduce the cost factor is so urgent and continuous. Creative effort, thus fostered, has achieved a distinct triumph during the past few years. It has evolved a new system of dealing with iron and steel, especially the waste, which is rapidly displacing all other methods which hitherto have held undisputed sway. I refer to the lifting-magnet.

It was a British mind which first conceived the idea of harnessing the magnet to the wheels of the iron industry. Sir William Sturgeon saw no reason why the toy of our childhood days, the pin-attracting properties of which extended us infinite delight and provoked indescribable wonder, should not be devoted to the movement of ponderous masses of steel. So he made the experiment. But his noteworthy effort proved only partially successful. It did not fulfil expectations, not because the designer was wrong in his deductions, but because he conducted the evolution along fallacious lines. But his failure set men thinking. They followed up his reasonings and discovered why he did not record success. The British pioneer had been content to accept the magnet’s familiar form and to reproduce it upon a larger scale to fulfil his objective. This was why he failed. For such as application as he had in his mind’s eye a modification in design was imperative. The German and American experimentors, who followed in his footsteps, quickly realized this circumstance and accordingly abandoned the traditional horse-shoe form for a magnet of flat drum-like shape.

In this modernized and materially changed form the lifting-magnet met with instant success. The Germans were the first to recognize its possibilities, and accordingly developed and popularized its utilization in accordance with their characteristic organized methods, with the result that it was not long before all the leading iron- and steel-works of the country were equipped therewith to their distinct commercial advantage.

So far as America and Britain, the home of the lifting-magnet, have been concerned, progress has been slow and uneventful. The Germans set out to reap advantage from our manufacturing apathy, and to a certain degree succeeded. It remained for the war, with its drain upon cheap labour on the one hand and the necessity to speed up and to increase output on the other, which compelled us to regard the lifting-magnet with enhanced favour. This tendency was accentuated by the urgent requests circulated far and wide to save all waste metal and to turn it over to the country for the production of munitions. In this manner vast quantities of waste metal of every conceivable description were released, which, in turn, led to a demand for handling appliances. Under the conditions which obtained it was imperative that this potential raw material should be handled with the utmost economy, both of time and labour, but native ingenuity had nothing at its command to compare with the lifting-magnet in this connection. Those firms which had been sufficiently enterprising to equip themselves with the German appliance found themselves in an overwhelming superior position, while their lifting-magnets paid for themselves over and over again in the course of a single year.

The national deficiency in supply and its far-reaching adverse effects were remedied through the combined enterprise and initiative of a young electrical engineer and a British manufacturer. The former had followed the German developments very closely and had discovered that, notwithstanding their extravagant claims, these appliances really fell somewhat short of the mark in point of efficiency and economy in operation. Fortified with this knowledge he had promptly designed an appliance of this character, in which the obvious Teuton defects were eliminated, thereby giving a lifting-magnet which represented a decided advance upon the best which Germany could offer.

The Pickett-West lifting-magnet, so named after its designer and manufacturer respectively, is one fully complying with traditional British standards of production, while it also possesses many novel features which have already emphasized their value. It is built along robust lines, so that it completely fulfils the conditions peculiar to its field of application. Moreover, its design can be modified within wide limits to meet the individual requirements of the service for which it is intended, one distinctly ingenious feature being the model fitted with moving fingers, each of which constitutes a magnet in itself, and wherewith the magnet is able to exercise the maximum magnetic gripping power upon the article for the movement of which it is being used.

Without entering into a technical description of this apparatus it may be said to comprise, in its simplest form, an inverted dish with a central pole-piece. Round this pole-piece is built a coil composed of alternate layers of copper of substantial dimensions and insulating material. The coil is enclosed within the inverted dish and a face-plate is bolted in position. Thus the coil which occupies the whole of the case, with a special insulating compound run in under pressure to occupy all the vacant space such as corners and interstices, is completely encased and safe from tampering. Suitable terminals are fitted and are coupled up to a flexible electric cable through which the current is led to energize the coil and to impart the requisite magnetic energy to the lifting face-plate. When the coil is active, naturally the magnet will readily attract any ferrous metal which it may chance to approach, or with which it may come into contact, and this will continue to cling to the face of the magnet until the current is switched off. The magnet is slung upon the hook of the crane either by chains, or bars forming a tripod terminating in a link. It is applicable to any type of crane, whether it be of the locomotive, jib or derrick type or overhead travelling system, and with equal facility.

The foregoing description is merely a bald description of the lifting-magnet in its simplest form. To secure the highest efficiency many perplexing technical issues had to be resolved. The magnet is necessarily of impressive dimensions and weight, circular or rectangular in regard to the form of the face-plate according to the nature of the work to be fulfilled, and ranging from 24 to 62 inches in diameter. The most popular size is that measuring 52 inches across the face. Massive construction is inevitable to enable the appliance to withstand the rough wear and tear, as well as unceremonious handling, to which it is exposed in the average iron-works by indifferently skilled labour, or to meet the conditions of piece-work when operations are necessarily conducted at relatively high pressure by the men who are bent upon the consummation of one end—the maximum return in the form of wages for the work accomplished.

Robust construction involves weight. Precisely what this means may be gathered from the fact that the German 52-inch lifting-magnet weighed 3 tons, whereas its British rival, to which I am referring, weighs only 2¹⁄₂ tons and has a 20 per cent. greater lifting capacity, despite the reduction in weight of the magnet itself. The magnet in question will lift from 900 to 33,600 pounds—even more—according to the character of the material to be handled, the lower figure applying to sheet-iron, scrap, and bolts, while the other extreme refers to heavy solid steel ingots or armour-plate.

Precisely why the lifting-magnet should have taken so long to establish its virtues, both in this country and the United States of America, is somewhat inscrutable, especially in the latter country which, as a rule, is disposed to introduce time-and labour-saving appliances with alacrity. No matter from what point of view it may be regarded, it represents the biggest time-and labour-saver as well as money-maker yet introduced into the steel industry.

One reason advanced for its comparatively slow adoption is rather interesting. It was averred that to the men, accustomed as they were to seeing loads slung by chains, the sight of a mass of steel clinging to the face of the magnet by a force which they could not understand verged on the uncanny. They knew little or nothing about magnets except in the form of a toy, and could not understand that sufficiently attractive effort could be exerted to keep the mass adhering to the flat face of metal. The fact that the moment the current was switched off released the load was something equally beyond their comprehension. Forthwith they arraigned the lifting-magnet as dangerous, and, while not openly condemning its use, declined to work in its vicinity. Whether this was so or not has never been fathomed, but it is generally observable that men working with such an appliance observe a wise discretion, and refrain from working or moving beneath it. This very respect for the apparatus has achieved one distinctly valuable result: accidents are few and far between, even in America, in which country respect for human safety is declared to be at zero, where the handling of huge masses of metal is conducted by the lifting-magnet.

But, eliminating the psychological effect upon the workmen, it is to be feared that employers were slow to visualize its advantages. Certainly in Britain there are many employers, who, notwithstanding the impressive array of figures advanced in its favour, and who have been brought face to face with the economies it is able to effect, still cling tenaciously to antiquated practices.

So far back as 1911 Mr. H. F. Stratton, in drawing the attention of the American Foundrymen’s Association to the possibilities of the lifting-magnet, presented some illuminating figures. At that time the American steel industry was handling 10,000,000 tons annually by this system and thereby was saving over £200,000—$1,000,000—a year. So far as scrap was concerned he emphasized the opportunity it presented in this field, because, out of an annual melt of 6,000,000 tons of pig-iron and scrap, from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 was represented by scrap-iron and steel.

The American railways were among the first to appreciate the possibilities of the system. The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad introduced the idea for handling scrap and iron in 1909. Up to that time all scrap had been handled by hand, the cost in and out ranging from 30 to 35 cents—15d. to 17¹⁄₂d. per ton—which, according to the authority cited, could be accepted as applicable to all the railways following such a practice, and to record which figure, be it noted, demanded excellent arrangements and efficient organization. Upon the introduction of the lifting-magnet these costs were immediately cut down to 10 to 12 cents—5d. to 6d.—per ton, in and out, inclusive of every expense, the figure for the actual sorting being only 4 to 7 cents—2d. to 3¹⁄₂d.—per ton. The authorities of this railway stated that unsorted scrap could be unloaded by means of the magnet for 2 to 5 cents—1d. to 2¹⁄₂d.—per ton, while, if the scrap were sorted, the cost came out ¹⁄₂ to 1¹⁄₂ cents—¹⁄₄d. to ³⁄₄d.—per ton! Similar work conducted by hand labour, according to the previous practice, cost about three times as much.

That the experience of this one railroad was not isolated was proved by the experience of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, which supplied Mr. Stratton with the following comparative figures for other operations incidental to the conduct of its work:—

Loading locomotive tyres by hand	17 cents (8¹⁄₂d.)
” ” ” crane with chains	8 ” (4d.)
” ” ” ” magnet	4 ” (2d.)
” heavy casting by crane with chains	20 ” (10d.)
” ” ” ” magnet	3 ” (1¹⁄₂d.)
” ” ” hand	almost impossible.

It will be observed that the handling charges by the magnet were one-half of those by the crane with chains in connection with the locomotive tyres, and one-seventh in the case of the heavy castings, while the advantage over manual effort in the case of the first-named was no less than 32·5 per cent. Little wonder that, during the past nine years, the utilization of the lifting-magnet in connection with the handling of iron and steel in the United States has advanced by huge strides. To-day it constitutes an integral part of the wrecking equipment of every leading American railroad. After the large debris has been cleared up, the lifting-magnet is swept over the ground to pick up nuts, bolts, nails, screws, and any other odds and ends of a ferrous nature which have escaped recovery by the conventional methods.

So far as these islands are concerned, considerable progress has been made during the past five years in regard to its adoption. Extended use has not been confined to the handling of metal in our steel-works, but for the reclamation of iron and steel cargoes which were lost as a result of the German submarine activity. Its employment in the salvage field was suggested as the result of the sinking of a barge carrying ingots of very special steel sunk at the entrance to a port on the East Coast. Although the wreck lay in relatively shallow water, it was speedily discovered that salvage by the orthodox methods would prove somewhat uncertain, owing to the awkward position of the sunken barge and the difficult tidal and other conditions.

The possibility of retrieving the valuable steel by magnet was broached to Mr. F. N. Pickett, the inventor of the British lifting-magnet, to which I have referred. A certain doubt upon the point existed in official circles from the knowledge that the German appliance could not be employed in such duty, owing to the coil not being impervious to water, which of course nullifies the utilization of the electric current. But the British magnet, being built upon different lines, is watertight, and so the designer expressed complete confidence in his apparatus being suited to the task. The magnet was secured, and divers went down to blow open the side of the barge to permit the magnet to reach the cargo.

The magnet was lowered and was found to work with as much ease and simplicity as under conventional conditions in the steel-works. It was plunged into the hold of the invisible craft, and subsequently the sea-bed on either side was swept therewith. So successfully and completely did it fulfil its unusual task that every ingot was retrieved, and that within a very short time. The sinking of the barge occasioned little damage beyond a slight delay in the delivery of the material, which was valued at £150—$750—per ton. True, the barge was lost, but that was an insignificant disaster, and but poor recompense for the expenditure by the enemy of a torpedo costing possibly £1,000—$5,000.

The success of the magnet in this instance has been responsible for its utilization in other fields of submarine endeavour. A freighter was sunk with a valuable steel cargo aboard. The vessel was examined and found to have settled upon an even keel. Divers descended and opened the hatchways, while sections of the decks were cut away to expose the cargo. The magnet was then brought into action, and the cargo unloaded as readily as if moored alongside the dock. This success in the open sea has been responsible for the salvage of similar cargoes which have been lost around our coasts. So far as the Pickett-West lifting-magnet is concerned, there is no obstacle to its use in this field so long as sufficient swing can be imparted to the suspended apparatus to ensure sweeping of the wreck, and up to the depth corresponding to the pressure of the insulation in the coil drum. Seeing that this is introduced at a pressure of 120 pounds to the square inch, the lifting-magnet can be safely used in water up to a depth of approximately 250 feet without the insulation collapsing under the imposed water-pressure, and this is a depth far beyond that at which a diver can work. But, taking the wrecks lying within water accessible to the diver, appreciable recovery should be possible.

It is generally conceded, in view of the success which has already been achieved, that there is a promising future for the apparatus in this field so long as it is designed and constructed along correct lines. The cost of operations will be reduced therewith very materially, and the strain imposed upon human effort as represented by the diver will be decreased very markedly. Instead of salvage operations being confined to an hour or two daily, according to the velocity of the tides and currents, it will be possible to continue work during the round twenty-four hours so long as the weather is propitious. The operator will be able to sweep the wreck from end to end, as well as to scavenge the sea-bed by swinging his magnet, confident in the knowledge that magnetic metal will be trapped in the process for haulage to the surface. Even if ships should prove impossible of recovery intact there is nothing to prevent their reclamation piecemeal. Dynamite will reduce the wreck to scrap of weight and size within the lifting capacity of the apparatus, and at the price obtaining for such junk the expedient should prove profitable. So we should be able to retrieve a certain and imposing proportion of the wanton waste incurred by the ruthless attacks of the enemy upon our sea-going traffic.

It has even been suggested that the magnets might be employed to salvage many of the German submarines which we have sunk, more particularly the coastal type of craft. These were relatively small, and for the most part were sunk in comparatively shallow water. In the water-logged condition the dead load to be handled is approximately 800 tons. If desired these craft could be lifted to the surface intact, or, if in pieces, retrieved in sections for sale as scrap. The inventor has elaborated his plans, which involve the suitable disposition of a certain number of magnets over the sunken submarines. He suggests that eight magnets would be adequate for the task. Seeing that each magnet has a pulling power of 250 pounds per square inch of its surface, the aggregate haul which could be brought to bear upon the submerged craft simultaneously by the eight magnets would be at least 1,920 tons, or twice the total weight of the submarine. With such a lifting effort available it should be possible to drag the wreck from even the extremely tenacious North Sea mud. The question arises, although recovery of such waste is admitted to offer every attraction, as to whether the German submarines are worth the trouble, even if they be sold as scrap. In view of the price which the surrendered boats realized this is extremely doubtful, although experienced salvage engineers admit that even if prevailing scrap prices were obtained the venture would prove profitable, that is in the strict commercial sense.

As a scavenger for magnetic metals the lifting-magnet cannot be excelled. It is far more thorough than hand-labour, and will fulfil its mission more completely than any other mechanically-operated device to this end. Lowered to twenty-four inches of the ground it may be swept, or swung, to and fro in the certain knowledge that any stray scraps of iron and steel will readily jump the intervening space in response to the strong magnetic influence exerted. In this manner a wide area can be completely cleaned of all stray iron and steel fragments, much of which would otherwise be lost within a few moments.

The recognition of the peculiar qualities of magnetic attraction has led to an interesting development which should prove capable of extensive application and to distinct commercial advantage in our steel-works. As is well known, the slag is run off separately to be dumped. But this slag often carries an appreciable quantity of metal in a divided state. Hitherto this has been wasted, but it has been found that, if the slag be broken up, by the aid of a magnet and “skull-cracker” ball, and the magnet be swept over the mass, that the fugitive metal can be retrieved and in sufficient quantities as to render the operation profitable.

For the movement of iron and steel in factories it is difficult to excel. A consignment of kegs of nails, bolts, nuts, screws, or some other small articles requires removal to or from store, or to vehicle. Under normal conditions the practice would be, either to stack them on trolleys or to pack and sling them from cranes, the loading constituting the adverse factor from the appreciable time it takes. If the magnet be used no such preliminaries of any description are necessary. The magnet is merely lowered, the current switched on, and the next moment as many loaded kegs as can squeeze themselves upon the face of the magnet may be lifted. The attractive effort is sufficient to exert its influence through the covers of the kegs to act upon the metal within. Moreover, if the kegs be small, more than one layer will be found possible of removal at a time, inasmuch as the depth to which the magnetic influence can be exerted—“digging” effort as it is called—has been found to be equal to the diameter of the magnet face.

For handling metal waste in the form of turnings or swarf it is far cheaper and quicker than any other known process. When the magnet is dropped upon a pile of such residue and is then raised, it will tear away a huge chunk of the heap—a ton or more of tousled and ragged ribands of steel jostling and clinging tightly to one another and to the magnet-face like a swarm of bees to the branch of a tree. It will successfully handle, and for no heavier cost, swarf which defies handling by any other means, except at prohibitive expense. At a certain steel-works in the North of England ten tons of matted steel turnings were permitted to stand for several weeks in a railway truck in an open siding. When it was decided to unload the vehicle the turnings were found to have rusted and to have settled down into as tightly packed a heap as could be imagined. The normal practice was for men to shovel such material with their forks into the charging boxes, but they found that they could not force their tools into this formidable heap. The mass was surveyed and the hopelessness of coping promptly therewith was admitted. Under manual labour the job would occupy several days, even if it could be successfully handled at all, upon which point considerable doubt prevailed.

