REFUGEE 



mechanical compression of a con- 

 densable vapour. Any liquid which 

 can be alternately liquefied and va- 

 porised serves, and the substances 

 used are water, sulphuric ether, sul- 

 phurous acid, ammonia, and car- 

 bonic acid, the last three being the 

 favourite media. Refrigeration on 

 a large scale is chiefly carried out 

 by machines of this kind. The 

 objects to be cooled by the use of 



6534 



Compressor 



Ammonia Liquor 



REFUSE 



e.g. the weaving 

 and silk manufac- 

 tures brought over 

 by the Protestant 

 refugees from 

 France at the re- 

 vocation of the 

 edict of Nantes, 

 1685. During the 

 Great War numbers 

 of Belgian refugees 

 made their way 



Refrigeration. Plan of small installation of cold storage 



plant. A. Heat store. B. Fish store. C. Wrought-iron 



brine-filled tank with expansion coil. D. Brine coils. 



E. Electric motor. Top, right, diagram o! system 



refrigerating plant must of course 

 be placed in a container of some in- 

 sulating material. This material 

 must have the minimum of con- 

 ductivity, must be damp-resisting, 

 and must be sanitary. Charcoal, 

 hair felt, pumice, silicate cotton 

 (the slag from iron foundries), cork 

 slabs, timber, and paper are used for 

 the walls, and the flooring is usually 

 of ashes, asphalt, or concrete. 



From 1830 onward there was a 

 considerable import into the 

 United Kingdom of natural ice, at 

 first from America, and then from 

 Norway, but the trade ceased with 

 the outbreak of war in 1914. 

 During the War the necessity 

 of transporting and preserving 

 large quantities of food for the 

 armed forces, and for the civil 

 population, led to an enormous ex- 

 tension of cold storage works, and 

 the production of refrigerating 

 plant for insulated rolling stock, 

 and cargo ships. 



The introduction of refrigerating 

 plant has developed the Australian, 

 New Zealand, and Argentine frozen 

 and chilled meat trade, and has 

 facilitated the transport of butter, 



cheese, fruit, fish, 

 and other perish- 

 able products. It 

 has prevented 

 enormous losses in 

 ordinary stores and 

 shops, and the 

 changes set up in 

 the product are 

 nearly negligible, 

 whereas the inser- 

 tion of chemical 

 preservatives is 

 generally deleteri- 

 ous. The changes 

 effected in refrig- 

 erated meat were 

 investigated during 

 the War by the 

 American depart- 

 ment of agricu 1 ture. 

 Refrigerating 

 plant is essential 

 in dairies, for the 

 reduction of the 

 temperature of 

 milk immediately 

 it has left the cow, 

 for the cooling of 

 cream for churn- 

 ing, and for the store in which 

 cheese is ripened ; in sugar re- 

 fineries for obtaining sugar from 

 molasses residues ; in margarine 

 factories for the solidification of 

 the emulsion ; and in many other 

 industries for kindred purposes. 



The first meat refrigerating plant 

 wasestablished at Darling Harbour, 

 Sydney, N.S.W., in 1861, and the 

 trial shipment to England in 1876, 

 in s.s. Norham, which had been 

 fitted with an ammonia compres- 

 sion plant for the purpose. The 

 trade from Buenos Aires began in 

 the same year. See Cold Storage ; 

 Distilling ; Ice-Making ; consult 

 also The Mechanical Production 

 of Cold, Sir J. A. Ewing, 1921; 

 Cold Storage and Ice Making, B. 

 Springett, 1921. 



Refugee. Term applied to one 

 who, for political or reasons other 

 than criminal, is obliged to fly from 

 his country and take refuge else- 

 where. Religious persecutions in 

 the 17th, and political ones in the 

 18th and 19th centuries, sent many 

 refugees to England, and the 

 country greatly benefited by the 

 arts and crafts they introduced, 



to England, when committees were 

 formed to look after their welfare 

 and large sums of money raised for 

 their assistance. 



Refuse. Literally, that which is 

 rejected or worthless. It refers 

 especially to the waste that results 

 from factories and houses, and its 

 disposal is one of the great prob- 

 lems with which those responsible 

 for the health of crowded areas 

 have to deal. 



The problem of the quick removal 

 and destruction of kitchen waste is 

 a difficult one to olve, largely 

 owing to the varied character of 

 the refuse. Animal and vegetable 

 matter, paper, ashes, tins, rags, 

 bottles, etc., have to be disposed of 

 promptly and regularly in order 

 to avoid offensive odours, risk of 

 contamination and spread of 

 diseases, etc. Three general 

 methods have been used: (1) 

 dumping on land and partly burn- 

 ing in the open ; (2) dumping at 

 sea ; and (3) destruction in special 

 furnaces. The first two are im- 

 practicable in any large commun- 

 ity, and the third is now the only 

 method which is at once cleanly 

 and comparatively inexpensive. 



Modern refuse is burnt in high 

 temperature destructors. These 

 consist of a number of grates upon 

 which the refuse is burned, with 

 ash pits beneath, set usually in 

 pairs back to back with a common 

 chimney. Special chambers or 

 other devices are provided for 

 trapping the fine dust or ashes of 

 combustion, which would other- 

 wise rush up the chimney and be 

 scattered over the neighbourhood. 

 Forced draught is used, and tipping 

 platforms provided for supplying 

 rubbish to the destructors. The 

 temperature of the destructors is 

 between 1,500 and 2,000 F., and 

 the refuse is converted into water 

 vapour, carbon dioxide, and nitro- 

 gen, together with an incombustible 

 mixture of ashes, metal, and fused 

 glass. The fused residue known as 

 clinker is ground down for pave- 

 ments, for building mortar, etc. 

 Modern refuse destructors not 

 only provide steam for their own 

 draught, but are valuable sources 

 of power supply. 



Efforts have been made with 

 more or less success to sort refuse, 



