Applied to London, the avoidance of soap-waste is certainly startling. It not only indicates how we can retrieve the £1,000,000—$5,000,000—at present escaping down the drains during the year, but the fat thus saved may be turned to more valuable account. The soap contributing to this gross loss is made from the very material possessing decided dietetic value. Therefore, by the law of economics, it should be diverted from its present use, admirable though it be to fulfil the claims of cleanliness, to the more vital application, especially in these days of stress and shortage. The table must take precedence over the bath.
CHAPTER XIII
TURNING OLD OIL INTO NEW
Oil is the blood of industry. Do we ever pause to reflect as to what would happen if we were suddenly to be deprived of our supplies of this commodity? Do we realize that without oil every machine would instantly be condemned to idleness, that our clocks would stop, and that it would be impossible for a train, steamship, tram, or omnibus to move a yard? The probability is that we have never given a thought to the subject, otherwise we should scarcely be so extravagant in our use of the article. Certainly we would not hesitate to expend appreciable effort in the recovery of as much of the waste as possible for further use.
Britain’s normal importations of lubricating oil are in the neighbourhood of 68,000,000 gallons a year, and they cost us a round £2,500,000—$12,500,000. The tendency in regard to consumption is upwards owing to our enhanced industrial activity, so that we are becoming more and more dependent upon extraneous sources of supply for our requirements.
But the wastage is colossal. Rags and cotton waste, after becoming so soddened with oil as to be incapable of absorbing another drop, are discarded without compunction. There is scarcely a workshop, factory or office in the country which cannot point to improvidence in this direction. Such absence of thought is deplorable for more reasons than one. Not only is the oil, which might be recovered, irretrievably lost, but the very absorbent which from its textile nature might prove of distinct value for other applications shares a similar fate. Were only 50 per cent. of the oil wasted in this country during the course of the year recovered, it would be possible to reduce our imports to a very pronounced degree. The reclaimed oil might not be of any value for its avowed purpose, but it must be remembered that lubrication does not constitute the one and only purpose to which oil can be applied.
The remarkable development of mechanical traction upon our highroads has been responsible to a marked degree for our increased consumption of this commodity, and this is the very field in which the greatest losses are incurred. There are thousands of garages scattered over the country. Many are of unpretentious calibre, but even the smallest of these establishments contributes its quota to the oil wastage issue. In cleaning operations oil is drawn off from engine crank-chambers and gear-boxes to run to waste. Rags are used for wiping and cleaning to be perfunctorily thrown away or burned when they have become too saturated for further use. The private motor-owner is probably as pronounced a contributory source of waste as the small garage, because he, too, is prodigal in his use of oil in every direction, and scarcely ever gives a thought to the retention of the waste for treatment to recover the oil and to release the rag for other duty, even if it be only for making paper.
At the moment the losses in this direction may not be so heavy as they have been in the past, for the simple reason that oil, in common with other commodities and in compliance with the inexorable law of supply and demand, has become more expensive. As the price rises the tendency to be sparing and careful becomes more marked, which only serves to prove that cheapness is the primary incentive to waste.
Wherever machinery has to be kept steadily and rhythmically moving oil is indispensable, so that it is not a difficult matter, when we recall the immense quantity of machinery which is kept running in these islands to maintain our industries, and to furnish our homes with such amenities as water, gas, and electricity, to recognize that our consumption of this article must necessarily run into huge figures. Our imports do not extend the true index to our dependence upon this article, because appreciable quantities thereof are derived from domestic sources of supply, such as coal and shales.
Machinery is insatiable in its hunger for oil. This circumstance, combined with the increasing price of the article, has been responsible for the display of striking fruitful thought and experiment in the discovery of effective substitutes. This is particularly noticeable in our machine-shops. A lubricating agent must be utilized to facilitate the cutting of metals. Oil is admittedly the most efficient and best suited for the purpose, but many excellent compounds have been evolved to consummate the desired end and to conspicuous advantage. In one machine-shop the consumption of oil by the large automatic tools became so heavy as to prompt experiment. Many expedients were evolved and submitted to practical test, but they failed from some peculiar cause or other. However, perseverance brought its due reward. A substitute at last was found, with the result that oil for cutting was abandoned. By the change over the firm in question succeeded in effecting a saving of £30—$150—per month on each large automatic machine it had in use by the supercession of oil for cutting.
Doubtless opportunities for substitutes still exist in many other directions, but commercial rivalry under normal conditions, with enhanced prices prevailing in regard to costs of production, has not yet been sufficiently encountered to compel the use of the substitute in preference to the ostensible staple to secure manufacturing economies. But changes will, and must of necessity, be recorded as the struggle for trade develops.