It was decided to try the magnet. It was brought along on its traveller and lowered into the truck. The winding drum was set going, and there was a fearful snapping and snarling. The magnet refused to release its hold, while the metal, being tightly jammed and packed, offered a stiff resistance to the irresistible attraction of the magnet. But, within a few moments, the magnet tore itself free with some 3,360 lb. of the tangled rusted steel clinging to its face. Within six minutes, and by half-a-dozen lifts, the vehicle was cleared of its ten tons of scrap.

While the circular form of magnet is that generally favoured, variations are made to comply with different requirements. Some articles, such as steel rails, pipes and iron rods, from their distinctive shape, only present an extremely limited surface upon which the magnetic pull can be exerted. As a rule, to enable such articles to be handled with efficiency and speed, two magnets, rectangular in form, and spaced a short distance apart, are used. The magnets are coupled together, but maintained a specific distance apart by spacing bars, while they work in unison. While the area available for contact upon each magnet is somewhat reduced, as compared with the circular type, this deficiency is counterbalanced by the ability to apply the magnetic lifting effort at two points.

It is doubtful whether the true money-saving possibilities of the lifting-magnet are really appreciated. The initial outlay may appear heavy—in the case of the British magnet to which I have referred it ranges from £150 to £600—$750 to $3,000—according to dimensions, face-form and lifting capacity—but this expense is readily recouped. The lifting-magnet is not only a time-saver but it enables given work to be accomplished with fewer men. In some instances this displacement of labour has attained striking proportions. At one steel-works a lifting-magnet of 52-in. diameter was installed at a cost of £400—$2,000. It is employed for handling pig-iron, and in this work has dispensed with fifty men. The saving in wages, which its introduction has rendered possible, sufficed to defray the capital cost of the apparatus during the first three months of its use.

The results recorded at another establishment are equally impressive. A 36-in. magnet was acquired, and for one specific duty—loading trucks—was employed for a total of twenty hours during the month. Previous to its acquisition this work was carried out by manual labour, and it used to demand the combined efforts of ten men for ten hours to load the vehicle, the cost being £4—$20. With the magnet the truck is now loaded in two hours and at a cost of 8s.—$2—this figure being inclusive of all charges—electric current, depreciation, interest, labour, etc. In the course of the year the magnet puts in 240 hours truck-loading, the number of trucks dealt with during this time being 120. The saving effected by the utilization of the magnet is thus £3 12s.—$18—per truck or £437—$2,185—per year. Seeing that the magnet at the time of its installation cost £150—$750—it will be seen that it pays for itself approximately three times over in the course of each twelve months, and that upon one single range of duty for an insignificant period of time.

Under manual conditions of handling scrap and at the current contract trade union rate the cost is 1s. 4d.—33 cents—per ton. With the lifting-magnet, including labour and depreciation, the cost is only one penny—2 cents—per ton for this work—a reduction of 1s. 3d.—31 cents—per ton! At the works of the Stobie Steel Company, Dunston-on-Tyne, the initial cost of the lifting-magnet was recovered during the first four months it was used. This company declares that the annual saving which its employment effects is £800—$4,000.

But the applications of the magnet are not confined to lifting and carrying operations. As an instrument for breaking up masses of steel too large to be handled conveniently, or to be passed into the cupola of the furnace, it cannot be excelled, either in point of efficiency, safety, or economy. Breaking-up is carried out by what is known as the “skull-cracker,” which comprises a roughly-cast ball of steel which may weigh as much as 22,400, 27,000 or even 36,000 lb. This is picked up by the magnet and lifted to the desired height. The current is then switched off, releasing the ball to fall and to strike the scrap-boiler or some other cumbrous piece of junk a terrific blow.

While the “skull-cracker” has been in vogue for many years with mechanically operated devices, and so is not peculiar to the magnet, yet this latest development represents the highest achievement yet attained in this particular direction. Under mechanical conditions from four to six men are required to carry out the work successfully. With the magnet and ball the task can be fulfilled by two men—if exigencies so demand it can be completed single-handed by the crane-magnet operator—while the time occupied in such essential destruction is very much less, more efficiently accomplished and with complete safety, because under mechanical conditions breaking-up is generally regarded as highly dangerous work. A further advantage is offered by this system. The “skull-cracker” can be lifted and dropped alternately until the scrap has been reduced to suitably sized pieces, and then the magnet, disdaining the ball, can pick up the pieces of junk to bear them away to the furnaces without any delay.

Despite the forward strides which have been made in regard to the adoption of the magnet in the British iron and steel trades during the past four years, this system of handling ferrous metals is still in its infancy. It has been neglected far too long. Yet it is a force which in the future must play an increasing important role, because it is generally admitted that, to offset the higher wages incidental to production, it is imperative for manufacturers to exploit fully every possible time, labour, and money-saving device. The magnet is one of the most attractive contributory factors to this end, especially in connection with the handling of iron and steel waste, that has yet been contrived.

CHAPTER XVI
RECLAIMING 321,000,000 GALLONS OF LIQUID FUEL FROM COAL

It has been said, doubtless with a good deal of truth, that Britain owes her manufacturing prosperity to her abundant domestic resources of fuel. But, in the exploitation of our coal reserves, we emulate the rat in the corn-bin. We waste quite as much, if not more, than we ever use. The country around our collieries is disfigured with huge dumps, among which are thousands of tons of what is really low-grade fuel. Occasionally a tip-heap will catch fire, to burn sullenly for weeks and months. One such large dump in the United States burned uninterruptedly for years. This would not be possible if there were not present a large volume of combustible matter—coal—associated with the so-called useless material.

The colliery tip-heaps, while formidable in the aggregate, and representing a crushing indictment against our so-called advanced scientific attainments, merely constitute one, and a minor, tangible illustration of the great coal-waste issue. No matter in what direction we may turn in this colossal industry, we find evidences of improvidence and stupendous losses in varying degree.

It is a matter for speculation whether any other raw material is so prolific of residuals as coal. Oil is probably the solitary exception, but then petroleum is closely allied to the solid fuel. But refuse in regard to coal is equally ambiguous. The wastes vary so widely in nature, while each grade of residue possesses its individual possibilities. We are disposed to pride ourselves upon the big strides we have made in our exploitation of these residues but, as a matter of fact, we have barely touched the Aladdin’s lamp which it represents.

To render full justice to the coal-waste issue in all its kaleidoscopic forms would absorb many volumes. The subject is so vast and complex. It is my intention, within the scope of this chapter, to confine myself to one specific substance derived from coal, one which we persistently declined to consider in its real aspect until the fight for national existence applied the sledge-hammer blows to drive into our heads that we were guilty of criminal neglect. Why we should have required this drastic force to compel us to admit our indifference towards a great national asset it is difficult to explain. Our most formidable rival in trade had been sparing no effort for years to achieve an overwhelming industrial triumph therewith and to our discomfiture.

As I have previously remarked, Germany revelled in our junk piles and rubbish-heaps. The French chiffonnier never raked over the contents of a Parisian dust-bin more assiduously than did the German rummage among our waste dumps. He was not too proud to bear away what we disdained and rejected. It served as food to maintain the colossal plants, equipped with elaborate and costly machinery, which he laid down. We, on our part, were not backward in paying him, directly and indirectly, to work up our wastes, especially those from coal, and were ever ready to acquire the articles manufactured therefrom and at any price he felt disposed to quote.

While, to a certain degree, we have become wiser in our generation, and are handling our coal resources and the residuals resulting therefrom with less prodigality, we are still woefully improvident in this field. The degree of waste, despite the reforms introduced, has become accentuated essentially because of the increased magnitude of this industry. The blind adherence to typically British methods and ideas has led to some striking anomalies which to other nations must appear almost incredible. For instance, the coming of the high-speed, internal combustion motor emphasized the need for a volatile liquid fuel. Experience proved the hydro-carbon, petrol, to be most eminently adapted to the purpose. But Britain, as every one knows, has so far proved to be as barren of paying petroleum deposits as is the Sahara of cornfields. So, as we could not produce petrol, we decided to buy it from abroad, and continue to do so to this day.

Yet we need never have bought a single gallon from a foreign country, to keep our huge fleets of motor-omnibuses, taxi-cabs, touring cars, lorries, vans, agricultural tractors, and motor-boats moving. If we were as wideawake as we ought to be we should cease to buy a further pennyworth from beyond the confines of the Empire forthwith, turning the millions sterling we spent annually in this connection into the pockets of our own workers and industries. It would not involve the withdrawal of a single vehicle, and we should have the satisfaction of knowing that we were absolutely independent of the foreigner in a matter of most vital concern to the community—transport.

The domestic analogue to imported petrol is benzol, the volatile hydrocarbon coaxed from our old friend, King Coal. From the motoring point of view this derivative from the mineral fuel is capable of fulfilling every purpose in regard to transport which petrol can or ever will do. Why we still refrain from setting out to recover this spirit to the uttermost ounce, notwithstanding the lessons taught by the war, is beyond comprehension. There are some kinks in British mentality which defy all unravelling. The exploitation of liquid fuel from coal is one of them.

If we turn to the trading figures for the fiscal year 1913 we find that we imported petrol to the extent of 100,588,017 gallons for which we paid £3,803,397—$19,016,985. This money was sent out of the country. Even our Dominions did not reap much benefit from our liberality. Turning to the other side of the account we find that during the self-same period we sold to foreign purchasers 30,415 gallons of motor spirit made in the United Kingdom, and valued at £1,420—$7,100! Our delightfully unbusinesslike way of doing things left us £3,801,977—$19,009,885—on the wrong side, when really we ought to have shown a substantial balance in our favour.

Benzol is not only essential to the motor industry, but it is absolutely indispensable to numerous other trades. Without it the vast range of synthetic colours, marketed by the German firms, could never have been attained. Had Germany embarked upon an economic instead of a military war she could have forced the whole world into abject surrender within a few months by withholding supplies of these dye-stuffs, medicinal preparations, synthetic drugs, disinfectants, and chemicals. This is borne out by the abnormal prices realized from the sale of the small quantity of dyes which were smuggled across the Atlantic to the United States of America by the commercial submarine Deutschland. One small box containing 100 lb. of sky-blue colouring realized £190 or 38s.—$950 or $9.50—a pound! Before the war the self-same dye-stuff could be purchased readily for 2s.—50 cents—a pound.

By making the plunge along industrial lines Germany could have brought our cotton, woollen, silk and other textiles, paper, paint—in short, every trade into which colourings enter—to a dead standstill within a very short time. The United States of America, France, Italy, and other countries would have been forced into a similar condition of stagnation and disaster. Germany, by virtue of her unlimited supplies of these essentials to contemporary industry, would have been in the position to have supplied the whole world—upon her own terms. Fortunately for us, a bloodless victory to secure world-wide domination did not appeal to the Teuton temperament.

The official attitude, so far as this country is concerned, towards the reclamation of the volatile liquid constituent, or waste, from coal has always been one of negation. Contrast this tendency with that obtaining in Germany, which set out to support private enterprise by installing a comprehensive plant upon Government property to win 6,000,000 gallons of benzol a year from state-owned and state-mined coal. The British official attitude is additionally remarkable when it is borne in mind that adequate supplies of this material are absolutely imperative to the maintenance of our national security, because benzol constitutes the backbone of modern high explosives.

The recovery of benzol is every whit as essential to the community of these islands as is the provision of drinking water. It may appear to be Draconic to compel the delivery of the last ounce of benzol from the coal or gas we burn, but there are many other enactments in force of a more exasperating character, and which are productive of extremely little benefit either to the individual or the community. In this particular instance no one would suffer in any way, because, while the whole trend of scientific thought is towards the thorough recovery of this valuable liquid fuel and industrial weapon, it does not hesitate to demonstrate how the desired end can be obtained without inflicting the slightest hardship upon the citizen.

The steel trade demands huge quantities of coke to conduct its operations. The carbon residue from coal is preferable to the raw mineral fuel. To meet this technical requirement special ovens have had to be evolved to turn the coal into coke. Yet for years we carried out this conversion and allowed the substance thrown off in the process to run to waste. We even continue to do this to-day. It was found that the coke could be obtained more readily and easily, as well as cheaply, by means of what is known as the bee-hive oven. This coke-producer attracted the attention of the interests concerned because it was not only cheap to install but inexpensive to maintain and renew, while it facilitated compliance with the fluctuating demands for the coke which naturally is due to the alternating periods of depression and prosperity in the steel trade. But we have no monument to waste comparable with the bee-hive oven. However, it became so firmly entrenched as to prove wellnigh resistant to progress when science came along with an improved system yielding a coke of equal quality, but which had the additional recommendation of enabling all the other products arising from distillation and which formerly were permitted to escape, to be recovered.

The virtues of the new method were conceded, but the heavier initial expenditure which it entailed was regarded as an insurmountable adverse feature, especially as the Britisher gave expression to another peculiar trait in his character—would the revenue derived from the by-products more than offset the increased costs, capital charges and maintenance expenses? One disturbing factor demanded particularly careful study. When the call for coke declines, and a certain number of the ovens have to be closed down, they cannot be brought into re-activity upon the revival in the steel trade without an overhaul.

In restoring the ovens heavy expense is incurred. The antiquated and wasteful bee-hive oven can be renovated at a trifling price, but the modern by-products recovery oven entails far heavier expense before the resumption of operations. The charge varies according to the care which has been bestowed upon its maintenance, but, if this has not been conducted along careful lines it may easily incur an expenditure ranging up to 15 per cent. of the original cost of the plant. This charge, unless defrayed out of the renewals account, must be carried to capital. In view of this circumstance the general practice has been to install the by-product system to take care of the constant load—the output of coke to the degree below which it cannot fall even in periods of extreme depression—and to utilize the obsolete bee-hive oven to take care of the fluctuations from the irreducible minimum to the maximum. This margin being extremely wide naturally, the bee-hive still holds sway, and so continues its wasteful reign unchecked.

To extend their field of activity and to provide an outlet for the products of their brains the Germans made an astute commercial move. They expressed their readiness to equip the British coking plants with their modern by-product recovery system on condition that they were to be at liberty to acquire the liquid residual—benzol. The suggestion found certain favour in British eyes. The benzol was a drug on the home market, so its shipment to Germany was regarded as the solution of a perplexing problem. In this manner Germany secured the necessary raw materials from the British scrap-heap to feed her dye industry and to pile up her reserves of high explosives against the day when the gauntlet should be thrown down. There is a tendency in certain quarters to assail the cunning competitor, but are we rather not to blame for our own extreme shortsightedness, lack of initiative, and indolence?

The coking-ovens, however, only absorb a portion of our total output of coal, the annual average of which may be set down at approximately 260,000,000 tons. Subtracting 60,000,000 tons as the export figure, we are left with a round 200,000,000 tons consumed at home. Of this figure a round 100,000,000 tons is consumed during the year in the domestic fire-grate.

We all revel in the blazing fire in our rooms during the winter, but do we reckon on the cost? The volume of heat thrown into the room is but a trifling proportion of that emitted by the glowing coal. The greater part flies up the chimney, together with all the benzol, ammonia, and other valuable constituents of the fuel. Immense volumes of soot pour forth from the chimneys to pollute the atmosphere, disfigure buildings and monuments, while the damage wrought within the rooms to fabrics, curtains and other embellishments runs into millions sterling during the year.

Could this waste be avoided? Certainly. The domestic fire-grate does not possess a single virtue. It should be scrapped forthwith. Coal, as a household fuel, should be prohibited. It should be carbonized. Coke, when burned under the most advantageous conditions, throws off as much, if not more heat, and can be induced to shed practically the whole thereof into the apartment. As the alternative to coke we might rely exclusively on gas, releasing the whole of the carbon residue, approximately 70 per cent. of which results from the distillation of every ton of coal for industry. If we presume an average of 10,000 cubic feet derivable from every ton of coal, then we find that the 100,000,000 tons burned annually in the household grates would give us 1,000,000,000,000—one billion—cubic feet of gas, the whole of which is at present being lost up the chimney. From this enormous volume of gas, each 10,000 cubic feet of which contains on the average two gallons of benzol capable of reclamation, we could, if we were sufficiently energetic and enterprising, obtain 200,000,000 gallons of benzol—twice the petrol imports for the year 1913. In comparison with what liquid fuel we could derive from our coal the actual 41,000,000 gallons secured to-day certainly appears to be trifling.

Our methods of burning coal in the home, which is appallingly wasteful, is equalled by the general folly investing our system of gas supply, which is equally improvident, simply because we prefer to cling to the obsolete order of things rather than to march with progress. Years ago, to protect gas-consumers, a standard of value was established. The gas had to comply with a certain candle-power standard. The unit thus was one of luminosity. Such a system was satisfactory in days gone by, when the practice was to use a burner and open flame of the fish-tail or bat’s-wing shape. Then some method of standardizing gas according to its luminous intensity undoubtedly was imperative.

But judgment of gas by its luminosity with an open burner is effete. It became relegated to the limbo of things that were by the discovery of Welsbach, which effected a complete and wonderful revolution in gas illumination. His invention supplied the means of securing brilliant illumination with heat. This may sound paradoxical, but is readily explained. The particles of the nitrates of the rare earths, thoria and ceria, which enter into the composition of the incandescent gas mantle, will not emit light until they have been raised to a high degree of incandescence. This can only be achieved by using the mantle in conjunction with an atmospheric, or Bunsen, burner.

