May  i,  1893.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  681 
THE  INCINERATION  OF  TOWN  REFUSE. 
Mr.  B.  R.  Harrington  of  Calcutta,  civil  engineer 
and  architect,  has  sent  us  a paper,  in  whioh  he  gives 
his  experience  on  the  above  question,  acquired 
during  five  years’  constructing  and  burning  opera- 
tions in  India.  The  subject  of  the  disposal  of  the 
refuse  of  Colombo,  including  night  soil,  has  come 
up  for  discussion  again  and  again  during  the  past 
few  years,  both  in  the  Municipal  Council  and  in  the 
looal  press  but  with  no  satisfactory  results.  At 
present,  the  refuse  of  Colombo  is  either  buried  in 
the  compounds  attached  to  the  various  houses,  or 
scattered  over  the  water-grass  fields  whioh 
cover  large  traots  in  the  outskirts  of  the  town. 
Both  these  methods  of  disposal  are  objectionable 
on  several  grounds,  chiefly  sanitary  ; and  the  late 
Sanitary  Inspector  of  the  Colombo  Municipality  and 
his  successor  have  more  than  once  recommended 
that  inoineration  should  be  enforced, — the 
former  gentleman  inventing  a email  inoinerator 
whioh  has  been  adopted  successfully  by  a few 
persons  in  Colombo.  But  the  matter  should  not 
be  left  to  private  individuals  : it  is  one  that  the 
Municipal  Council  should  consider  it  one  of  its 
duties  to  carry  out ; and  what  Mr.  Harrington  has 
successfully  achieved  in  Calcutta  can  be  done  as 
easily  in  Colombo.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  in  this 
connection,  that  the  Madras  Electric  Tramways  Co. 
is  to  oombine  the  inoineration  of  refuse  with  the 
working  of  its  line.  Perhaps  Mr  Matthew  might 
do  the  same.  Another  want  in  Colombo  is  a 
Crematorium  for  the  disposal  of  the  bodies  of  those 
who  prefer  this  method  to  earth  burial.  Some 
attempts  have  been  recently  made  in  this  direction  ; 
but,  for  some  reason  or  another,  without  re- 
sult. This  by  the  way,  however.  We  append 
some  extraots  from  Mr.  Harringion’s  paper:— 
It  is  essential  that  an  incinerator  furnace  should 
born  wet  and  dry  refuse  with  equal  ease.  A furnaoe 
that  would  destroy  wet  refuse  might  probably  run 
away  with  dry,  leaving  the  furance  odd  for  next 
morning’s  supply,  and  when  ignited  would  flare  away 
in  a comparatively  cold  furnace,  and  thereby  be 
the  means  of  producing  volumes  of  smoke.  A large 
volume  of  smoke  indicates  imperfect  combustion.  A 
low  temperature  furnace  may  produoe  smoke,  or  the 
emo*e  current  may  be  so  rapid  that  unconsumed 
matter,  such  as  dust  and  soot,  may  escape  even  through 
a fierce  furnace.  * * * 
Moisture  is  another  matter  requiring  consideration 
when  burning  refuse.  From  experiments  I find  or- 
dinary dry  refuse  will  absorb  as  much  as  four  gallons  of 
water  per  cubio  foot  of  the  refu-e.  A Harrington 
furmce  can  easily  des'roy  on  an  average  600  cubio 
feet  refuse  daily,  aud  if  Ihe  refuse  is  very  wet  so 
that  water  drains  therefrom,  the  600  cubic  feet  would 
probably  contain  2,400  gallons  of  liquid,  to  evaporate 
which  would  be  the  duty  of  one  ton  of  best  coal 
or  2^  to.  s of  best  straw.  Refuse  generally  contains 
no  coal  or  oinder  residue,  and  but  little  straw,  the 
most  of  it  is  garbage  and  sewage  garbage,  with  about 
ten  per  cent  incombustible.  The  steam  and  moisture 
emitted  by  evaporation  from  such  large  quantities  of 
