ARMY "FAT KING" SAVES £500,000.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 309, 30 December 1922, Page 17

ARMY "FAT KING" SAVES £500,000.

HOW THE WASTE TUB FED THE GUNS. How the table refuse of the troops In the war came to be treated by the invention of an officer, who was popularly known In the ranks as the Fat King, was described before the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors. Major G. X. Ellis claimed that bis extracting plant had rendered a great service durlt?T the war by dealing with refuse from camps and bases which otherwise might have been thrown away. Emphasis was laid on the glycerine got from the bones coming from mess-rooms, etc., because this article was vitally necessary In the making of shells, etc. It was obtained by the Major's plant at the right moment. Counsel said that for every ton of fati salved by the plant there was glycerine ■far a potential ton of propellent explosive. •It was admitted that 9000 tons of fat were' sent over, and it could also be proved that ( ■2800 tons of bones were dispatched. Major Ellis gained some reputation among the troops in France, and was popularly! mentioned by them as the. Fat King. At' the time of the Invention the claimant was a officer commanding a sanitary section un the R.A.M.C. | Giving evidence. Major Ellis said that! before he Introduced his plant most .of the! refuse was being burnt. About 10 per cent of glycerine was extracted from the fat he sent home. The first plant he erected was at Etaples. The hesarlng of the case was adjourned.