Rubbish That Makes Men’s Fortunes.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXII, Issue 3962, 14 December 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

Rubbish That Makes Men’s Fortunes.

THERE IS MONEY IN THE THINGS YOU THROW AWAY AS WASTE. (“Pearson’s Weekly.”) Tlio recent knighting of Dr. Perkins recalls the fact that it was originally from what was at that time a gasworks ■waste, viz., .coal tar, tho wonderful discovery of aniline dyes was made. He was endeavouring to synthesise quinine, when lie accidentally the colour mauve, and since thou science has given ns innumerable shades of colours from tho same source, and created one of the most important of tho world’s industries. At tho present time the utility of waste, or apparent waste, is astonishllirr. Take the accumulated dust-bin refuse of large towns. Now York not only gets the whole of its house refuse removed free of cost, but is paid £12,000 per year for tho privilege by a contractor. Ho has this refuse systematically sorted by thousands of workers, and all old rubber, paper, felt, bits of metal, rags, bottles, rope, and string arc collected. The yearly value of this may bo gnagod from the fact that it was stated during an investigation a year or two ago, tho contractor’s yearly earnings wore not far short of £IOO,OOO per year, and in the course of the same inquiry a witness stated he would bo willing to give £IO,OOO per year for the Some of the English municipalities privilege of handling the old tin cans which find their way to the refuse heaps. Some of our English municipal.tics are also alive to the value of their refuse. RUNNING ELECTRIC TRAMS WITH REE USE. Preston operates the whole of its electric car service from the burning ot 6U tons of rubbish daily in its refuse destructor, where sufficient steam is raised to generate IU,OUU units of electricity. Manchester obtains a fine revenue from a highly concentrated manure, which is sold all over tho country. Southampton, in addition to generating steam from its refuse sufficient to drive a large pumping plant, utilises tho residual clinkers tor making blue paving tilos. Glasgow collects from tho streets, etc., and sells, its waste paper, realising a considerable sum each year. Steamship owners also look carotully after their waste. On largo Atlantic and other passenger steamers the whole of tho fat of every description is saved up to the end of tlio voyage. It is sold to soapmakers, and, being 'worth about 15s per cwt., realises many thousands of pounds to some of the largo companies. , . , Old rope has a high _ commercial value, being worth nearly 50 per cent, of its original cost when new. Those ropes which are not too much worn are respun and used on smaller ships where tho breaking strain is not required to bo such an extremely important factor. it is not generally known, however, that any maniia rope however short or worn, known in tlio trade as “Shakings,” is worth nearly £l2 per ton. This is utilised by papermakers, and makes a very tough paper. OILY RAGS HAVE A VALUE. Scraps of borings of brass, copper, or load are worth £SO, £65, and £ls per ton respectively, whilst brassfoundors’ ashes are also sought after for the percentage of metal they contain. Old electric lamp ends have their market price, many of them contain a minute quantity of platinum in the filament, which makes them worth 12s per 100. No opportunity is lost in recovering grease or fatty materials for soapmaking. Many of our leading railway companies have laid out expensive plants to recover the oil and grease from tho sponge cloths used by their engine drivers a*nd other workmen. These cloths are collected and sent to the central depot, where they arc placed in a hydro-extractor, which extracts the lastdrop of oil or grease which is sold to soap-makers 1 . Another method of recovering this grease from tho same article, is to soak the cloths in naphtha which is condensed, leaving the residual grease. . In the large .stock-yards of Chicago the utilisation of by-products has been reduced to a fine art. Not the tiniest particle of organic .matter is wasted. The head and tho feet of the cattle go to the fertiliser and glue works. From the horns are made combs, buttons, hair pins, and imitation ivory ; out of the shin and other largo bones aro cut knife and tooth-brush handles, mouthpieces for pipes, buttons and bone ornaments ; out of the hoofs, again, are cut hairpins and buttons before the rest is made into glue. From such things as feet, knuckles, hide clippings, small bones, and sinews, are obtained such unlikely products as gelatine, isinglass, phosphorus, boneblack, shoe-blacking, ghie, ncatsfoot oil, grease, stcariue, and fertiliser. The hair from tho cattle tails after going to the curled hair works is utilised for upholstery. The bristles from tho pigs go to the bristle works, and aro sold in various grades for paint-brush making. Tallow and grease are further refined and converted into various grades, high and low, of laundry and toilet soao, and glycerine. Tho pig’s stomach and pancreas, and tho sheep’s thyroids and other glands go to the pharmaceutical laboratory for pepsins, paucreatius, desiccated thyroid, and other medicinal articles. From tlio entrails are obtained violin strings, whilst the intestines are cleaned and exported as sausage casings. The blood is caught for sausage-mak-ing, whilst the whole of the tankage and waste blood is collected and utilised for the fertiliser. Dead flics are not usually counted as worth much ; but on the Amazon there aro many who gain a living by catching, drying, and exporting them to tlio London market. Tho Amazon abounds with these flies, and tho natives use a close-mosbod net, and scoop them in as they swarm above the surface of tho ■water. They aro then killed, dried, and packed in bags, and arc used here as chicken food. Formerly, these flics sold at sd. per pound, but tho demand has grown so much and the supplies so restricted that tlio present price is about Is 3d per wound. SMOKE IS TURNED INTO GAS. There is even money to bo made in smoko. On the 'Continent, in some of the Belgian towns such as Brussels and Malincs' many manufacturers have not only got rid of tho smoko nuisance itself, but turned it to commercial utility. By means of a strong ventilating fan the smoko ia driven through a filter composed of porous material on which petroleum, benzine, alcohol, or