This invention rendered it no longer necessary for the gas to carry the constituents which contributed to luminosity, among which was benzol. With the mantle they are superfluous: in fact are deleterious. What is required is a gas rich in the constituents contributing to heat. Coal-gas, or as it is more familiarly called, town-gas, is rich in these two essentials. They are hydrogen and methane or marsh-gas. When burned under suitable conditions they are capable of giving off intense heat, and the higher the degree of incandescence to which the rare earths entering into the composition of the mantle can be raised, the more brilliant the illumination.

Consequently the time has arrived when the standardization of gas according to luminous power should be thrown overboard in favour of one based upon calorific value. This was introduced to a certain degree as a temporary expedient during the war, but it should now be made rigid. Signs of awakening to the true state of affairs are apparent. The research committee appointed to investigate this question has recommended that gas should be sold according to its calorific value, and that all gas-consuming appliances should be adapted to the new order of things.

Should legislation be passed endorsing these recommendations it will be possible for further huge quantities of benzol to be recovered from our coal, or rather the gas derived from the volume of coal annually absorbed for gas production. It is the benzol and toluene which impart the luminous intensity to the gas, but which are unnecessary for the production of heat. At the present moment the quantity of benzol reclaimed from the coal absorbed by the gas-works is approximately 21,000,000 gallons a year—a fraction of what it might be.

We may safely assume that of the 270,000,000 tons of coal we draw from our collieries every year, at least 160,000,000 tons are capable of such treatment as will enable the volatile liquid fuel to be recovered. Upon the basis of two gallons per ton of coal this would represent 320,000,000 gallons of benzol, of which huge quantity all but 41,000,000 gallons are being lost under contemporary conditions. The value of this spirit at the moment may be set down at approximately 2s.—50 cents—per gallon. Thus we are deliberately throwing away £27,900,000—$139,500,000—a year. It is being permitted to vanish into thin air. This figure serves to bring home what the losses arising from the neglect of waste really represent, and also reveals our extraordinary lack of imagination and enterprise.

Were we to recover the whole of the benzol content of coal we should not only be able to satisfy the whole of the needs, aggregating about 150,000,000 gallons a year, of the domestic motor industry, but we should be able to meet the requirements of the other industries to which benzol is indispensable. There would be no need to grow apprehensive concerning our coal-tar dye industry and the manufacture of other products dependent upon materials derived from coal. The British dye industry is in its infancy. At the moment its benzol requirements are modest, being approximately 4,000,000 gallons a year. But it is an industry which, given full opportunity, promises to thrive and to expand amazingly, and so one may safely anticipate that its benzol needs will advance by leaps and bounds.

Moreover, one must not forget that, as yet, benzol itself is but little understood, because it has not received the attention it deserves from the chemist. If we decide to exploit our coal to the extent which prudence dictates, the wizards of the laboratory will be encouraged to embark upon further original research, and it is quite possible that they will reveal other and equally promising applications for the spirit of coal.

While domestic users have not been fully alive to the possibilities of British benzol other countries, notably France, were eager buyers of what we ourselves failed to appreciate. We need not sacrifice this export trade: rather we should be able to cultivate and to expand it to a very pronounced degree.

In view of the part which benzol played in the war one hopes that the Government will consider the situation in a more enlightened spirit. The circumstance that we might be able to retrieve a round £28,000,000—$140,000,000—a year should offer every inducement towards compulsory modernization of methods in this particular province. Benzol should be made a national issue. To compel the use of coke, instead of coal, in the household, would go a long way to relieve the coking-ovens and other distillation plants of all apprehensions of glut accumulations of coke, and would tend to steady the output of this fuel, as well as to bring about the abolition of the wickedly wasteful bee-hive oven. Our gas standardization system should be overhauled to ensure the sale of gas by its calorific rather than its luminous value. The country might even do worse than to nationalize benzol, taking over the whole of the output as a corollary to the compulsory distillation of all bituminous coal. As the alternative it might undertake to purchase what the trade could not sell, for naval purposes, inasmuch as in the Senior Service the consumption of petroleum oils has reached an impressive figure from the increasing use of oil fuel, practically the whole of which at present has to be imported.

CHAPTER XVII
FERTILIZERS FROM WASTES

Nourishment is as essential to the land as it is to the animal kingdom. This is particularly so in countries, such as the British Isles, where the land has been worked assiduously, year after year, for centuries. The co-relation between fertilizers and crop yields is too obvious to demand other than mere mention. The main problem, in such circumstances, is to secure sufficient quantities of the nutritive constituents necessary, and at a price which shall render their utilization profitable to the farmer, and enable the resultant food products to be brought within the reach of the public at an attractive figure.

The worship of hygiene and the introduction of practices conducing to the enhanced health and welfare of the community have served to deprive the land of a heavy proportion of that food which, under primitive conditions, it freely receives. Furthermore, the contemporary agriculturist is not content with receiving from the land just what Nature, if left to herself, is disposed to contribute. He practises forced or intensive measures, and in so doing naturally accelerates and accentuates the exhaustion of the soil.

In so far as these islands are concerned—it was equally applicable to other countries similarly affected—the stringency in natural manures was aggravated by the acquisition of all available horse-power for the battle-fronts as well as the need to husband straw for military foraging purposes. So, to ensure the safety and yield of his crops, the farmer has been compelled to fall back upon divers substances, natural as well as chemical, or as they are more popularly termed, artificial manures, although the word “artificial” in this interpretation is somewhat ambiguous, seeing that the materials employed, for the most part, enter into the scheme of Nature.

Under normal conditions British soil was liberally fed with these chemical fertilizers, especially of superphosphate, nitrate of soda, and potash. And for all of these three indispensable soil-foods we were dependent upon foreign sources of supply, which naturally suffered interruption more or less as a result of the outbreak of hostilities. During 1913 we imported 970,185 tons of these manuring agents, for which we paid £3,333,612—$16,668,060. These figures do not include potash, appreciable quantities of which, drawn from the German mines, were used. But, taking the other two materials, phosphate occupied first place in point of quantity with 539,016 tons valued at £874,166—$4,370,830—while the Chilian nitrate claimed premier position in value at £1,490,669—$7,453,345—for which we received 140,926 tons.

Owing to the availability of the foreign manures there was a tendency to turn a blind eye to our own producing capacity in regard to plant-foods of the chemical order. But such an attitude was quite in keeping with the British character; we preferred to pay compliments, in the form of money, to other countries at the expense of our own. With war we learned the folly of our ways and received an awakening, rude but fruitful.

Of the artificial fertilizers essential to plant life we can supply all with the possible exception of the superphosphate, although in this instance we are striving to develop our home resources. Chilian nitrate may be superseded by the atmospheric nitrates: we can derive all the potash we desire by the observance of the necessary care and the lessons which science in its various phases is able to extend. Possibly the results may not be so prolific as when the imported articles are utilized, but this is merely a matter of opinion, and one upon which even experts agree to differ.

Of the domestic contributions to the artificial fertilizer issue, those which have attracted the greatest measure of attention are sulphate of ammonia and basic slag. So far as the first named, of the nitrogenous group, is concerned, a remarkable reversion of opinion is to be recorded. Prior to the war the British farmer, despite the fact that sulphate of ammonia was obtainable in relatively large quantities from home sources, was not deeply impressed with its plant-feeding value. At all events the domestic consumption was relatively low, 60,000 tons being the maximum amount used in any pre-war year. But what the British yeoman disdained, his foreign contemporary seized with avidity. During 1913 our exports of this waste, or by-product from our gas-works and coking-ovens, totalled 323,054 tons worth £4,390,547—$21,952,735—out of a total export of 704,071 tons of fertilizers valued at £5,745,484—$28,727,420. France and Spain, as well as our sugar-growing Dominions, were our largest customers, the farmers of which were prepared to pay more for this soil stimulator than were their contemporaries at home. But, as a result of experience gained under the stress imposed by war, sulphate of ammonia found greater favour in the eyes of our husbandmen. During 1916 the home consumption increased by 15,000 tons, a further 15,000 tons’ improvement was recorded during the first three months of 1917, while for the 1917 season the figure rose to 150,000 tons.

Under normal conditions, in accordance with the law of supply and demand, prices tend to rise coincidentally with the enhanced manifestation of request, but the country took steps to protect the consumer, and at the same time to remunerate the producers adequately. Whereas the pre-war price for this fertilizing agent ranged from £12 10s. to £14—$62.50 to $70—per ton, the war price was officially fixed at £16—$80—per ton. Inasmuch, however, as the controlled quotation included transport and delivery charges, the actual increase in the cost was not appreciable.

But it was the 1917-18 season which revealed the circumstance that the virtues of sulphate of ammonia at last had really gripped the British farmer. From the estimates which were carefully prepared the requirements were set down at 220,000 tons. As a matter of fact they notched 230,000 tons. Thus, in two short years, the consumption of sulphate of ammonia by the hungry soil of Britain was quadrupled, a really startling achievement. The total output of this commodity, both in the solid and liquid forms, reached a round 400,000 tons, and to-day stands at about 460,000 tons. Approximately, one-half of this aggregate is forthcoming from our gas-works and the other half from our coking-ovens and blast-furnaces. During the war the balance remaining after the needs of agriculture had been met, namely 170,000 tons, was absorbed in the manufacture of munitions. But under restored peace conditions this latter volume will be rendered available for home consumption or export.

Seeing that our pre-war export figure was 323,054 tons a year, it would seem as if we are destined to lose some of our revenue from this trade. Obviously only about 170,000, or at the utmost, 230,000 tons will be available for our foreign customers. It would seem as if we are certain to fall a round 100,000 tons short of their actual needs, which will certainly be equal to the ante-bellum figure. As a matter of fact the demand will probably be much heavier, considering that the land of these customers has been denied this food for nearly five years; at least supplies have only been forthcoming in small and totally inadequate quantities. Moreover, the home demand is rising still, which must tend to attenuate the quantities available for export.

But there is no need for us to grow apprehensive. In another chapter I deal with the benzol question, and illustrate how we might increase our supplies of a home-produced fuel to displace imported petrol. In meeting our domestic benzol requirements we can increase our output of sulphate of ammonia at the same time. The ammonia is the substance which so worried gas engineers during the early days of gas-lighting. Then it was an unmitigated curse: to-day it is a blessing. The actual yield of sulphate of ammonia from a ton of first-class gas-distilling coal may be set down at 18 lb. However, seeing that this varies according to the quality of the coal, I will set this figure at 15 lb., which is distinctly conservative. On this basis, if the whole of the coal burned to sheer waste in the private grates of the country, and which may be set down at 100,000,000 tons under normal conditions, were first carbonized, it would be possible to add at least 700,000 tons to our present output of sulphate of ammonia, which would thus be brought up to approximately 1,160,000 tons a year. This would be quite enough to satisfy the needs of all our customers. But, at the present moment, owing to our supineness, the ammonia and the benzol are being allowed to fly up the chimney. Consequently every person who adheres to the consumption of coal instead of coke, in the open grate, just because a blaze is appreciated, is doing his or her bit towards the loss, assuming the value of the fertilizing agent at the modest figure of £10 per ton, of £7,000,000—$35,000,000—per annum. Truly we are paying dearly for the gratification of a whim.

Second in popularity among the artificial fertilizers comes basic slag. This is another waste product, being the refuse from our steel-works. It has been allowed to pile up in the vicinity of our blast-furnaces to the detriment and disfigurement of our countryside. But an observant and persevering individual probed these unsightly heaps to discover that they contained a valuable food for plants, and in sufficient quantity to render it remunerative to pulverize the rock-like mass into a fine powder. Forthwith, where phosphatic content was sufficiently favourable, the dumps were taken in hand to be ground up into a flour to be distributed over the soil.

But the story related of sulphate of ammonia was destined to be repeated in connection with basic slag. It found greater favour in the eyes of the foreign farmer than it did with the native yeoman, although in this instance the circumstance that a mistake was being committed was discovered possibly more promptly. In 1913 our exports of phosphatic refuse from our blast-furnaces were 165,100 tons, for which we received £633,034—$3,165,170. The consumption upon our home lands was about the same, so that the total output was a round 330,000 tons a year. Here again, once the possibilities of the fertilizer were driven home, an increased demand set in. From an attitude of indifference British farmers turned to one of clamour. Fortunately, the first rush was met by placing an embargo upon the export of this article, and, in this way, double the quantity was at once secured for native needs.

The demand soon absorbed this extra quantity, and then it became necessary to increase the output of the article. But in this instance the problem was not so readily solved. In the first place the farmer was not disposed to accept this fertilizer when its phosphatic content fell below 25 per cent. But the proportion of phosphate varies widely according to the district whence the ore is forthcoming, as well as the actual smelting process followed. It may range up to as high as 44 per cent. or more; on the other hand it may fall to as low as 12 per cent. or less.

Owing to the comparatively limited demand which prevailed for this article before the war, only comparatively few firms essayed the necessary grinding of the rock-like waste from the blast-furnaces. Again it was by no means an easy matter to maintain the slag to the desired phosphate quality. Another disturbing factor was that the smelting of steel, in common with other industrial process, is in a constant state of transition and improvement. This evolution was found to be affecting the slag very adversely, because the tendency was towards lowering of the phosphoric acid content.

However, it was discovered that, while the available dumps showing a phosphatic content of 25 per cent. or more were severely limited, there were an appreciable number of slag heaps carrying a lower percentage, ranging down to 17 per cent. of the necessary constituent. These were taken in hand to be passed through the grinding mills. Even this contribution proved insufficient. The demand was met only by working heaps of inferior phosphate quality and adjusting the price according to the percentage of the phosphoric acid present, the figure naturally rising as the proportion improved.

The increase in the consumption of basic slag was remarkable. The 1916 figure was double that of 1913, the whole of the 165,000 tons formerly exported being absorbed. Increased producing facilities and the exploitation of a lower grade waste, as already mentioned, served to increase the consumption for 1917 a further 150,000 tons to 500,000 tons, which represented the maximum capacity of the works specializing in this product. But although the latter could not be extended to meet the still rising demand, owing to the difficulties encountered in connection with the provision of machinery, every effort was made to keep supply astride of demand. Many cement works throughout the country had been compelled to cease operations owing to the stoppage of constructional activity and were lying dormant. As these possessed machinery excellently adapted to the preparation and grinding of the slag they were pressed into service, especially for dealing with the lower-grade waste from the blast-furnaces. In this way provision was made for lifting the output to 600,000 tons or more a year.

So far as the superphosphates are concerned the deficiency experienced in this connection has not been so easy of solution. Our resources in the essential material, so far as is known, are somewhat sparse, while a further problem arose in connection with the sulphuric acid, which was in keen request for other purposes. The issue was met by continuing the importation of the crude rock from the northern coast of Africa, and in this manner we contrived to satisfy our needs. But, during this period, the opportunity was taken to ascertain whether or no there did happen to be any suitable rock or other waste which we were neglecting, inasmuch as the moment war ceased immense quantities of sulphuric acid, then being absorbed for the production of munitions and other military requirements, would be released. Investigation was directed once again to the coprolite beds in the Eastern Counties which were formerly worked to yield artificial manures of this character, but which had been abandoned. They were again taken up, and a domestic superphosphate production industry resuscitated upon a limited scale. But whether under normal trading conditions it will prove remunerative to continue this phase of native activity time alone can prove.

The only remaining fertilizer which was a source of perturbation to the British agricultural industry was potash, which is absolutely essential to certain lands and specific crops. Germany was in the position to dominate this industry throughout the world, and she did not hesitate to wield the power she possessed to her own advantage. In pre-war days we imported about 240,000 tons of this chemical, but the greater part was absorbed by other industries, such as glass-making, to which it is vital. Only about 22,000 tons found their way to the land. Nevertheless, the demand in this, as in other directions, was upwards and prices rose by leaps and bounds, even touching about £60—$300—per ton at one time.

Yet we have virtually solved our potash difficulty, and certainly will be able to meet all farming requirements in connection therewith if we only sustain our initiative. We have an abundance of waste materials whence we might obtain all that we need, but for the most part we have spurned them with disdain. It has been so much easier to procure our requirements from the country across the North Sea, although, in expending money in this direction, we materially contributed towards the construction of the much-vaunted High Seas Fleet. But when necessity compelled us to cast around to work out our own salvation we encountered many surprises. Germany will doubtless be equally surprised in future when she discovers how little dependence we need place upon her vast resources. During the war potash was in urgent request for munitions, but the demand in this connection will no longer prevail, or, at least, only to a limited extent, thereby allowing commercial and industrial fields to acquire what they need, and at a fair price. We shall be foolish if we allow ourselves to abandon the exploitation of our potash-yielding wastes merely by slavishly clinging to the pre-war price for this commodity, which was about £10—$50—per ton. To do so will be to sacrifice our national security and wealth upon the altar of cheapness.

