Money from Waste Products

Western Star, 28 March 1911, Page 2

Money from Waste Products

The manufacturing world is still making remarkable progress in connection witb the utilisation of socalled waste products. A writer iii the "Scientific American" mentions some of the tihings once regarded as worthless, that are now turned tO/'pr 0 fitablo account. Old 'tin cans, formerly thrown aside to rust and rot, are moulded into buttons, toys anil other small articles of everyday use. Old boots and shoes, and perished rubber, are prepared so as to yield a substance combining- the Vitalities of leather and rubber. Broken glass, ground fine and mixed with certain kinds of sand and clay, is transformed into artificial stone. The valuable chemicals which are to be found in smoke, are saved by several processes already in use. An American inventor has just concluded Experiments which show that one hundred cords of wood produce in tfoo furnace twenty-eight thousand cubic feet of smoke which, in. turn, render a process of distillation, will yield six tons of acetate of lime, twenty-five pounds, of tar, and two hundred gallons of alcohol, suitable for the production of light, heat, or power. Perfumes, once obtainable only from flowers, fire now extracted from 1 waste fruit, such us decayed pears, grapes, and peaches, as well as from tar. The substance known as- 'slag,' which is the 'debris of iron ore, used to be regarded as useless and great hills of it were allowed to accumulate in the manufacturing districts. Excellent td*es is now made fr o m slag, also paving-blocks, and bricks. ar'tiQilil porphyry and cement- Ground witb a small per cent-age of slaked lime, slag produces building mortar, end it appears as copings and mouldings window-sills and pieces. Another valuable product formerly thrown away or burned is sawdust. Alcohol, a very good ...uality, r* distilled from sawdust by an inexpensive process. It has also been discovered thai the saw-dust from lech a nd other Kinds of forest trees will yield a palatable sugar. 'The sawdust trade of New York is said to have an annual value of abo-ui four hundred thousand pounds. Ti is quite appalling to think of the 'oss■■•.« tha'i the world suffered before the advance of science made possible the . use of many waste products.