Dirty Dustbins and Sloppy Streets / A Practical Treatise on the Scavenging and Cleansing of Cities and Towns

by H. Percy Boulnois

The practice of filling up hollow places with either house refuse or street sweepings cannot be too strongly deprecated, as it stands to reason that some object is in view when these hollows are thus filled up, and we may be sure that the object is that of transforming inconvenient and impracticable pieces of ground into convenient building sites, whereon, sooner or later, eligible villas make their sudden appearance, almost with the rapidity of Aladdin's Palace, under the magic hand of a jerry builder, and woe betide the unfortunate being who, struck with the pretentious appearance and low rent of one of these eligible family residences, takes up his abode therein, for so surely will disease, and perhaps death, be his visitor. I will not here enter into the details, or describe the medical reasons why such sites are unhealthy for dwelling-houses, as the fact is almost self-evident, and the practise of using either house refuse or street sweepings for such a purpose has been condemned by sanitary experts over and over again. But I will pass on to describe a method of disposal of town refuse which is now gaining some popularity in localities where difficulties are experienced in getting rid of the refuse by any of the means to which reference has been made, and which up to the present time seems to be the best solution of the difficulty. I allude to the process of the destruction of the refuse by fire. With this object in view a Mr. Fryer has invented an apparatus which he styles a "Patent Carboniser, for the conversion of garbage, street, and market sweepings, also other vegetable refuse into charcoal." This apparatus consists of a structure somewhat resembling, externally, a brick kiln. It is divided into hopper-shaped compartments, which at the bottom are furnished with a furnace, fitted with a reverbatory arch. A fire is lighted in this furnace, the necessary combustion being obtained, and the heat maintained, by burning the cinders, which are sifted out of the house refuse for this purpose.

All the street sweepings, refuse, garbage, &c., is then thrown in at the top of the kiln, and it is there and then completely destroyed by the action of the fire, and converted into charcoal, which is withdrawn through a sliding door fixed at the bottom of the kiln. The inventor further contends that his Carboniser not only burns everything within it so thoroughly and completely as to produce effectual deodorisation, but also that in the process all noxious gases which may be driven off the burning organic matters contained in the refuse are themselves burnt and destroyed.

Mr. Fryer has also patented another apparatus which he calls a "Destructor for reducing the bulk for purifying and fusing mineral refuse of towns, the residue to be converted into concrete or mortar." This apparatus is somewhat similar in construction and mode of action to the "Carboniser," except that it has no tall kiln containing the hopper-shaped compartments. Great heat is, however, necessary in order to fuse the mass of heterogeneous articles that are thrown into it, and its success is greatly dependant upon such heat being constantly and efficiently maintained. It is said that the cost of an establishment to dispose of the refuse by this means, consisting of one six celled Destructor and an eight-celled Carboniser, boiler, steam engine, mortar pans, cooler, chimney, shaft, and buildings, is about £4,500.

Each cell is stated to deal with about 50 cwt. of refuse in every twenty-four hours, and that no nuisance is experienced in the vicinity of the depôts. This apparatus has, I understand, been adopted in Kralingen, Leeds, Blackburn, Bradford, Warrington, and Derby, and is about to be adopted in other important places.

It is not my intention here to describe or to discuss the question of the collection and disposal of night soil, which in many towns is intimately connected and amalgamated with the collection of house refuse and the cleansing of streets. It is a subject of sufficient importance to be dealt with separately. The following particulars, however, with reference to the collection of house refuse in connection with the pail system at Manchester will not be out of place, especially with regard to the reference which is made to Fryer's Carbonisers and Destructors, and it must be borne in mind that the refuse here spoken of is wet, which makes the difficulties connected with its destruction by fire greater than it would be if only dry, or comparatively dry, house refuse had to be destroyed. These particulars are gleaned from a report contained in a copy of the British Architect, of 1876, of a visit by the members of the Manchester Scientific and Mechanical Society to the works of the Manchester Corporation Health Committee, the figures being altered so as to conform more closely with the growth of the work since that year.

There are about 56,000 closets in Manchester, 44,000 of which have been constructed on the cinder sifter principle, and are emptied during the day, the remainder are emptied during the night.

The contents of the new closets are brought away by vans specially constructed for the purpose, having five compartments, one of which is open and uncovered, and this receives the dry refuse; the other four compartments are covered and enclosed with tightly fitting doors. Each of these compartments holds six galvanised iron pails, which are also covered with closely fitting lids. The van bottoms are panelled, and the inside of each panel is filled with a layer of carbolic acid powder, one inch thick, and they are thoroughly cleansed after each journey.

The Health Committee employ 100 of these vehicles, each one making four journeys per day. The contents of the closets which are emptied during the night are taken away in open carts, two-thirds to the tips and the remainder along with the refuse brought into the yard by the vans, is sent each night into the country.

The amount of material dealt with each week by the Health Committee is about 3,000 tons, and may be described as follows:—Paper, 1 ton; rags, 3 tons; dead animals, dogs, cats, rats, mice, guinea pigs, &c., 2 tons; stable manure, 17 tons; meat tins, old tin and iron, 33 tons; refuse from slaughter-houses and fish shops, &c., 60 tons; broken pots, bottles, and glasses, 80 tons; vegetable refuse, door mats, table covers, floorcloths, old straw mattresses, 100 tons; fine ashes, 1,230 tons; cinders, 1,400 tons.