The wastes capable of being persuaded to yield potash are far more numerous than may possibly be conceived. And this chemical is derivable from some of the least-expected founts. A Yorkshire gentleman, Mr. E. E. Lawson, threw a bundle of banana stalks upon his polished office chair and allowed them to remain there for some time. When he removed the stalks he noticed that the juice exuding from the stalks had played sad havoc with the finish to the furniture. This action pointed to the presence of potash in the juice, and apparently in material quantity to remove the polish so effectively. So he suggested to a chemical friend, Mr. R. H. Ellis, that it might be profitable to analyse the contents of the stalk to ascertain just how much potash it carried. This was done, and the result was somewhat startling, indicating 45·9 per cent. of potash and practically no soda. The subject was then investigated by Dr. A. J. Hanley, of the Agricultural Department of the Leeds University, and his analysis confirmed the former finding. The dried matter of the original banana stalk was found to be as rich in potash as kainit, the popular fertilizer of this class. These investigations sufficed to establish the possibility of extracting 188 lb. of dried matter from a ton of banana stalk containing 13·7 per cent. of potash, or 54 lb. of ash containing 47·5 per cent., or 25 lb. of pure potash.

The yield from the individual ton may seem to be too small to be worth considering. But reflect upon the normal consumption of bananas in this country! The annual importation ranges from 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 bunches, which represents an equal number of stalks—mere refuse. According to Mr. Ellis, under normal conditions the stalks average a round 4,000 in number weekly in Leeds alone. When stripped, the average weight of the stalk is 4 lb., so that there are 16,000 lb. of stalk wasted every week in the Yorkshire city. Properly treated, about 1,340 lb. of dried matter, rich in potash, could be secured therefrom to feed the land.

Applying the reclamation process to the whole of the country, it should be possible to secure from 28,000,000 to 32,000,000 lb. of banana stalk, giving from 2,350,000 to 2,700,000 lb. of dried matter containing 13·7 per cent. of potash—from 321,000 to 370,000 lb. of potash—during the year. If the stalks were carbonized they would yield from 675,000 to 771,428 lb. of ash containing from 320,000 to 366,000 lb. of pure potash. This may represent but a small fraction of the total agricultural consumption of 22,000 tons per annum, but it would be a contribution from a waste product which now has to suffer destruction with the total loss of all beneficial values. The primary difficulty, of course, would be in connection with the recovery of the stalks, but a reorganization of our selling methods, such as the compulsory return of the denuded stalks to the fruit markets for ultimate bulk collection, would go a long way towards the solution of this problem. The question arises as to whether we should not find it advisable to dispose of all vegetable and fruit waste along individual lines, inasmuch as other refuse of this character contains potash in varying proportions. By the establishment of a small, inexpensive and suitable furnace in the markets for the treatment of all waste it would be possible to recover valuable fertilizing ash in sufficient quantities to allow bagging and sale upon the spot. Such treatment would be no more expensive than that in operation to-day, involving transport to, and combustion in, the destructor.

Tobacco is another product rich in potash, particularly the ash. Here recovery would prove an exceptionally difficult task, but it has been suggested that the conservation of ash and the discarded ends of cigars and cigarettes from clubs, hotels, and other centres possessing smoking-room amenities might be encouraged. The total during the year would be impressive. Certainly collection from such quarters would not be attended with difficulty, while the price payable for the residue might be made sufficiently attractive as to induce the attendants to garner this residue.

So far as the exploitation of waste for potash content in this country is concerned only one established practice, which is extremely precarious, has ever met with recognition upon a limited scale. This is the extraction of the precious substance from kelp, or vraic, to mention two of the names under which the familiar seaweed is known. The treatment of this waste is conducted along crude lines, but it is doubtful whether our available knowledge could suggest a more skilled method. British seaweed does not resemble that recovered off the coasts of Japan and the Pacific seaboard of the United States, where the recovery of potash from this residue from the sea has become an established industry.

Yet Britain need not pay a further penny tribute to Germany. We are able to free ourselves entirely from the German yoke, and can confidently look forward to such a happy state of affairs so long as the steel age reigns. The raw material dumped into the blast-furnaces carries a certain proportion of potash. But it has always been permitted to escape. Being associated with the fine dust it was borne through the flues, a certain proportion being deposited therein, but at least 90 per cent. was irretrievably lost. Threatened famine compelled us to devote attention to the possibility of arresting this fugitive potash, and our efforts have met with success. The furnace flue dust is trapped to be passed through a special plant for further treatment. Previous to the war the economical and fiscal conditions would not have permitted such a practice with profit. The requisite plant is necessarily somewhat costly to install and to operate. Had we decided upon such a course of action the Germans would promptly have forced the process into bankruptcy by resort to price-cutting tactics. The Potash Syndicate was exceedingly powerful, and it never hesitated to wield its power, as the United States of America have every occasion to remember when, a few years ago, it came into conflict with the German Government in regard to inter-trading, and was brought full tilt against the potash ace of trumps. Had we ventured to dispute the German monopoly by any attempt to exploit our flue-dust we should have upset a pretty kettle of fish and should have been bludgeoned into surrender. It is to be hoped that the authorities will hesitate to play so completely into the enemy’s hands again, although this is fortunately very unlikely because the Teuton monopoly has been broken effectively by the restoration of Alsace-Lorraine to France which carries, among other numerous advantages in raw materials, the immense potash deposits which the Germans worked so profitably to their own ends. Still, even this achievement should not dissuade us from continuing to exploit the waste dust recovered from our blast-furnaces. Immense quantities of the essential material are forthcoming, the potash content of which varies from 3 to 13 per cent. As output increases it should be capable of recovery at a decreasing figure and at one which should enable the indispensable product to be placed upon the market at a competitive figure.

The foregoing does not exhaust the list of potash-yielding wastes possible of exploitation. It is recoverable from wool in the washing process; feldspar also contains potash; farmyard manure will yield it in attractive proportions—from 9 to 15 lb. per ton; while liquid manure also carries it to the extent of 40 to 45 lb. per 1,000 gallons. Thus it will be seen that we need never suffer from an actual famine in potash if we but resolve to exploit our wastes to the utmost.

I have referred in a previous chapter to the value of leather waste as a fertilizer. Five years ago we did not pursue this problem along determined lines, mainly because we did not really understand its preparation, while our farmers did not regard the product then marketed with favour. But to-day there is a welcome change both in productive methods and the agricultural attitude. Some large plants for the treatment of the leather waste have been laid down and are being brought into operation. Two distinctive treatments are being followed. In the one instance the curried leather—sheer residue from the boot factories possessing no other possible use—is being submitted to treatment for the extraction of the greases and fats used in the dressing processes. In the second system these fats, owing to their low grade and as yet absence of possible industrial use, are being ignored, although they disappear for the most part from the product in the course of treatment. Otherwise the two methods are broadly identical. The leather is carbonized and then reduced to a dark greyish powder. In this form it meets with the full approval of the farmer, and, as its nitrogen content is said to range up to 9 per cent., it is meeting with ready disposal, the demand at the present moment being far in excess of supply. At one works an output of 60 tons a week is being recorded, which incidentally indicates the quantity of leather waste incurred in our boot-producing factories.

I have also drawn attention to the extent to which fish scrap is now being treated, and here again highly satisfactory developments are to be narrated, the trade, especially in regard to the production of fertilizer, being in a flourishing condition. Fish guano appeals to the farmer, owing to its high content of ammonia and phosphate which aggregate approximately 20 per cent. At one fish waste reducing factory the output is 20 tons every 24 hours, the plant being run on continuous lines, but arrangements are being completed to double the capacity to secure an output of 40 tons during the 24 hours. Hitherto the farmer has not been completely enamoured of fish manure because in certain instances, notably in the treatment of the oily fish, such as the herring, the grease content, which was as anathema to him, was somewhat heavy. But the perfection of the solvent extraction process which I have described, and whereby the oil contained in the finished fertilizing meal can be reduced to as low as 1 per cent., has completely removed this disability.

As is well known, bone-meal is a popular fertilizer. In this instance, although the fatty content of the crude bones may be high, the processes of degreasing have been advanced to such a stage of perfection as to bring about virtually the total elimination of this objectionable constituent. The fertilizer, if properly prepared, will not carry more than 1 per cent. of grease. The bones undergo a very thorough treatment, because this waste is able to feed several industries.

Sewage is also coming more widely into favour as a fertilizer, as I explain in another chapter, while residues incurred in other ramifications of industry are now being carefully collected instead of being permitted to dissipate into the air or to pass to the furnaces for combustion. The dust arising from the reduction of woollen rags into shoddy forms an excellent hop manure. Dried blood is another first-class fertilizer—in fact it would be difficult to enumerate all the wastes which can now be profitably exploited for their soil-nourishing values. Speaking broadly, it may be stated that any refuse which, upon investigation, is able to yield 3 or more per cent. of nitrogen demands further examination for the discovery of the cheapest ways and means to reduce it to a fertilizer for sale at an attractive figure. If price be right no apprehensions need be entertained concerning disposal; the farmer will absorb the plant food, to nourish his crops, with eagerness.

CHAPTER XVIII
SAVING THE SEWAGE SLUDGE

In matters pertaining to sanitation and the movement of sewage Great Britain undoubtedly leads the world. There our conquest ends. From that point onwards we can only point to lamentable inefficiency. For instance, the lay-out of the main drainage system of London, undoubtedly the finest illustration of such engineering in the world, has involved a capital expenditure of £12,514,606—$62,573,030. By the provision of enormous conduits and feeders the excrementitious matter from residences, offices, workshops, and factories of the metropolis is borne for miles to central stations. In this manner those natural and trade wastes, construed as being inimical to health, are removed swiftly and hygienically, and we compliment ourselves upon our prowess, which certainly is justifiable so far as it goes.

But when we come to the treatment of this material we fail miserably. At the central station the solid matter, in reality a mud or sludge, is separated from the free liquid. The disposal of the latter offers little or no difficulty. It can be rendered innocuous, and is therefore permitted to resume its part in the scheme of Nature. But the sludge: that is a different proposition. A few figures concerning the situation in regard to London may prove illuminating. Certainly they will serve to demonstrate the magnitude of the volume of this waste. During the year over 100,000,000,000 million gallons of sewage are received from approximately 5,350,000 people occupying 95,000 acres. Each million gallons of sewage yields about 25 tons of sludge. The total quantity of solid matter is approximately 200,000 tons. It costs about 30s.—$7.50—to treat and dispose of each million gallons of raw sewage.

The total yield of sludge exceeds 2,600,000 tons a year. It is an incubus having no ostensible commercial value, so is transferred to vessels to be carried out to sea where it is thrown overboard. Seeing that it costs about £17 13s.—$88—to run each vessel out and back again, and that some 111,000 journeys are made during the year, dumping the sludge costs the ratepayers of London nearly £2,000,000—$10,000,000—a year. The crime incidental to London is repeated throughout the country, and in this way, as Sir William Crookes pointed out, the nation is deliberately discarding 16,000,000 tons of valuable nitrogenous material which, were it subject to proper treatment, might be reclaimed to participate in the nourishment of our broad acres. Estimating the value of this potential fertilizing agent at the modest figure of one ¹⁄₂d.—1 cent—per pound we are, of malice aforethought, throwing away a round £35,000,000—$175,000,000—per annum. But this is not the most disturbing feature. For the most part the sludge, and in the case of seaside towns the crude sewage, is discharged upon potential valuable fishing grounds, to the destruction or infection of the fish, especially shell-fish. Furthermore, one must not imagine because the objectionable and dangerous refuse is abandoned well out to sea its serious dangers are removed. Tides and currents play strange tricks, the result being that much of this filth is thrown back upon the coasts, perhaps at a distant point, to wreak possible havoc.

Civilization breeds a strange fastidiousness. The idea of reclaiming sewage for exploitation is repulsive to the average individual, although he does not turn a hair at the use of the comparative material derived from the animal kingdom for the nourishment of the soil, and the feeding of produce cultivated essentially for the table. The argument often raised against any exploitation of excrement is that it has become associated with many other deleterious substances, which have been thrown or allowed to run down the drain, as the readiest avenue for their disposal. But the very circumstance that such waste has become compounded with other residues, many of which are worth reclamation, should be sufficient to induce us to regard sewage not as an incubus or danger, but as a mine worthy of development to its fullest extent.

Fortunately, the objection to the exploitation of sewage for its commercial contents is in process of being over-ruled by the growth of a more enlightened attitude towards the whole issue, although it is to be feared, in accordance with the precept that what the eye does not see the heart does not grieve, the more progressive policy is being sanctioned unconsciously. It is safe to assert that, but for the war, which retarded the hands of progress very pronouncedly, the new movement in regard to the handling of this material would have made a material advance. Even to-day the outlook is not hopeless, inasmuch as the accentuated need to make every use possible of waste products may result in the sewage exploitation problem being attacked with enhanced energy.

What can be done with sewage is revealed by the action of one or two towns which have taken their courage into their own hands, notably Bradford and Oldham. In these two instances the modern handling of sewage was assumed before the war, so that the experience gathered during the past six years may prove sufficiently convincing to permit the whole subject to be attacked more in consonance with contemporary thought, which views all wastes in one light—potential raw materials for other industries.

Changing conditions and the need to cope with this residue along more comprehensive lines, in accordance with the growth of the population and the quantity of material to be handled, were responsible for the change from the old method to the new in both instances. In the case of Bradford the Corporation found it necessary to establish new works about six miles distant from the centre of the city, and was faced with the necessity to expend £1,250,000—$6,250,000—in connection with the undertaking. In view of such a heavy capital committal perhaps it was only logical to consider the possibility of rendering the sewage more remunerative in the future than it had been in the past. Any revenue to be derived from exploitation in such a field must react to the advantage of the community affected, more especially when such action does not jeopardize the health of the citizens to the slightest degree.

Of course, the situation in so far as it concerns Bradford was somewhat unusual. The city is the hub of the wool-scouring trade of the country, and in treating the sewage much of the wealth allowed to slip down the drains from cleaning the wool is open to reclamation. The one great mistake, if such it may be called, of which Bradford has been guilty, in view of the volume of grease contained in the effluents, is ever to have permitted these wastes to pass into the drains and sewers. They should have been collected and treated as a separate entity. But, as this would have entailed combination of the interests concerned, an admittedly difficult undertaking under voluntary conditions, the city authorities decided to repair the sins of omission upon the part of its industrial citizens and to assume the recovery of the valuable materials which were being allowed to escape.

This manifestation of commendable enterprise and initiative owes its origin mainly to the activity of Mr. Joseph Garfield, A.M.I.C.E., the sewage engineer. Many years ago the idea of turning the sewage of the city to industrial account occurred to him, and he embarked upon a prolonged series of exhaustive experiments. These were sufficiently conclusive and sufficiently promising of profit as to persuade the adoption of the methods he advocated at the critical moment, which arrived when the provision of a new sewage station became imperative.

The plant for dealing with the sludge was moved from the old situation to new buildings specially erected for the purpose at Esholt, and the raw material is fed to the latter station through a special main. The sludge contains only 80 per cent. of water, the free water having been previously removed by settling. It is fed into the main by compressed air. Upon its arrival at the station the sludge is lifted, also by compressed air, into large vats, where it is heated by the waste steam from the engines of the power plant. In this heated condition the sludge passes into close-sealed vessels from which, still at a temperature approaching boiling point, it is forced by compressed air through the filter presses. Each of these presses, of which there are about 100 disposed in rows, contains 47 chambers, each 3 feet square.

As already stated, the sewage of Bradford is heavily charged with grease resulting from wool-washing and other industries, and it is this heavy proportion of grease which renders the process so attractive. Moreover, by keeping the sludge in a heated condition during the pressing process the expression of the fatty content is more readily effected. From 40 to 48 hours are required to fill a press with residuum, that is to say this period of time must elapse before the whole of the available space within the press is occupied by the dry cake from which the grease has been expressed, by which time from four to five tons of sludge have been passed through. Each cake is 3 feet square by 1¹⁄₂ inches thick and weighs about 30 cwt. The grease and water which is driven out of the sludge is carried away from the presses into tanks. Here the water and grease are separated, the water to be re-discharged into the sewage, while the grease is led to the purification tanks. Subsequently the fat is either drawn off into barrels or is pumped into tank wagons for dispatch to the works where it is worked up into articles of commerce, including soap. The oil is found to yield three valuable products—olein, stearine, and pitch. The two last named enter extensively into the dressing of leather, as well as the manufacture of candles and as an insulator for electric cables, respectively.

The installation yields from 12 to 15 tons of grease throughout the twenty-four hours, working, of course, being continuous. This product in the days before the war commanded from £8 to £10—$40 to $50—per ton, but the price is now higher. The sludge-cakes find favour as a fertilizer, mainly from the fact that they are free from lime and carry only from 28 per cent. to 30 per cent. of moisture. This residue fetched from 3s.—75 cents—upwards per ton at the works in pre-war days, when a healthy export was recorded, the product being shipped in appreciable quantities to France and even to the Southern States of America. The output of cake averages from 50 to 60 tons per day. In addition to proving useful as a fertilizer it has been found to furnish, when blended with coal-dust, a serviceable fuel.