some other liquid hydro-carbon is continually sprayed. The gas thus generated and purified after being forced through the filter is used for ponei and lighting purposes, whilst the absorbent material in the filter, on x'enen al, makes h first-rate fuel. A machine for making corks out of •waste paper has just been patented. AIL kinds of waste paper can be utilised, and the corks made therefrom are said to be superior to the usual kind, as they are not affected by acids or oils. They are likely to bo used largely by chemists. , , , The stalk of the cotton plant has hitherto been absolute waste, but the latest inventions which have passed the experimental stage show that it is now possible to manufacture all grades ol paper from it. In addition to this a variety of by-products, such as alcohol, nitrogen, cellulose, can be obtained in paying quantities. It is estimated that this new discovery will increase the value of the American cotton crop by £2,000,000. MONEY IN WINE DREGS. On the same .lines a valuable discovery has just,been made which vitally affects .the prosperity of the West Indies. 'Cane megrass is the dried sticu of the sugar cane after the latter has been crushed, and tho juice removed by the mill rollers. Megrass has hitherto been used as fuel only for boiling the .sugar. It has 'been found, however, that paper can be made from this waste, and a syndicate lias offered £1 per ton for all available for manufacturing. This will yield a clear additional £IOO,OOO to tho growers at present. The dregs of wine casks do not appeal to anyone as being of tho slightest value; but our cuto friends, the Americans, have discovered that from genuine old wine dregs it is possible by scientific aid to duplicate the famous wines of Bordeaux. Burgundy, or the Rhine. From these dregs are obtained the wine germs, and each particular brand is placed for safe-keeping in a substance prepared from Japanese isinglass and fruit juice. In this jelly-like mass the germs soon establish a colony. When needed, sufficient germs may be placed in a tube of sterilised fruit juice, which, after two or three days, will be in full •fermentation with plentiful effervescense. This process is said to impart to tho wino the exact bouquet and character of the wine from which the germs originally came. OBEYING DOCTOR’S ORDERS. In a largo boarding-house there lived two Englishmen and an Irishman, who were very friendly. On© night, after the Irishman had gone to bed, his friends were very surprised to bear ~a noise, which sounded as if Pat was taking a run round his bedroom for exercise. They took no notice, and the following 'night the same .poise took place. The third night, however, Pat seemed to be skipping round and round tho room. ■His friends, being curious to know what Pat was doing, went up to his bedroom. The poor Irishman, seeing them watching him, sat down apparently breathless, and blurted out in short gasping .sentences : “ Sure, Oi’vo got to take me medicine.. The doctor told me to take it two nights running and skin the third night, ami ain’t I just following his directions ” ,