[USING UP WASTE SUBSTANCES.]
The subject denoted by the above title, more than once treated in the Journal, is adverted to by an obliging Lancashire correspondent who, surrounded by one of the busiest and most ingenious clusters of townsmen in England, has had his attention drawn to various substances waiting (as it were), for application to useful purposes. His suggestions are not wholly new, having to some extent been already anticipated; but they are sufficiently valuable to call for notice here.
One relates to the waste that presents itself in the processes of manufacturing cotton. A residue known technically as willowings, that falls into a receptacle during the preparatory beating and disentangling of raw cotton-wool, consists of a dusty heap of seed-husks and short broken fibres. It is used by farmers to absorb the liquid manure of their cowsheds and middens or dung-heaps. Although some of the cottony fibre may be separated through a sieve, so much adheres to the seed-husk as to render it unsuitable for paper-making, for which it has often been tried. The suggestion now made is, that though unfitted for paper, this refuse may possibly be found useful in the manufacture of millboard. Large quantities of this tough and durable product are employed for bookbinding, for making the discs of railway wheels, &c.; and as colour is not a matter of moment, the idea is that the mingled residue of cottony fibre and seed-husk might be rendered available. It is known that millboard made from wood-pulp is imported to a considerable extent from abroad; and we are told that 'a large portion of the private income of the great German Chancellor Prince Bismarck is derived from the manufacture of wood-millboard on his Varzin estate.' Many hundred tons of willowings could be obtained in Lancashire at a very cheap rate, even as low as two shillings per hundredweight.
Another suggestion bears relation to the utilisation of refuse from the manufacture of prussiate of potash, a most valuable product in the hands of the manufacturing chemist. The prussiate is obtained in large ratio from woollen rags, after the separation of all the pieces that can be worked up into shoddy for cheap cloth. The refuse is calcined in cast-iron retorts, lixiviated with water, and drained off for subsequent treatment: leaving behind it a thick black sediment of impure animal charcoal. The suggestion relates to the application of this residue to the manufacture of blacking—a humble but valuable agent for those who appreciate tidiness in the appearance of boots and shoes and economy in the preservation of leather. If useful for this purpose, it might be found advantageous and economical as an ingredient in printers' ink. Whether this carbon residue is at present applied to any other useful purpose, we are not fully informed.
A third suggestion relates to the preparation of animal size for the carpet-manufacture and for that of many kinds of woollen and worsted goods. This size is made from the clippings and scrapings of skins and hides, from rejected scraps of parchment and vellum, and from the worn-out buffalo skin pickers and skips largely used in textile manufactures; also from the pith of cattle-horns, which contain a large amount of valuable gelatine. The suggestion is, to utilise the refuse left after making this size. One large carpet factory in Yorkshire rejects as utterly useless a ton or more of this refuse every week. The horn-pith contains as one of its components phosphate of lime, and is on that account recommended to the notice of the manufacturers of chemical manures on a large scale.
One more suggestion comes from our ingenious correspondent. Old corks are applicable to a greater number of purposes than we are generally in the habit of supposing. That many of them are ground up to make cork-stuffing for cushions, padding, &c. is well known; but there are other uses for them as corks or half corks, besides making floating buoys and life-preservers. A taverner in a Lancashire town covered the floor of his lobby and bar with very open rope-matting, and filled up the openings with old corks cut down to the level of the surface of the mats. This combination is found to be almost indestructible under the feet; while it gives a good grip or foothold. As the making of rope-mats is one of the trades carried on in reformatories and some other large establishments, it is suggested that the managers should take into consideration the feasibility of adding old corks to their store of manufacturing materials.
As this Journal finds its way into every corner of the busy hives of industry, it may possibly be that some of our readers are already acquainted with such applications of waste refuse to useful purposes as those which our esteemed correspondent suggests. But this is a point of minor importance. The primary question is, not whether an idea is absolutely new, but whether it is practicably susceptible of useful application. The history of manufactures teaches us that apparently humble trifles like these have proved to be worth millions sterling to the country.