The revenue derived from this example of sewage industry is certainly such as to attract widespread attention. In the early days of the process, when only two presses were maintained to establish its possibilities, the grease sales reached £222 10s. 6d.—$1,112.62—per annum. In 1911 the annual revenue had risen to a figure ranging between £20,000 and £30,000—$100,000 and $150,000—from the enlarged battery of presses. When the new works were opened it was anticipated that the Corporation would be deriving £50,000—$250,000—a year from the sale of the products derived from its sewage upon the attainment of the designed maximum output. Up to the year 1911 the total sales amounted to no less than £100,000—$500,000. From the recital of these figures it must be conceded that Bradford has a very profitable commercial enterprise in its sewage works.

Yet even the foregoing figures are undoubtedly capable of improvement owing to the advances made in the whole issue of the recovery of fats from wastes. The pressing system, even when conducted along the most modern lines with up-to-date plant, leaves much to be desired in point of yield. Under the most favourable pressing conditions at least 10 per cent. of the original volume of grease is left in the residue. The presence of this grease reacts against the value of the residue as a fertilizer, grease being the bugbear of the farmer. With the latest process for grease extraction this content can be reduced down to 1 per cent. Not only does this represent an increased yield of 9 per cent. of fat with its attendant enhanced financial return, but it gives a fertilizer which, being exceedingly low in fat, appeals more strongly to the farmer, and accordingly is able to command a higher price. This fact appears to have become appreciated by the Bradford authorities according to recent developments.

Because such a striking success has been recorded at Bradford, it is not to say that the self-same method would be equally profitable at other places, especially those handling what might be termed purely domestic sewage. The conditions existing at the Yorkshire city are peculiar, owing to the wool-washing trade. The process which is more likely to make the widest appeal, being the one adapted to meet the average conditions, is that which has been installed in the borough of Oldham. This is the invention of Mr. J. Grossmann, M.A., Ph.D., F.I.C., the well-known chemical engineer, who has made the exploitation of sewage his life-long study. The plant in question was laid down in 1912, being set in operation in October of that year, since which date it has been working without a break, giving the most satisfactory results. At the time the installation was carried out the population of the borough was 148,840, and both the water-carriage and sanitary-pan system were in vogue, although the latter was giving way to the former method at the rate of about one thousand per year. As the conversion system was carried into effect the quantity of sludge which the sewage works were called upon to handle increased, the quantity pressed in 1911 being nearly 8,000 tons a year as compared with 4,000 tons in 1899. This did not include the several hundred tons which were dealt with in lagoons without pressing. As the quantities of pressed sludge increased so did the difficulty of disposing thereof.

The outlook was somewhat disconcerting. The agricultural land in the vicinity could only absorb a portion of the available volume. The necessity to incur the expense of carrying the residue a considerable distance to dispose of it, which solution would have proved somewhat costly, appeared to be inevitable. Experiments innumerable were carried out, but to no purpose. Agriculture, which is regarded as the obvious outlet for such material, was adverse to the proposal to absorb the accumulation for the land, because it carried approximately 15 per cent. of grease. The only escape from the dilemma appeared to be the installation of further presses with the attendant expense for auxiliaries to yield a dry material, and then to pay for the cartage of this residue to some convenient tipping ground or carriage of the settled sludge to sea to be dumped. As a round 30,000 tons of sludge would have been involved, the sea-dumping expedient would have been extremely costly. Further consideration of the question established the possibility of converting the material into a marketable manure, but this would have required the utilization of a trade process and also would have incurred expense.

At this juncture the attention of the Corporation was attracted to Dr. Grossmann’s process. It was investigated and submitted to searching experiments spread over a period of three years at the sewage works. From the results obtained and the experience gathered, it gave promise of being completely successful when conducted upon a large scale. So it was adopted.

The Grossmann process may be said to represent the most logical exploitation of sewage yet attempted in accordance with the severe hygienic conditions imposed to-day. Curiously enough, when the disposal of sewage by water-carriage was first introduced, the critics of the principle did not hesitate to point out that it represented the most wasteful solution of the problem which had ever been accepted for practice. But against these contentions the advocates of the idea urged that the hygienic advantages to be gained were so overwhelming that the question should not be considered from the commercial view-point at all.

Other days, other manners. In this instance, however, not many years passed before the issue attracted such widespread attention as to demand searching investigation, the difficulty and cost attending the disposal of the sludge being responsible for a pronounced outcry against the method. The sludge problem was thoroughly probed by a Royal Commission, by which the opinion was expressed that the value of this waste, calculated upon the volume of dry substance contained therein, was no more than 10s.—$2.50—per ton at the very outside. But as the sludge is produced in a form showing a high percentage of water it was hopeless to expect farmers to absorb it, owing to the transport charges involved for such a comparatively low manurial return, unless their land happened to be situate close to the centres of production. To overcome the water difficulty attempts were made to dry the sludge, in the effort to reduce its bulk, but it was discovered that drying did not constitute a complete sterilization process, with the result that the material was liable to carry infection. But the greatest objection to drying is that this very process, while it achieves one end—the transport difficulty—provokes another disability. The sewage is worth less after drying than in the saturated form.

The presence of fat in material quantities has always been responsible for agricultural hostility towards this waste as a fertilizer. The fat is due to soap used in the household, and which is thrown down the drains, as well as the grease resulting from other domestic operations. The great objection to grease is that it has the tendency to clog the soil.

In turn efforts were made to dispose of the nuisance as a fuel, the heavy proportion of oil present in the dried cake being the attractive feature prompting this application. This recommendation found scanty favour. Another brilliant mind conceived the idea of consuming the refuse in gas-producers, thus obtaining a low-grade gas for power purposes. This attempt failed to meet approbation. A third expedient was its conversion into an illuminating gas, but this likewise failed to overcome the obstacle. In so far as lighting is concerned, in many places the practice is followed of allowing the gas thrown off by the decomposing fæcal matter during its passage through the sewers, to be led to the burners of adjacent street lamps to mix with the ordinary town gas and thus be consumed. But this is merely a safety precaution; it is not followed from economical motives. Now that electricity is widely displacing gas for street illumination, even this quasi-utilitarian system is meeting with defeat.

Under the Grossmann system, as practised at Oldham, the sludge is subjected to a complete scientific treatment. The process is continuous and automatic throughout. Moreover, the plant is designed and built upon the unit principle, which allows the standardization of parts and ability to meet any desired demand by merely acquiring a sufficient number of units to comply with the sewage resulting from a given population. Each unit is capable of dealing with sludge arising from the purely domestic sewage of 20,000 inhabitants. Thus a town of 100,000 inhabitants would require 5 units, a city of one million souls 50 units, and so on in arithmetical progression. Furthermore, any number of units can be worked together, so that in those centres where the population fluctuates according to season or other conditions, a certain number of units can be shut down during the off period.

The sludge passes to a special tank and is permitted to settle down to approximately 20 per cent. solid matter. It is then scooped up by bucket elevators to be lifted and discharged into another tank at the top of the building. This acts as the storage tank or hopper, whence it is moved automatically by means of screw conveyors and distributed among six hoppers. Each of these hoppers feeds a drying machine. The driers, set out in pairs with their brickwork casings and flues, occupy the upper room. The machines themselves comprise iron cylinders set in the brickwork and coal-fired furnaces. They are fitted with a specially designed gearing and pulley mechanism which gradually moves the crude wet sludge from the inlet towards the opposite end or outlet. Being exposed to heat during this passage the sludge is naturally deprived of the water it contains, this being evaporated to be led to the furnace where any offensive gases and other matter associated therewith in suspension are consumed before passing to the chimney to escape into the outer air. By the time the sludge reaches the outlet it has been completely dried.

The arrangement of the feed from the hopper to the drier is such that only a measured quantity of sludge can be passed through in a given time, which ensures the condition of the sludge at the outlet being uniform. The provision of a similar measuring system at the outlet of the drier ensures only a measured quantity of sludge being discharged at that point. It will be observed that these protective devices guard against forcing the apparatus to the detriment of the delivered sludge which emerges from the drier in the form of a dry powder.

If desired this residue may be burned. Mixed with coke it forms an excellent fuel, and can be employed towards raising the requisite steam to conduct the treatment of further sewage. But, in view of the fact that this powder contains about 15 per cent. of fat, its disposal as a fuel would constitute about the most wasteful conceivable. Accordingly, the next stage is the extraction of the fatty content. As it comes from the drying apparatus the sludge is passed automatically into a distilling retort which is bricked-in and heated. Above this retort is a tank containing acid, a certain quantity of which is passed into the retort to be automatically mixed with the powdered sludge. Simultaneously superheated steam is driven through the mass in such a manner as to permeate the whole. The interior of the retort is fitted with gearing and pulleys similar to those provided to the drier and for a similar purpose—the steady gradual movement of the sludge from one end to the other. By the time it has reached the outlet from the machine the sludge, completely deprived of fat, is automatically discharged as a valuable manure and is ready for distribution upon the land.

The superheated steam charged with the grease is passed into a condenser, where water from a feed tank condenses the water and throws down the grease. The mixture of condensed steam and grease is passed into a recovery tank. The grease settling out on the top is removed for boiling up in a separate vessel, upon the completion of which treatment it is ready for packing and sale. The fatty matter consists largely of stearine and palmitine, which to-day meet with a prompt sale at lucrative prices.

But it is the solid residue in the dry powdered form which attracts the greatest measure of attention. Disposal of the grease from sewage has never occasioned so much difficulty as the utilization of the ultimate residue from reasons already explained. In this particular instance the great problem has been solved. The manure is in the form of a fine powder, containing nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, as well as about 40 per cent. of organic material. It is very fine, brownish in colour, odourless, and what is more to the point, absolutely innocuous, having been completely sterilized. Consequently there is no risk of infection being disseminated by its use.

The circumstance that the process is absolutely automatic from the time the sludge is charged into the hopper to the finished article issuing from the distilling retort, is a distinct recommendation. Not only does it conduce to extremely economical operation, but it reduces the necessity to bring human labour into one of the most offensive of industries, inasmuch as the atmosphere of such an establishment is scarcely fragrant, as may well be imagined, although familiarity breeds strange contempts. The only labour essential is that required for heating up the drying machines and retorts.

There is one overwhelming advantage incidental to this process which cannot fail to arouse attention. Pressing in any form is eliminated. This not only signifies a very pronounced saving in capital expenditure in the first instance, but contributes to lower working charges, while there is an enhanced recovery of grease and an absolutely grease-free residue.

Before the Corporation of Oldham decided to install this system upon a practical scale searching experiments were conducted with the resultant manure, to determine its plant-feeding value. It was the promise of being able to find such a ready market for the ultimate residue which constituted one of the attractions of the process. Experiments were conducted at several farms with various produce, and these proved that the manure gives remarkably good results and is more effective than any other plant-feeder containing the same proportion of nitrogen, potash, and phosphates. Finally it contains an ingredient which is absolutely missing from every chemical fertilizer. The latter is certainly a plant food, but it is imperative that the ground should be treated with a certain quantity of organic matter to assure the physical and mechanical working of the soil. Decaying organic matter fulfils this end admirably, as one would suppose, being a natural process, but during the past five years the bestowal of sufficient quantities of necessary humus has been impossible, owing to the shortage in supplies of farmyard manure.

For this reason every farmer regards a grease-free manure carrying substance of a humus-like nature for the improvement of his soil with a particularly friendly eye, and he is prepared to pay a good price for such an article. The sewage sludge fertilizer prepared under the Grossmann process offers the agriculturist just what he desires in this connection, inasmuch as it carries about 30 per cent. of the humus-like substance. Then, again, the active manurial ingredients are distributed over the mass in such a fine state of division as cannot possibly be attained by resort to mechanical grinding. Finally, it is excellently balanced, and the farmer keenly appreciates a well-balanced fertilizer. Here he gets it because the essential operation has been conducted by Nature, whose process cannot be rivalled. Applied to gardens this manure is found to prevent the growth of yellow leaves, while the green of the foliage is particularly rich and dark. In some quarters there has been a certain degree of hesitation to utilize the fertilizer merely because it is derived from sewage, owing to the prevalence of many fallacious notions. Its origin is regarded with revulsion, and its utilization with a certain degree of dread, but there need be no apprehensions whatever concerning its use. The fact that in the course of the treatment the material is raised to a temperature approaching 600 degrees Fahrenheit—where the superheated steam comes into contact with the waste to expel the fat—effectively disposes of all germ life inimical to the health of both animals and human beings, while it is also clean to handle and odourless, it being impossible, from mere cursory examination of the fertilizer, for the lay mind to determine its origin. Finally, it may be stored for any length of time without creating a nuisance, or deteriorating.

The whole of the output from the Oldham sewage works, which, owing to the process of concentration, is really limited, notwithstanding the volume of crude sewage handled, is readily absorbed by farmers. Disposal was entrusted to a firm to act as the selling agents for the Corporation. Owing to the number of repeat orders received, year after year, this house declares that it could easily place 20,000 tons of the fertilizer, were it forthcoming, without increasing its present staff of travellers.

While the outbreak of hostilities militated against the expansion of the process, although many other Corporations have expressed their readiness to introduce the process into their respective sewage works, the past five years have not been allowed to represent dead time. Improvement upon improvement has been incorporated with the object of securing still higher efficiency. In this direction the inventor has made many distinct progressive strides. The one objection levied against the process was the heavy expense incurred in regard to fuel charges for drying the sludge, and these costs naturally have become accentuated by the 200 to 300 per cent. rise in the price of coal. But in this direction it is now possible to record noticeable reductions.

As a result of experiment the inventor has evolved a new method for settling the sludge. He found that, by adding a very slight amount of sulphuric acid—about 1 part to 1,000—to the sludge coming from the settling tanks, the usual settling process is completely reversed. Instead of the sludge settling to the bottom, the addition of the acid causes it to rise to the surface, and in a much more concentrated form. The water settles to the bottom in a clearer condition and can be drawn off. By further settling and draining this top layer—virtually a thick scum—a sludge can be obtained carrying about 30 per cent. solid matter, and therefore as a less volume of water needs to be evaporated a considerable saving in the consumption of fuel and cost of drying is achieved.

Moreover, it is suggested that in laying down new installations, it will be possible and profitable to install a destructor upon the sewage works. In such cases it would be feasible to draw upon the waste heat from the destructor to conduct the drying and other operations demanding the application of heat. In combining the destructor with the sewage plant the question of transport of the refuse from the collecting ground to the destructor would demand very careful consideration when horse haulage is employed, but with mechanical traction the question of an extra mile or two in distance hauled is not of such moment, especially as it would be off-set by the saving of fuel which would attend the diversion of the waste heat to this useful application. In fact, in cases where new lay-outs are being contemplated it is a matter for serious reflection as to whether it would not be found profitable to centralize destructor, electric generating station and Grossmann sewage treatment plant in one centralized spot, interlocking them together, and taking full advantage of such inter-connection. The destructor would furnish the necessary steam from the combustion of cinders and other refuse which it does not pay at present to exploit, or preferably other low-grade fuel to drive the electric plant, the waste steam being carried to the sewage works for the drying and other machines together with the desired proportion of live steam, while the electric station would furnish the requisite power for operating the automatic mechanical appliances.

The grease recovered from the sewage, which is of a domestic character, is essentially that from soap, cooking and washing operations. It is totally free from all objectionable smell. It can be purified very easily and is of distinct value. In its crude condition the fat contains about 70 per cent. of stearic acid.

During the past few years the dry powdered residue has not only been utilized in a direct form, but has also been exploited in the production of compounded fertilizers. Mixed with phosphates, sulphate of ammonia, and other nitrogenous products it has yielded a manure which has given most excellent results in farming. Considerable improvements with regard to greater efficiency and cheaper production have been made in the manufacture of compounded fertilizers from this residue, and there is every indication that still greater developments are possible in this direction.

Were all the sewage of this country treated along these lines British agriculture would derive distinct benefit, while industry would also be presented with a new source of supply of essential raw material. It would go a long way to enable us to use our greases over and over again, because the drain is the most popular avenue for the escape of this material. Sewage represents the greatest waste incidental to this country. Dr. Grossmann estimates its value at approximately £22,000,000—$110,000,000—per annum, of which but only an infinitesimal fraction is at present recovered. The value of the fat alone thrown down our drains, and reclaimed in a marketable form would realize from £500,000 to £1,000,000—$2,500,000 to $5,000,000—a year. The value of the manurial product, of which at least 1,000,000 tons are recoverable during the twelve months, may be set down at least at £2,000,000—$10,000,000—the contents thereof being equivalent to 50,000 tons of phosphates, 50,000 tons of potash salts, with nitrogen equal to that forthcoming from 100,000 tons of sulphate of ammonia. This manure would suffice for the fertilization of at least 3,000,000 acres of land from which we might safely anticipate gathering, at a modest estimate, additional crops worth £5,000,000—$25,000,000.

There is one other fact which deserves mention. Sewage is eminently adapted to the feeding of sandy soils and other land which, at the moment, is considered too poor for agricultural purposes. If this manure were reserved for such land many thousand additional acres might be brought under cultivation in these islands. At the present moment these acres are being allowed to run to seed, constituting what we erroneously term waste land, but only waste because we are not sufficiently enterprising and energetic to reclaim it.

