904 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1042 



kilowatts. The steam, consequently, after 

 being heated to 300° Celsius, drives the tur- 

 bine, and this, in turn, impels the dynamo 

 which makes the electricity. After passing- 

 through the turbine, the steam is cooled in a 

 condenser and is then pumped back into the 

 boilers. 



The electricity thus manufactured is sold to 

 the municipal electric works (J,, e., owned and 

 controlled by the city) at 3^ pfennigs (less 

 than one cent) per kilowatt hour, and the 

 electric works in turn sell the same to the 

 public at 11 pfennigs (2.718 cents) per kilo- 

 watt hour. Whenever the garbage incinerator 

 requires electricity for its own use, as for 

 lighting, etc., on Sundays and holidays (ordi- 

 narily it furnishes its own electricity), it is 

 obliged to procure this from the municipal 

 works at the regular price of 11 pfennigs. 

 Inasmuch as the garbage cremating plant is 

 also a municipal institution, there eventually 

 is not much advantage or disadvantage either 

 way, as the money belongs to the city under 

 any circumstances, the only difference being 

 in the showing made by the various depart- 

 ments. 



The garbage which is thus utilized for the 

 manufacture of commercial products is prac- 

 tically every manner of refuse in existence: 

 rags, paper, household waste, old clothing, and 

 in fact every sort of material usually con- 

 signed to the dump heap. 



From the garbage brought to the cremating 

 plant 50 per cent, in weight and 30 per cent, 

 in volume goes into the finished product, the 

 sand. That is to say, 100 lbs. of garbage will 

 produce 50 lbs. of sand, while from 100 cubic 

 meters of garbage 30 cubic meters of sand will 

 result. 



When once started, the furnaces remain in 

 operation uninterruptedly. The men perform- 

 ing the labor about the plant work in two 

 shifts, from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m. and from 2-10 

 P.M. At that hour the last charge of garbage 

 is banked so as to burn until the next morn- 

 ing. There is no coal or coke fire of any de- 

 scription, the garbage being its own and only 

 fuel. 



The efficiency of the Barmen incinerating 



plant lies chiefly in the construction of the 

 furnace grates, these being V-shaped, but 

 rounded at the base, and constructed from 

 heavy cast iron. Along the sides of each 

 grate are grooves in which are found minute 

 holes at intervals of about three inches. 

 Through these small holes a strong air current 

 strikes the burning garbage, thus furnishing 

 the necessary draft for combustion and aiding 

 the process of cremation to a considerable ex- 

 tent. In other furnaces these holes are at the 

 bottom of the grates and the wind reaches the 

 fire from below, but it has been found that in 

 this case the application of the air current is 

 a too local one, not reaching the entire burn- 

 ing surface and often merely blowing through 

 the fuel. By the Barmen method the air cur- 

 rent, forced into the furnace by powerful 

 pumps, strikes the burning garbage from the 

 sides and from above at an angle, and to- 

 gether with the differing shape of the grate 

 and the grooved sides thereof this method has 

 proved most efficient. 



The annual production of the plant amounts 

 to 11,000 tons of slag or clinkers (which are 

 crushed into sand as above explained) from 

 22,000 tons of garbage, while 1,700,000 kilo- 

 watt hours is the annual output in electricity. 



Julius Festner, 

 American Vice and Deputy Consul 



American Consulate, Barmen 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



A POSSIBLE MENDELIAN EXPLANATION FOR A TYPE 



OF ESTHERITANCE APPARENTLY NON- 



MENDELIAN IN NATURE 



As research in genetic problems proceeds, 

 the work of many investigators shows that in 

 all probability certain characters of the organ- 

 ism depend for their visible manifestation in 

 the zygote upon the simultaneous presence of 

 more than one mendelizing factor. 



One of the classic examples of this condi- 

 tion is that of the inheritance of the wabiut 

 comb in fowls reported by Bateson^ (1909, 



iBateson, W. (1909), "Mendel's Principles of 

 Heredity," Camb. (Eng.) Univeisity Press. 



