862 EEPORT — 1892. 



operations liitherto carried on in the docks and the river will be rendered unneces- 

 sary by the adoption of the present system. 



Intermittent downward filtration, irrigation, and Webster's electrical precipi- 

 tation process followed by combustion are linal and complete methods of disposal 

 of sewage, while those systems which aim at producing manure may be considered 

 as complete when a market can be found for the product. 



Collection from house to house, either on the pail system or on the privy 

 system, is still largely practised, and is in many respects strongly to be recom- 

 mended, particularly in that it provides the most direct means of conveying the 

 noxious material to the destructors. 



Manufacttjeees' Eeftjse. 



The liquid waste products of mamifticturers are rarely dealt with by those who 

 produce them. They are disposed of, as described above, by being turned into the 

 public sewers, which are maintained by rates pressing equally on those who turn in 

 an unlimited amount of liquid refuse and those who produce none. For the 

 disposal of solid refuse manufacturprs usually have to pay the local authority in 

 cases where they do not themselves dump it on vacant ground. 



2. Outline of a Scheme for the Solution of the Problem. — The paper pleads that 

 a systematic and comprehensive system should be elaborated and approved by the 

 leading sanitary engineers, and it sets forth an outline of the scheme by which 

 each class of refuse should be made to assist in the final disposing of the other. 

 Manufacturers' refuse alone is excluded, as it belongs distinctly to the province of 

 the private individual, and not to that of the local authority. Its composition is 

 so varied and its treatment so dithcult as to interfere with any scheme proposed for 

 the treatment of towns' refuse. The mixture together of all kinds of waste products 

 from manufactures and the mixture of the mixture with sewage matter often 

 render the ultimate treatment well-nigh impossible. A scheme is, however, indi- 

 cated by which each manufacturer may use his solid refuse to assist him in disposing 

 of his liquid refuse. 



o. Destructors. — Destruction by fire is the method recommended for the final 

 disposal of all refuse. An account of the development of this system precedes a 

 short description of each of the furnaces tried in this country or abroad which 

 have received any considerable share of public attention. A fuller description of 

 each of the principal furnaces at present in use in this countiy follows. 



High temperatures are recommended as insuring (with proper arrangements) 

 thorough ' cremation ' of the fumes, and also rendering available an immense power 

 from the burning of ashbin lefuse, market garbage, fish, and other offal, street 

 sweepings, privy and pail excrement, and sewage sludge (when not mixed with 

 liquid manufacturers' refuse, which is said to be often incombustible). Hitherto it 

 has been generally believed that one ton of ashbin refuse, when burned, gives off 

 heat equivalent to 1"2 I.H.P. for twenty-four hours. That is equivalent to about 

 6 I.H.P. per cell or furnace of the destructor from which the figures were obtained. 

 The author has proved by recent experiments that burning in the Horsfall 

 destructor at Oldham one ton of mixed refuse (of which the proportions were 

 found by observations extending over eleven weeks to be approximately — ashbin 

 refuse, 95 per cent. ; fish offal, ?> per cent. ; market garbage, 1 per cent. ; street 

 sweepings, 1 per cent.) will convert 328 gallons of water at 67° F. to steam at 

 70 lb. pressure per square inch. Of this 150 gallons are at present used in pro- 

 moting combustion (by steam jets), so that from each ton of refuse burnt there is 

 available, say, 1,780 lb. of steam at 70 lb. pressure, which is equivalent to 

 89 I.H.P. for one hour, or 3'75 I.H.P. for twenty-four hours, as against 1'2 (the 

 generrtlly accepted figure), or over three times as much. It is equivalent to nearly 

 15 I.H.P. per cell or furnace. If the power were valued at 1^. per I.H.P. per 

 hour, which is less than is now the cost at some first-class electric-lighting stations, 

 there is a value of 5s. per ton burnt to put againrt the cost of burning. At 

 Oldham this is Is. 10c?., without counting any returns from sale of mortar, &c., and 

 including a charge of 7 percent, (or Qd. per ton net) for interest on capital outlay, 

 repairs, and depreciation, in addition to wages and gas and water rates, and in fact 

 all charges. It does not of course include the cost of collection and cartage, which 