From the point of view of the towns and cities called upon to handle the sewage, the Grossmann process holds out many inducements. It complies with the demands of sanitation because it precipitates no nuisance. It is the most hygienic process yet evolved for the disposal of sewage sludge. The revenue derived from the sale of the by-products—manure and grease—is such as to render the operation of the plant not only self-supporting but money-making. As a rule the sewage works of the average town represent a sink in more senses than one, more especially when it becomes incumbent to resort to the tipping, dumping or other disposal of the enormous accumulations of the sludge. But signs of awakening are apparent. The Oldham plant has been investigated by Corporations and other authorities, not only of this country but from other parts of the world, who have been satisfied as to its commercial practicability. With the restoration of normal trading conditions it is anticipated that the process will become more extensively adopted, especially as during the past five years ceaseless effort has been devoted to the perfection of details to assure the establishment of the process upon a firm commercial basis.

CHAPTER XIX
HOUSE-BUILDING WITH WASTES

Of the many problems of the day demanding prompt settlement, none, perhaps, is so vital to the welfare of the community as the provision of increased housing accommodation. The issue is by no means confined to Great Britain; it is incidental more or less to every country. Such a state of affairs is not surprising, seeing that building operations, at least in the domestic sense, have been reduced to a condition of comparative stagnation for five years. Even those countries which were not drawn into the actual fighting arena have been unable to carry out housing schemes to meet the needs of their growing populations owing, primarily, to the dearth of the necessary materials and the enhanced labour charges.

So far as Britain is concerned the outlook is decidedly disquieting. It is estimated that at least 1,000,000 houses are required to meet the needs of the population. As a first instalment it is proposed to complete forthwith 300,000 houses, but, here again, experience is proving it to be far easier to adumbrate such comprehensive schemes on paper than to carry them into expeditious effect. Questions of cost have arisen. This constitutes the vital factor, because obviously it is folly to build houses for people who cannot afford to live in them. And the limit in the upward tendency has by no means been attained.

The critical situation has been surveyed from every ostensible angle without any practical solution being found. But have we not been circumscribed in our attacks upon the problem? Have we not become so deeply rutted in our ideas concerning everything pertaining to housing as to be unable to regard the aspect from a totally new point of view? Similar crises have developed in, and are constantly assailing, other industries. Upon their occurrence they appear to be equally impossible of successful adjustment, but, finally, as a result of attacking a difficulty from quite a new angle and in a new way, it has been not only subjugated satisfactorily, but a distinct improvement upon the old method brought into operation at one and the same time. A new line of thought and development, possessing greater and more economic possibilities, has been opened up to the advantage of one and all. As a rule one need never hesitate to abandon the existing for something new, because the former is generally associated with some form of waste which has become so heavy as to act as a drag. Directly this retarding force is eliminated, or turned to account, a new era commences.

The contemporary situation in the building trade recalls the state of affairs which arose in American agricultural circles as a result of the outbreak of the Civil War. The drainage of man-power from the land precipitated an extremely depressing outlook. Farmers protested that the soil must run to seed from lack of labour to wield the tools. But thinking men held a contrary opinion. Farming had been conducted along lines which had been followed slavishly for centuries. Manual labour had attained undisputed sway and to decisive disadvantage. Why not dispense with hand labour and use machines? The suggestion that mechanism could displace brawn upon the land provoked a good deal of hostile criticism and humour. But the imaginative were not to be dismayed by conservatism, prejudice, or ridicule. They continued perseveringly along their particular lines of reasoning.

What was the result? McCormick introduced the self-binder which revolutionized harvesting methods, while other brilliant minds conceived equally striking time- and labour-saving appliances for other agricultural duties. They not only solved the immediate crisis but imparted quite a new prospect to agriculture the whole world over. It is safe to assert that, but for the introduction of the self-binder, one-half of the United States would still have remained as barren as the wilderness from sheer lack of labour to cultivate it.

If such a complete revolution proved possible of attainment in such an ancient, rutted, and indispensable industry as agriculture, surely it is not hopeless to anticipate the fulfilment of a similar complete transformation in the craft of house-building? So far as farming is concerned there is every excuse for hesitating to depart from the proved and trusty. A false step may wreak untold harm, but so far as house-building is concerned no such calamity need be apprehended. A mistake can speedily be rectified. It is safe to assert that there is no other line of activity, especially in Great Britain, so closely identified with the effete and wasteful as house-building. In so far as constructional methods are concerned we have scarcely changed our ways since bricks were first brought into use.

We must ruthlessly scrap the old, which has obtained for so long, in favour of the new. Science is forcing the pace, and she will no more be arrested by obsolete theories and arguments than the tides will be held up by a child’s spade. Already she is asserting her power. Contemporary methods are wickedly extravagant, and it is this absurd wastage which is primarily responsible for enhanced costs. The ways of science are inscrutable, but they are sure none the less: the first indications of chafing at delay always assert themselves in the traditional becoming too expensive to maintain. The pocket is the positive road to reform; assail its contents, and the world commences to bestir itself. As the farmer, raised in the old school, had to give way to the engineer, so must our conceptions and ideas pertaining to providing houses for the community undergo a complete change. The architect, his numerous satellites, and the cumbrous rules and regulations which have been framed to protect their vested interests must be jettisoned without a thought of regret. The day has dawned when the engineer must assume the responsibility for providing the people with residential accommodation, and he will be assisted by a new force, including the chemist, which will play a far more prominent part in this problem than many may be disposed to imagine.

This is a utilitarian age. People desire houses to live in—not to look at, although every one will readily agree that a certain regard must be paid to external æsthetic considerations. The average house-owner troubles his head very little over the outside appearance of his domicile or the materials of which it is built, so long as the interior offers him all he desires in regard to comfort and health. Too long have we clung tenaciously to specific theories which are no more adapted to this age than is the slave-oared galley to mercantile traffic. They are destructive rather than constructive. For a time such clock-arresting dogma and precepts hold sway, but sooner or later the pendulum of progress gives such a vicious kick as to break down the whole of the obstructions disputing advance, to assume rhythmic running in a new channel to the advantage of one and all.

Science has the solution to the housing problem ready for immediate application, but she must be allowed to pursue her progressive way untrammelled. From what one might be able to assume, brick and stone represent the only building materials at our command. But are they? In other fields, where restraining forces are not allowed to secure the upper hand, huge forward strides are being made and with a material we, as a supposed commercial nation, have scarcely noticed.

I refer to concrete. We have only to turn to the engineering world to see what has been achieved with this material in the construction of bridges, tunnels, piers, harbours, breakwaters, warehouses, lighthouses, and even ships. If we turn to the United States and Germany we are able to see how we have lagged. In both those countries enormous strides have been made and incidentally, in the prosecution of this task, other magnificent conquests in the world of science and of the industrial employment of waste are recorded. To-day the manufacture of cement constitutes one of the twelve most important industries in the United States, and the greater part of this material is made from what a few years ago was accepted as sheer waste—residue from the iron-works which, having no further ostensible use, was dumped in huge piles to the disfigurement of the landscape. To-day this waste is being turned into building material, having usurped the product originally selected for this duty.

The reason why there should be such a deep-rooted antipathy to concrete for house-building purposes in these islands is somewhat inscrutable. Probably it is due to the experiments which were made many years ago, and which owing to our limited knowledge were construed by the quidnuncs into a failure. But because Brunel’s Great Eastern did not succeed we do not laugh at the mammoth steamship of to-day. Brunel’s conception suffered merely from being premature. So were the first attempts to use concrete in the house-building industry. During the past few years we have acquired further knowledge which should enable us to steer clear of the blunders of the past, but instead of grappling with the problem along the lines which science is vividly blazing we prefer to waste time in the idle discussion of quaint theories and fantastic notions.

Many are the reasons why concrete should be employed. In the first place it is difficult to excel for simplicity. It comprises essentially two materials—cement, sand and rubble, the two last-named being generically described as the aggregate. The term is wide in its meaning, comprising virtually any and every inorganic material capable of being crushed to a pre-determined size, and the character of which may be as varied as the number of days in the year or more, while recent investigation has indicated that even the conventional sand may be eliminated, provided a sharp and gritty substitute in a similar powdered form be forthcoming.

Think what this means and the many possibilities it opens up! In the first place it enables material on site—waste—to be turned to economic account, and the term waste in this instance is extremely elastic. There is no need to disfigure the countryside with yawning craters in the form of pits for the excavation of the special clay suited to the making of bricks. Again we must not forget that by the employment of the conventional building materials a demand is made upon transport, which to-day is as acute as the scarcity of houses. With concrete the only constituent calling for transport from a producing point is cement, and this only involves the movement of one-seventh of the load which would otherwise be involved were bricks to be used. In other words, if seven tons of bricks were required to build a house it would only be requisite to move one ton of cement to yield a similar house in concrete—the other six tons of essential materials could be acquired on the site. The avoidance of superfluous expenditure as well as the economy in time and labour is obvious.

Our towns and cities are daily shedding tons of a specific form of waste—ashes and clinker from electric generating stations, water-works, gas-works, and refuse destructors. The contribution naturally varies according to the population, but a small town burning 40 tons of refuse in its destructor may safely anticipate accumulating clinker at the rate of 8 to 10 tons a day. The disposal of this residue presents a problem in itself. A certain quantity can be absorbed in connection with the sewage beds, road-making and other incidental tasks, but, for the most part, it has to be dumped, merely because it possesses no ostensible application. When one reflects upon the activities of the factories in a manufacturing town and the daily output of clinker and ash from these sources alone, it will be seen that the civic clinker disposal problem is likely to assume enormous dimensions, and to prove a costly issue in itself. Thousands of tons are dispatched by road, rail and water from our towns and cities to be jettisoned at suitable points where unsightliness does not count. The authorities of New York City used to ship hundreds of tons daily 60 miles out to sea, while at Liverpool it had to be barged for 24 miles to be thrown overboard into the Irish Sea at a cost of 2s. 6d.—60 cents—a ton! Many borough authorities will readily give away the material to those who care to fetch it, so keen are they to be relieved of this incubus. Yet, in every instance, the equivalent of sovereigns are being shot upon the land, dumped into the sea, or given away as the case may be.

Cannot a more economic use for this and kindred refuse be found? This is the obvious question in this utilitarian age. Yet it is almost superfluous to launch the inquiry. It can be turned into concrete: could, and should, if we were sufficiently enterprising and astute, as well as frugal in our habits, be turned into houses. Certain attempts have been made towards the conversion of this residue into constructional material such as kerb-stones for lining our pavements, slabs to take the place of York flagstones and bricks for paving purposes, the building of sheds and other insignificant structures, but none represents a grim attempt to wrestle with the issue along bold and comprehensive lines.

Some years ago, the city engineer of Liverpool, Mr. John A. Brodie, M.Inst.C.E., one of our most enterprising city engineers, essayed a bigger step forward. He was faced with the disposal of 50,000 tons of clinker from the city destructors during the year. He made a bold effort to turn it to economic account in the obvious directions—paving and kerbing operations—but these channels absorbed only a round 20,000 tons, leaving some 30,000 tons to be shipped to sea to be dumped at a total annual cost of nearly £4,000—$20,000. The city authorities had resolved to carry out a tenement building scheme, and the city engineer decided to provide them in concrete and to use the refuse from the destructors as the aggregate, exacting tests having convinced him of its suitability for this purpose.

The building, covering an area of 3,717 square feet, of which total 1,611 square feet are open space, is of three floors with four tenements on each floor, finished off with a flat roof, surrounded by a parapet for washing, drying, or playground purposes.

The construction of the building was carried out upon the section or slab system. That is to say the walls, floors, ceilings, and other parts, with all necessary openings, were moulded at the destructor works, and set aside for a time to mature. Some of these slabs were of imposing dimensions, ranging up to 16 feet in length by 13 feet wide, 14 inches thick and weighing 11 tons. Upon arrival at the site they were slung into position and dovetailed into place, thus forming a rigid structure.

As an indication of how modern thought may be hampered severely by prevailing notions it may be stated that, as a result of his deductions and experiments, the engineer decided that a thickness of 7 inches for the walls would be adequate. But his decision was over-ruled. The existing regulations insisted that brick walls should be 14 inches thick and the concrete had to comply with these rules. The result of this indefensible policy, for which misconception and lack of knowledge were responsible, was to double the weight of the structure and to inflate the cost of the buildings to an unnecessary degree. The engineer computed that if construction were carried out upon the lines he advocated the building could be completed, including the provision of all necessary plant, for £1,230—$6,150. Enforced compliance with obsolete rules inflated the cost to £4,072—$20,360. In other words the ratepayers of Liverpool were compelled to spend £2,842—$14,210—more than they need have done—a flagrant waste of money, material, time, labour, and knowledge.

One objection which has been levelled against the concrete house is the concrete floor. But to surmount this objection the Liverpool engineer embedded wooden scantlings in the concrete, covered the surface of the latter with a layer of pitch mixture applied hot, and then nailed down ¹⁄₄-inch floor-boards in the usual manner. In this way the so-called defects of the concrete floor were completely overcome. The walls were subjected to several experiments to determine the most suitable internal finish, some being papered, others plastered, while in further instances a simple coating of sanitary wash or lime was applied. It was found, however, that for such buildings, distemper was the most efficient finishing medium.

This experiment conclusively substantiated the claims advanced by the engineer. It demonstrated the fact that concrete lends itself to rapid construction, the Liverpool building, despite its size, being erected and roofed within three months, notwithstanding frequent cessations owing to inclement weather, and was ready for occupation within another eleven weeks—say six months in all. It is safe to assume that had brick been employed it could never have been finished in the time.

The advantages of concrete for such domiciles are obvious. The structure is as near being fire-proof as it is possible to contrive. It complies with every requirement of hygiene. It is substantial, weather-proof, and sound-proof, while it improves with age. Concrete, unlike the common grade of brick, does not deteriorate under the influences of time and weather. The walls offer no refuge for vermin, unless papered, and should a room become infected as a result of contagious disease among the inmates, it can be promptly sterilized by turning on a hose of boiling disinfectant and being scoured from top to bottom. Rats and mice cannot secure a refuge, because the extreme hardness of concrete taxes their gnawing powers to the superlative degree.

The experience of Liverpool was adequate to drive home the fact that concrete dwellings are not only able to provide the poorer classes with a substantial home, complying in every respect with modern requirements, but also indicated a profitable use for an otherwise useless waste product. Were comprehensive schemes carried out upon these lines the cost factor might be reduced to the absolute minimum by recourse to standardization in the preparation of the slabs. As a result of this initial experiment—the first of its character in Great Britain—the Liverpool city engineer estimated that he could erect future buildings of this type, in blocks of five, at £1,700—$8,500—each, and that this would show a saving of 25 per cent. over the cost which would be incurred if brick were used. But, and this was an important factor, to achieve this end it would be incumbent to allow the engineer to pursue his way unfettered by obsolete ideas, fallacious notions, and antiquated rules and regulations.

Some years ago Edison precipitated a mild wave of excitement by the perfection of a process for moulding houses complete in a solid block, much along the lines followed by the housewife in the preparation of jellies and other similar table dainties. He suggested the erection of a mould to the design of the desired house, including both internal and external artistic embellishments, and then to run the concrete into the metal shell in liquid form and to allow it to set and harden. Then the mould was to be demolished, leaving a solid monolithic-structure from foundation to roof, and without a crack or a joint. The mould, naturally, was built up in sections, which could be standardized and interchanged, so that once a set of moulds had been acquired a house of any desired dimensions might be erected. Of course, this demanded an imposing array of moulds, entailing heavy initial capital expenditure. Edison frankly admitted this to be the weak point in his scheme, because the mould bill for the construction of a “poured” house, as it was called, costing £240—$1,200—would be at least £5,000—$25,000. Consequently the suggestion was impracticable, unless the builder were given an imposing house-building scheme to complete, to enable him to distribute his mould charges in such a manner over the houses as to increase the actual building cost of each only by a trifling amount.

Edison’s conception aroused extreme interest in America and provoked widespread ridicule in these islands. The “poured” house was regarded in the same light as was the telephone upon its first appearance in London. As the latter was declared to be merely a “scientific toy,” so was the poured house described as nothing but a wild dream. But, be it noted, antagonism and objection have been levelled from the fickle standpoint of theory; we have no practical experiment to guide us in our assault upon Edison’s idea. Instead of setting to work to prove, or disprove, the practicability of the poured house we wasted time in academic discussions concerning “sweating walls,” condensation, coldness in winter, and to embark upon high-falutin diatribes concerning the imperative necessity for such abstract demands as “breathing bricks,” and other fantastic ideas which possibly are of interest but do not advance the realization of the cheap house, contribute to the solution of the housing question, or proffer a single step towards the utilization of waste.

The Americans are more enlightened. A new idea is subjected to practical test and discussed afterwards, not destructively, but in the hope of being able to solve the defects which have manifested themselves in the experiment with a view to establishing the commercial success of the idea. While our house-building quidnuncs are leaving no stone unturned to prevent poured houses becoming an established practice, our engineers are setting to work in the American fashion, and as a result we are building poured concrete ships and other articles of utilitarian value. Possibly they are not poured in the strict interpretation of the Edisonian term, but modified according to experience which has been gathered.

In 1909 the International Congress on Tuberculosis assembled at Washington D.C. To stimulate interest in a house built along such lines as to comply with the searching requirements of perfect sanitation and which would be particularly adapted for occupation by persons suffering from tuberculosis, a reward was offered for the best model of a germ-proof house. A young Washington architect-engineer attacked the problem, submitted his conception for such a house, of the “poured” type, and because it triumphed over all competitors, which clung to the rutted line of thought, in the provision of light, air, and sanitation features, carried off the prize.

In this design the cellar which, if damp, forms an ideal breeding-ground for germs and disease, was eliminated. Floors, walls, ceilings, cornices, bath—all were of cement poured into moulds. In each room the floor was given a slightly sloping depression at one corner and provided with a suitable outlet and trap. The idea was obvious. The housewife on cleaning day did not raise impenetrable clouds of dust to pollute the room. She simply removed her furniture, together with all hangings, to be beaten in the open air. Then she turned on a hose and flushed floor, walls, and ceilings, the water escaping through the trap. No dust whatever was raised, and the room was left dry, sweet, and clean. There were many other features contributing to the general attractiveness of the scheme. The model aroused more interest than any other at the Congress exhibition, but, while one and all declared the house to possess every attractive feature, it was regarded as merely a fantastic conception.

But, within the past eight years, more than one little “poured cement” garden city has come into being in the United States. The first commercialization of the germ-proof house was made near Washington. It was run up and occupied within 30 days, and was conceded to be one of the prettiest and most comfortable homes in the countryside, although it cost only about £400—$2,000. To-day it is surrounded by many others.

The scheme has triumphed because the Washington architect-engineer, instead of deriding Edison and dwelling upon the defects of the idea, set out to overcome the problems involved, especially that identified with the moulds. He has succeeded. Instead of demanding an initial expenditure of £5,000—$25,000—upon this preliminary he has reduced the mould expense down to £100—$500. This brings the idea within the reach of commerce. He does not advocate a mould for the complete house, but pursues what may be described as sectional-stage moulding. Plates of steel are pressed into flanged sections 24 inches square. These are clipped and wedged together to form a trough to hold the liquid cement until it hardens. Above this row of plates is disposed a second similar row, forming another trough upon the top of that which has already been filled, and which is setting. When the lower trough contents have hardened the lower array of plates is rolled over to form another trough above the one in which the cement has been run, this overlapping process, as the wall hardens, being continued until the top has been reached. These plates also serve as forms for the moulding of the floors and roof, and are additionally attractive because they readily admit of the introduction of any desired artistic finish. It is a system which lends itself to cheap and rapid construction, as events have amply proved. That the “poured” germ-proof house, built in one solid block, possesses distinct advantages over the building carried out along orthodox lines is evident from the alacrity with which such homes are purchased or occupied, a tendency which is just as pronounced in this country as in the United States. This tends to demonstrate that while the man-in-the-street knows nothing concerning the pros and cons of building materials, he certainly does appreciate the overwhelming advantages of concrete, which, be it noted, is the logical antidote to jerry-building.

That the poured, one-piece house is not merely attractive because of its relative cheapness is evidenced by the number of stately homes which have been built in accordance with this principle upon the other side of the Atlantic. Seeing that these homes have been built to the order of, and are occupied by, those to whom cost is a trifling consideration, it would certainly seem as if the so-called defects of the poured house were more imaginary than real. I have seen magnificent homes, ranging in cost from £5,000 to £25,000—$25,000 to $125,000—built from foundation to roof upon the Edisonian idea. They certainly would have been promptly demolished and rebuilt in other material if the monolithic house possessed even the slightest sign of any one of the many ills to which it is academically said to be exposed.

Industrial corporations in the United States, as in Britain, are faced with problems concerning the housing of their employees. And they are just as perplexing to solve. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company was concerned with the provision of homes for its wage-earners in the vicinity of one of its mines. The question was surveyed from every possible angle, and finally it was decided that the only really attractive solution was the provision of a little garden city of concrete houses, built upon the poured system. The authorities concluded that in this way only would it be possible to provide model sanitary homes, possessing every inducement, at an attractive price, and the project was handed over to the architect-engineer whose germ-proof house had aroused the interest of the International Tuberculosis Congress two years previously.

The houses are built in pairs, thus being semi-detached. Each is of two floors with flat roof, the accommodation comprising on the ground floor living- and dining-rooms measuring 11 feet and 11 feet 6 inches by 12 feet 4 inches, respectively, large kitchen, pantry, and commodious lobby with the projecting porch incidental to American homes. Upon the first floor are two bedrooms measuring 11 feet 3 inches and 11 feet 6 inches by 12 feet 6 inches, a smaller room, and a porch which may be used as an open-air sleeping chamber, if desired, or lounge, with the usual offices. The houses are set out after the manner now being followed in these islands, that is around the four sides of a rectangle, facing a commodious green and flanked on the opposite side by a deep green lawn. The roads skirt the village on all sides, the highway approaches to the inner square being diagonally from each of the four corners.

In carrying out the scheme the designer decided to utilize to the full the available materials upon the spot. This was waste from the adjacent mines, in the form of cinders, with hydrate of lime to give density and weather-proofness. Speed in construction being a vital factor, a novel system was introduced. A railway track was laid around the entire group of 40 houses. The mixing plant was mounted upon one flat car which was also equipped with an efficient apparatus to hoist the concrete. Behind this was a second car carrying the cement, sand, and cinder. The ingredients were shovelled into the mixer, work being continuous. The train pulled up before the first pair of houses, the moulds forming the trough of which were in position. The concrete was hoisted and discharged into an elevated hopper on the vehicle from which a feed pipe and spout was extended to the mould trough of the house-wall. The concrete was run into the trough until it was filled, when the stream was shut off, the feed pipe lifted, and the train moved on to the next house, where the cycle of operations was repeated. By the time the train had completed its circuit and had again reached the first house the concrete previously poured had hardened sufficiently to permit the moulds to be raised to form the succeeding trough, and so was ready to receive another pouring of cement. It will be seen that construction throughout the 40 houses was not only continuous but each supply of concrete increased the height of the wall by about 24 inches, or completed the flooring as the case might be. The building process was not only exceedingly simple, being free from all complicated mechanism, but involved the employment of the minimum of labour, which conduced to extremely cheap erection. The re-setting of the moulds occasions in this system no difficulty, inasmuch as being hinged they are merely swung up and automatically fall into position to form the mould. The work was commenced late in the year 1911 and was completed in the spring of 1912, having to be suspended during the winter months, when, of course, all building operations, irrespective of materials used, is brought to a standstill.

The houses provided in this manner are not only attractive, but are provided at a price bringing them readily within the reach of the wage-earner. True, one objection might be levelled against such standardization as it were, and that is the stereotyped design, but in this instance this is possible of decided relief by resort to tree, shrub, and flower embellishment in which individuality is given free rein, and which effectively breaks up all tendency towards monotony. But apart from extraneous treatment, the village cannot be described as being more monotonous than our terrace system of providing homes for the workers so common to our industrial centres, while even our much-vaunted garden cities are freely criticized from the general atmosphere of similarity.

However, it is cost of construction which constitutes the all-important factor, and the poured house has demonstrated what can be done in this instance. A similar cement city is under way for residential purposes upon the outskirts of Chicago. The bungalow type of house is being favoured here. In this instance cellar walls and first-story walls, measuring some 30 by 40 feet, have been poured in four days. The cost of construction has been exceptionally low, even for America where higher wages and charges prevail, the cost of building a 6-inch wall which in poured concrete is ample for either one-or two-story buildings, having been brought down to 4d.—8 cents—per foot, which is well below the cost of frame houses, admittedly the cheapest form of construction in the United States.

The poured house or any other system of monolithic structure wrought in concrete is freely assailed in these islands for being damp, intolerably cold in winter, hot in summer, and the walls liable to condensation. These are the popular objections raised against the idea. But the experience of those who live in such homes in America completely refutes such statements. The houses are declared emphatically to be bone-dry, exceptionally warm in winter with a freedom from draughts, cool in summer, and free from condensation. The latter defect, it is pointed out, even if it should become manifest, is not irremediable. The chemist can solve it quickly and cheaply. But the great feature which makes irresistible appeal to those who dwell in such homes is that they are always sweet and clean. Washing down walls, ceilings and floors of a room at one and the same time with a garden hose is something beyond the comprehension of British householders, but they will scarcely deny its virtues, and, probably, wish heartily that they were in a similar happy position, because nothing detracts so seriously from the pleasures and comfort of the home as dust and dinginess.

While we display an inexplicable hesitation to build a single house upon the poured system to discover the character of the objections which are said to obtain, thereby ignoring the precept that an ounce of solid fact is worth a ton of theory, we are steadily moving towards the concrete home, although the pioneers are being called upon to battle fiercely against the organized forces of prejudice, conservatism, and vested interests. In order to comply with national and other traditions, so far as practicable, the brick system is being followed. Machines have been devised whereby bricks, but wrought in concrete, are speedily and cheaply produced.

The outstanding characteristic of the most approved of these appliances is the ability to fashion brick-like masses of concrete of varying sizes and dimensions. One of the most handy machines of this character is the “Winget,” wherewith a wide variety of concrete formations may be fashioned cheaply and expeditiously, and adapted to every conceivable building requirement. This machine is noteworthy from the simplicity of its design and operation, compactness, and high speed of working, as well as imposing the minimum demand upon skilled labour. The concrete is not run, but is shovelled into the mould and tamped down. When charged the depression of a lever lifts the block, and in such a manner as to permit its ready removal by two men armed with a carrying bar fitted with forks which grip the under edges of the mass.

This machine has been extensively utilized in this country, and it has proved highly efficient in working. It is excellently adapted for the preparation of blocks or slabs from waste materials, such as the clinker refuse from electric light generating stations, dust-destructors, and other industrial establishments in general, as well as such other residues as coke breeze, chalk, and rubble. High speed of working, combined with the size of the block which may be turned out therewith, enables it to consume such material at relatively high speed. In a Midland town where aggregate of a waste character was required for the fashioning of such blocks, the whole of the daily accumulation of residue from the local electric light station, averaging seven tons, had to be supplemented by supplies of similar waste from private industrial establishments to keep the machine working steadily throughout the day.

With such a machine practically any form of inorganic residue can be put to useful constructional account. Its perfection is enabling private authorities to exploit profitably dumps of refuse which have long been eyesores in the locality for material to satisfy their own building needs. One gas company, which formerly contracted in the usual way for extensions to its buildings, generally in brick or stone, now completes all such work with its own labour and with its own waste, its one expenditure for material being the requisite cement. It encountered pronounced difficulty in disposing of the coke breeze or dust; it was virtually unmarketable. Conspicuous piles accumulated because it was disdained as fuel. The company acquired a “Winget” machine, and by mixing the breeze with cement converted the useless refuse into substantial building blocks. Those which it does not require for its own building operations find a ready market. The outstanding fact, however, is that all recent building extensions are carried out with concrete blocks prepared upon the spot from material which the company produces during the conduct of its business and which has always been considered waste having no commercial value whatever.

To the municipality, faced with residue accumulating from the refuse destructor, gas, and electric lighting installations, such a machine is virtually indispensable. It offers a complete economic solution to a perplexing problem. A certain amount of official building is always necessary, and concrete blocks with clinker forming the aggregate constitutes an ideal and inexpensive material. One great objection often raised against the utilization of cinder and other similar residue for this purpose is the dingy tone of the resultant block. But this need not constitute a handicap. If used for the external walls of cottages the concrete can be finished off in rough-cast, or may even be plastered and painted. In many instances excellent reproductions of half-timbered styles have been carried out in this material, and are far more substantial than those wrought in the conventional brick.

But the chemist must be harnessed to the development, that is if the most satisfactory results are to be obtained. It is the tendency to ignore the chemist which has been responsible for much concrete failure for homes in the past. It is imperative that clinker refuse be analysed. If it be associated with fused glass it is useless for the purpose, for the simple reason that the smooth surface of the glass fails to afford the requisite gripping surface to the cement. Unless care be displayed in this connection disintegration of the block will set in, in which event the concrete will be condemned as a failure when, as a matter of fact, it is the ignorance of the individual and the presence of the glass which are responsible for collapse. Similarly it is essential that the aggregate should be free from organic material. This may be intensely dry when the mixing of the concrete is taken in hand. But the organic material will absorb the moisture after the manner of a sponge, continuing to do so until completely saturated. As a result of this action the material necessarily expands, and so will bring about the breakdown of the concrete. Therefore, if full advantage be taken of the chemist specializing in constructional material in the scientific preparation of concrete, as is done in Germany and the United States, failures will be few and far between.

The authorities of our towns and cities are called upon to handle 5,300,000 tons of dust and rubble collected in the dust-bins of the population during the year. In addition millions of tons of similar refuse accumulate from the consumption of coal and coke by the thousands of industrial establishments scattered over the country. How much of this huge yield of waste is turned to industrial account? But an insignificant fraction, as is proved by its commanding no market value. Certain enterprising authorities, such as the City Fathers of Glasgow, by taking a little trouble, are able to dispose of the whole of their output of this residue and at a profitable figure. Surely what can be done by one authority is capable of being achieved by others up and down the country.

But clinker waste is not the only refuse adapted to building operations. Concrete is something like paper—can be made virtually from anything. There are few building sites which are not capable of yielding something in this respect. This was demonstrated very conclusively in the course of the development of an estate in Ireland. The work was most comprehensive, involving the provision of factories, workshops, farm buildings, and private residences. To prepare the site it was necessary to remove a substantial hill. Instead of excavating the obstacle, dumping and levelling the soil in the usual manner, it was turned into a “Winget” machine to be converted into concrete blocks, which were then utilized as the wherewithal for the construction of the buildings. The result was conspicuously successful, and it is doubtful whether the development scheme could have been carried out so economically and inexpensively in any other way.

There are welcome signs of revived interest in the possibilities of concrete for the building of our homes. In many parts of the country there are enormous hillocks which at the moment are nothing but eyesores. The pottery district may be cited as a case in point. These disfiguring piles have hitherto been ignored, although the localities are clamouring wildly for increased housing accommodation to satisfy the demands of their citizens. Yet these heaps are really potential mines of wealth. Associated with cement and deftly fashioned they can be converted into concrete bricks, the waste constituting ideal material for the aggregate, while, should we be sufficiently enterprising to acknowledge the possibilities of the poured cement house, their value is equally established. No city, town, or village in these islands should suffer from a shortage of houses for its peoples, and none need tarry for bricks. They have ample constructional material at their very doors to build as many houses as they can possibly desire. To turn these potential resources to account it is only necessary to abandon our moth-eaten shibboleths, revise our laws and regulations governing building operations, forget a good deal of what we are supposed to have learned in the past, and turn to science and engineering with a more enlightened spirit. By combining the artist with the engineer and the chemist, and by admitting the utilitarian possibilities of waste, all the difficulties assailing this country at the present moment in regard to one of its greatest sociological problems might be overcome, and the inhabitants of the British Isles provided with drier, more comfortable, and more durable and artistic homes than have ever been brought within their reach during the centuries which have passed, and at a fraction of the cost which is now held to be inevitable if brick is to be employed.

CHAPTER XX
THE FUTURE OF THE WASTE PROBLEM: POSSIBILITIES FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

What is to be the future of the Waste Problem? This is the question agitating all circles to-day. The observance and practice of economic methods are being forced upon us owing to the high prices which are obtaining for every description of raw material, whether intended for the table or the factory.

To a certain degree the action is automatic, from the simple circumstance that supplies are strictly limited. Money does not constitute such a determining factor to-day as was the case five years ago, although of course it still exercises a far-reaching influence. But the mere fact that an adequacy of raw materials cannot be procured merely because one may be disposed to pay fictitious prices, is stimulating interest in the waste issue to a degree which, under conventional conditions, would never have obtained. In times of plenty one does not pause to consider for a moment as to whether it is worth while to devote any time and energy to the exploitation of a certain refuse.

But the great question is one not so much concerning what we can derive from wastes, but whether we have really digested the lessons which the enemy has taught us. On every side we see startling evidences of what he was able to do by scientifically turning over and using the rubbish-heap, and the great wealth he was able to acquire by following such practices. We found ourselves hit at every turn and, in the hope of solving the critical situations which arose, were forced to follow the enemy’s example and become a nation of chiffonniers. We have acquired wealth in the process, have discovered the value of the mine which the junk pile represents, and realize that more wealth still remains to be extracted from such untapped resources.

We have also become intimately conversant with what may be described as the most perplexing phases of the problem, the greatest of which is the segregation and collection of the residues. It is upon this rock that all future effort regarding the scientific exploitation of waste, in these islands at all events, is in danger of being wrecked.

The mere description of what we ourselves cannot use in the course of our operations, as waste, or rubbish, invests the project with a dangerously false atmosphere. Being regarded as worthless there is a tendency towards the opinion that its collection and segregation should be conducted along honorary lines. This is a precarious policy, because it repudiates the fundamental law of the labourer being worthy of his hire, whether it be in ploughing, the smelting of steel, shipbuilding, or the collection of waste.

Simultaneously another immutable law is being flouted. All matter, irrespective of its character, which is capable of being considered as a raw material, must command a market value. It may be high, or it may be low, but the fact remains unchallenged that it possesses a certain intrinsic worth. Refuse, which can be worked into something useful, is just as much raw material as a shipload of ore, or a consignment of gold. It is its mere classification as waste which imperils its commercial significance. This is demonstrated by the sudden importance and value it instantly commands when it becomes labelled, not “waste,” but a by-product.

In these circumstances, therefore, it would represent a decided progressive step if a recognized market could be established in waste products. By so doing all residues could be given accepted commercial values with which one and all might become acquainted by perusing quotations, in precisely the same way as the movement in the prices of raw materials may be followed by reference to the daily or weekly market lists. Until such time as wastes become so recognized the uncertainty of supply must obtain, because it is the very ignorance of the subject which contributes to the loss of such material through fire and other equally destructive measures with its appalling loss of wealth.

The establishment of a market price for all and every description of waste would act as the direct incentive to preserve anything and everything for further possible use. This was proved very conclusively during the war, when bones and paper were in such urgent request, the one for the reclamation of the fat, and the other for re-pulping. Under normal conditions both wastes had received indifferent consideration, and immense quantities of the two materials suffered complete useless destruction by fire. The premium placed upon the price of bones was only ½d., or 1 cent, a pound, the butcher being regarded as the collecting medium. That is to say the bones would be paid for at the above rate upon surrender to the butcher. The reward was not high, but it proved to be sufficient to induce people to husband their bones and to dispose of them in the recognized market. It was the same with paper. The average housewife devoted but little attention to the harvesting of this waste until she learned that the authorities were ready to pay 1d.—2 cents—at least per pound therefor through its accredited agents. Instantly she commenced to display thrift, and was somewhat surprised by the money which could be picked up in this manner. Yet it is safe to assert that had no financial value been placed upon these wastes barely 50 per cent. of what was actually secured would have been forthcoming.

Unfortunately there is a large class of waste exploiters which is disposed to trade upon the ignorance or indifference of the community. In the knowledge that the average house, office and factory has no conception of the value of its refuse, or is ready to part with it for nothing because it is regarded as a nuisance, the waste merchant is disposed to become discriminatory and autocratic. He is perfectly ready to acquire what he knows full well possesses a distinct value so long as he can get it for nothing. The moment the owner sets a value upon the flotsam and jetsam the waste merchant will have nothing to do with it. He assumes an indifferent if not a dictatorial and impossible attitude to which the second party to the projected bargain takes immediate exception. The upshot is that sooner than part with the material for nothing, and in the knowledge that the acquirer is certain to sell out in turn at a profit, the material is withdrawn completely from possible circulation, and so suffers irretrievable loss. To barter is human, and this applies as forcibly to waste as to houses, commodities and produce in general.

The waste market must be set upon a firm and solid basis. Those who have specialized in this field of trading during the past few years, and, as a result, have become acquainted with its possibilities, and the true value of such material as is to be obtained through the devious channels, are in the position to effect such a reform. The price of waste is naturally subsidiary to the fluctuations in the market quotations of the materials whence it is drawn, as well as of those normally employed in the industries to which waste may be applied. The general conditions are decidedly more complex than those prevailing in the handling of straight materials, for the simple reason that then only the one market needs to be watched.

Factors of cost also require to be closely followed. In the true economic and scientific exploitation of all waste products the question of cost is vital. It may easily jeopardize such utilization. Naturally a margin of profit must be available from the working-up of the material, not only to ensure its use, but also to safeguard the sources of supply. This margin must be determined, not on the top of the market as is the case at the present moment when conditions are abnormal, but when prices for raw materials are at their minimum. If, then, the exploitation of waste can be conducted in such a way as to compete successfully with ostensible raw materials, recovery must hold its own to become more and more profitable as the market rises. By-products can be exploited only so long as the cost of preparing them for commerce proves profitable. If it should become cheaper to treat raw materials for a similar article then waste reclamation must suffer abandonment, except in those rare instances where every contributory source of supply must be pressed into service. Such conditions rarely obtain on a low market, because the latter is directly attributable to the circumstance that supply is in advance of demand. It is the inversion of this law which forces high prices.

Efforts have been made to stimulate the preservation and surrender of waste along voluntary lines. But such measures cannot hope to be commercially successful, except under peculiar circumstances, as for instance when patriotism may act as the incentive. The voluntary handling of waste must of necessity prove wanting because it is deficient in discipline, method, and organization such as science demands to fulfil the conquests she indicates. Compulsory measures are absolutely imperative, otherwise all the mickle which makes the muckle must slip through the meshes of the net, no matter how well it may be cast. The Germans were enabled to bid defiance to the world, notwithstanding the stringency of the blockade, by the elaboration of rigid laws ensuring the collection of all waste. Such measures were in force more or less during the halcyon pre-war days, but were severely tightened up when national existence was seriously threatened. Similar compulsory methods will need to be introduced into this country to ensure the full recovery of valuable materials for industry, that is if we are to reduce our purchases from abroad. The desired end can be achieved indirectly by prohibiting the acquisition of the obvious raw materials from foreign sources, because instantly the refuse and residues capable of taking the place of the raw materials will commence to appreciate in value and accordingly will be preserved and utilized.

But the citizens of Britain are opposed to compulsion in any and every form. To impose such conditions is to interfere with the liberty of the subject, although absolute and unfettered freedom, as experience has adequately testified, reacts against the welfare of the individual and the community in general. Failing uncompromising compulsory measures is it possible to achieve comparative success by spontaneous private enterprise?

To obtain an indication of what can be achieved in this direction it is necessary to go to the French capital. There an enterprising and energetic Frenchman, Monsieur Verdier-Dufour, undoubtedly built up one of the largest businesses in the world—founded upon dust-bin waste. The organization was somewhat intricate and full of inner workings although highly effective in the production of results, because the guiding spirit knew that everything has its specific use.

The operation commences in the gutter at the bin in which the householder has dumped his refuse and which he has moved to the kerbstone for collection. Now the Frenchman is a cute bargainer, as the whole world knows, and the concierge, after the passing of the ordinance compelling the householder to bin his refuse, promptly saw a means to improve his pocket. The bin was a lucky dip and accordingly was well worth exploiting as a concession. He promptly drove a bargain with one class of the vast army of Paris waste-gatherers which entitled the individual to rummage the bin before the collector came along, the only requirement being that the “miner” should be up early and on the spot before the refuse carts commenced operations. The placier, as this individual is called, did his work well—the bin contained little of material value after he had sorted its contents. But other less luckless members of the garbage-rummaging fraternity did not spurn to submit the tailings from the first process to another treatment and reap a harvest in the process.

The odds and ends gathered in this manner, and which were of a most diversified nature, for the most part found their way to Monsieur Verdier-Dufour’s establishment, where the precise value of each article, and the grade of each range of substances, became known to the uttermost centime. Nothing was too small to be examined and each article had its individual bin. The man at the helm knew the exact application for each article, while he was a master-mind in following the markets. When quotations were abnormally low he could hold on for the return of better times. His waste commanded the admiration of the firms with which he dealt because he maintained the standard of his products which were exactly as described. Manufacturers merely had to dump the waste into their machines, thus treating it as if it were raw material. There was no interference with the rigid routine of their business, nor were they called upon to expend a further penny in rendering the waste suitable for their intentions. So the master-mind built up a large and highly lucrative business and thus there was very little household waste which escaped reclamation.

Co-operative societies among the rag-pickers supplemented individual effort in this field. In this instance the process is simpler because it is conducted along broader lines. Sorting is not conducted to such a fine degree as under the individual system above described. Consequently it suffers because lower prices are paid. Waste commands a price according to the time and labour which will have to be expended by the purchaser before such material can be safely turned into the precise channels of the huge manufacturing machine for which it has been acquired.

The objection to both co-operative and individual methods, such as I have described, is that they can only be conducted upon the requisite scale in the very largest cities where the volume of material to be handled is relatively heavy. Waste must be forthcoming in a steady stream of uniform volume to justify its exploitation, and the fashioning and maintenance of these streams is the supreme difficulty.

Ostensibly, in this country we have the very finest machinery in existence for the reclamation of waste of every description—the municipal and civic authorities. But, as results have conclusively demonstrated, they are the least efficient institutions in this respect. The few cities which are able to point to great achievements in this field are the very exceptions which serve to prove the rule. They do so in the most convincing manner, and incidentally bring home to us very vividly the enormous wealth which we are deliberately throwing away through lack of enterprise and adequate organization.

The system is responsible for this deplorable state of affairs. The average municipal engineer, even if anxious to excel in this province, finds himself hampered at every turn. He is not vested with sufficient authority or freedom to carry any carefully prepared scheme into operation without the sanction of this, or that, Committee which, as a rule, is notorious for its lack of practical knowledge, more particularly in all matters pertaining to the value of waste. Then the multiplicity of officials and their salaries reacts against every possibility of a scheme being turned into a financial success.

It is a matter for serious discussion as to whether our whole system of waste recovery, in so far as it affects municipalities, should not be overhauled from top to bottom—even superseded. It should be entrusted to private enterprise acting under licence. Were such a force encouraged we might safely anticipate the provision of well-equipped comprehensive plants, similar to those which I have described, for the treatment of waste of every description incurred within the district in which it operates. To this centre should be borne refuse of every description for segregation and preparation for the mills of industry. Private enterprise, from its close contact with the markets, would be able to set prices at which it would be prepared to purchase waste of every description from a dog-mauled bone to a worn-out scrubbing-brush; a discarded daily paper to an abandoned straw hat or pair of tattered boots.

By fixing prices for all and every description of residue preservation and segregation at the source would be encouraged. The housewife, caretaker of the office, and manager of the factory would see that all waste was carefully husbanded, and that nothing possessing the slightest value would be thrown away. The dust-collectors could be encouraged to participate in the general round-up of waste by being given a commission upon all useful material brought in. It might be an over-riding commission to ensure complete and frequent collection. It is only necessary to apply sufficient stimulus in the form of hard cash to ensure that nothing is wasted. Private enterprise could carry out such a scheme whereas municipal authorities are precluded from following such a course.

Under private auspices it would also become possible to exploit the waste accruing in our rural districts. Residences by the wayside, hamlets and country homes from their isolation have escaped the tentacles of previous recovery systems. No recognized specialist in residues, with the exception perhaps of the wardrobe dealer, ever passes their way to pay a call. But, with modern motor transport facilities it would be possible to call at these possible scattered sources of supply for anything and everything, and at regular intervals, so that the owners might be induced to preserve their useful materials. It is maintained that such collection would never prove profitable. Possibly not when considered upon its own footing, but when contemplated in a general scheme it would not only be lucrative, but contribute to the higher efficiency of the plant employed from being able to raise the working output to one more closely approaching the maximum capacity.

Such a method of recovering the waste would stimulate competition which, in turn, would tend to the hardening of prices to the advantage of those who have waste for disposal. The plant would only need to study local conditions in so far as the disposal of readily decomposing refuse was concerned, such as that from householders, fish, meat and other organic matter. The municipal authorities, by virtue of their powers, would be able to ensure that this class of refuse was collected and treated promptly in the interests of the health of the community. Such waste as is not susceptible to deterioration could be sent or drawn from distant points, according to the advantage of price offered, as is actually the case to-day in regard to certain materials.

Private enterprise would also exercise another far-reaching beneficial influence. It would not lag behind the clock of progress. Science is ever advancing and the exploitation of waste lies in its true scientific utilization. Under the present conditions inventive effort in this province is not able to exercise the influence or reap the benefits which it really deserves. The tendency to be satisfied with what is already installed, no matter how inefficient it may be, is too deeply implanted. On the other hand, competition is the lever which impels private enterprise. To turn a blind eye to invention is to court disaster.

Although we have made vast strides during the past few years in the processes of reclamation and utilization of waste we are still far from having penetrated the threshold of the new world of industry, science, and invention which it embraces. The unknown lies before us. For aught contemporary knowledge can say, other triumphs and vast fields of conquest, comparable with those associated with the gas and oil industries, are waiting to be discovered, and this fact is adequate to foster experiment, research, and investigation.

We talk glibly of exploiting waste, but how many products entering intimately into our everyday life are being passed through the mill of reclamation? A little reflection will speedily exhaust the list. If we look around we can satisfy ourselves how much and what a variety of substances are still being permitted to run to utter loss. We have not yet found a use for spent matches, or a means of retipping those which have been scarcely lighted, despite the fact that this indispensable attribute to modern civilization has increased from 300 to 800 per cent. in price. How many typewriter ribbons are used by the tens of thousands of offices in the country during the year, and what is done with them when withdrawn from the machines as being unfit for further service? What is done with the stones and kernels from the millions of pounds of stone-fruits consumed during the year? The inventor is still confronted with the prize which will result from the discovery of an economic use for the 370,000,000 lb. of spent tea-leaves and 100,000,000 lb. of coffee-grounds left in our pots, cups, and urns during the twelve months.

The lists of wastes awaiting profitable disposal are extremely lengthy. Some appear to be as impossible of successful solution as the discovery of the non-refillable bottle. But effort is not confined to the perfection of processes for the treatment of untouched wastes, because the real solution of this problem lies in the full scientific utilization of the product reclaimed. The fact that a waste is being exploited does not imply that such utilization is the most profitable. Investigation may indicate another and totally different, as well as more lucrative application for a certain material. So the inventor is not confined to a narrow field; his opportunities are illimitable.

There is one outstanding factor governing waste reclamation which often escapes observation. It is the only means whereby the cost of living may be reduced. Obviously, if a specific substance, whether it be a foodstuff or raw material for manufacture, be applied exclusively to one individual purpose, and without the residues resulting from its preparation, a certain quantity of which must necessarily be incurred, being turned to any economic account, the one application must bear the whole of the cost involved. It is by turning the residues to some profitable account that the cost of the primary product can be reduced to an attractive level, and the wider the margin of profit on the by-products and the more numerous the latter, the greater the reduction possible upon the quotation for the staple.

For instance, were coal still to be distilled exclusively for its gas, the price of the latter to-day would be so high as to be prohibitive to all but the wealthy. It is the ability to exploit from two to three hundred, or more, by-products arising in the distillation process, which enables the gas itself to be sold at a figure bringing it within the reach of all. What would be the cost of our clothes were it not possible for the mills to take the discarded woollen garments, shred them, combine the reconstructed fleece with new wool, and thus produce a new cloth? It is shoddy, or mungo, which has solved the problem of good clothing at a relatively low price for all, because, to-day, there are very few of us who could afford to buy suits made of 100 per cent. new wool.

There are few spheres of activity offering such attractions, or holding out such tremendous prizes to the persevering and brilliant of thought as that identified with the exploitation of wastes. The field is so vast as to be open to the endeavours of the layman as much as to the master of knowledge. While many of the questions to be answered are of severe technical significance, there are many which are equally capable of solution by the man, or woman, who has had no technical training. There are many “crown cork” problems awaiting solution, while there is equal scope and opportunity for those possessed of the powers of organization.

The opinion prevails in certain quarters that the present wave of interest in the scientific reclamation of waste is merely ephemeral. Doubtless this feeling prevails because of the extreme length to which the fetish of cheapness and extravagance had carried us and which shortcomings appeared to be so firmly ingrained as to form part of the British character. To a certain degree prevailing high prices are certain to persuade us to pay closer regard to this issue than has heretofore been the case. Nevertheless, the longer such abnormal conditions obtain the more impressed shall we become of the wealth to be won from waste. They will compel us to strive to extract the utmost from the raw material placed in our hands. They will induce us to become more and more reluctant to discard a material after we have secured all apparent worth which it appears to be capable of yielding, from the fear that the ultimate residue may still contain something of potential value which we have not succeeded in discovering.

While, doubtless, the gradual relapse of conditions to the normal will exercise the effect of causing us to pay decreasing regard to the value of the wastes, it is to be hoped that, by the time such a stage has been reached, we shall have become so powerfully impressed with the potentialities of residues as to continue to exploit them instinctively. If such be the case we shall find ourselves in the position of being better armed for the coming commercial struggle with Germany, to whom waste has brought extraordinary wealth in the past. Thus equipped we should be able to meet a remorseless and clever commercial antagonist on more than level terms.

Of one thing we may rest assured. Germany, past-master in the art of exploiting wastes, will exert herself far more strenuously in this field in the future than she has ever done before. Economic considerations will compel her to keep her foreign purchases of raw materials down to the irreducible minimum and to force her sales abroad to the absolute maximum in order to secure the rehabilitation of her trade balance. To consummate this end she will leave no stone unturned to exploit her refuse of every description to the full. No one knows more than Germany what can be done with the so-called rubbish-heap, and no other country is more cognizant of the fact that the industrial exploitation of waste creates wealth. So it behoves us to keep a tight hand upon our residues from household, office, and factory, and to exploit them ourselves to our own financial and economic advantage.

The End

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