liquid  is  of  course  conveyed  in  the  direction  of  the 
smoke  current,  and  this  in  itself  tends  to  lower  the 
temperature  of  the  current,  and  also  weight  tbe 
solid  particles  which  it  coutains,  eo  that  at  times  it 
would  have  a tendency  to  fall  on  escaping  from  the 
chimney.  * * * 
The  success  and  reputation  of  the  Harrington  In- 
cinerator is  greatly  owiDg  to  tbe  combined  smoke 
annihilutor.  Tho  absence  of  coal  cinder  or  cinder 
residue  makes  Indian  refuse  difficult  to  treat  per- 
fectly, especially  during  wet  weather  when  there  is 
so  much  water  to  contend  against.  The  refuse  burns 
well  enough  in  the  HarringtoD  furnece,  but  were  it 
not  for  tho  annihilator,  there  would  be  a tendenoy 
to  give  of!  large  volumes  of  smoke,  and  when  the 
volume  of  smoke  is  large,  its  temperature  is  liable 
to  be  low,  so  that  a crematorium  of  itself  would 
have  but  little  effect  in  raising  the  heat  of  suoh 
lorge  volumes  to  any  appreciable  extent;  but  with 
the  washing  process  the  volume  is  at  onoe  largely 
reduced  by  distillation  of  the  vapour  whioh  it  con- 
tains, and  again  by  the  removal  of  soot  and  other 
suspended  solid  partioles.  Tbe  action  of  the  water 
wheel  also  neutralises  deleterious  gases,  in  as  much 
that  the  revolutions  of  tbe  wheel  thoroughly  mixes 
or  mills  the  smoke  combustion,  whilst  at  the  same 
time  the  water  attaoks  the  aoids.  * * * 
In  conclusion,  the  work  or  process  of  destruction 
or  the  maintenance  of  the  Incinerator  should  be 
simple  and  in  no  wise  complicated.  A Harrington 
furnace,  when  full  to  the  top  contains  a matter  of 
500  cubic  feet  of  refuse  and  200  cubic  feet  of  ashes, 
and  the  furnace  works  best  when  filled  quite  full  of 
refuse,  and  left  very  much  to  take  care  of  itself. 
The  work  of  stoking  is  simply  occasionally  to  remove 
ashes  from  below,  to  stoke  the  fire  bars  and  remove 
clinker  thereform.  All  parts  of  an  Incinerator,  suoh 
for  instance  as  the  fire-bars  and  furnace  doors,  the 
reverberatory  arch  and  other  brick  work  of  the  furnace, 
the  refuse  shoot  and  tbe  platform,  the  flues,  baffliDg 
chambers  and  chimney  have  each  separately  and 
all  combined  a duty  to  perform,  and  any  one  part 
eoting  imperfectly  milita’es  against  combined  per- 
fectness of  the  whole.  Simple  though  the  construc- 
tion of  an  Incinerator  is,  to  ensure  sucoess  it  is 
absolutely  ceoessary  to  have  proper  plans  and  to 
build  in  exaot  accordance  with  them. 
Incinerators  oan  be  appUed  to  electrio  lighting, 
pumping,  ejecting  night  soil  and  drainage  or  to  any 
purpose  whioh  boiler  power  may  be  applied.  Parti* 
culars  upon  application. 
» 
THE  SEA-CARRYING  TRADE  TO  THE  EAST, 
It  was  reoently  stated  in  our  London  Letter  ad 
the  opinion  of  a good  authority  that  muoh  of 
the  cheapness  with  which  goods  are  now  carried 
between  the  United  Kingdom  and  the  East  is  due 
to  the  rates  oharged  for  passenger  traffio; — in 
other  words  that  it  is  the  passengers  who  largely 
pay  the  freight  for  exporters  from  home  1 So 
long  as  passage  rates  are  kept  up — and  these  have 
just  been  somewhat  increased  by  all  our  great  steamer 
lines — so  long,  it  is  argued  by  those  in  the  posi- 
tion to  form  a judgment,  will  the  rate  of  freight 
for  goods  be  kept  down.  This  bears  hardly  of 
course  upon  tho  private  shipowner,  who  finds 
himself  compelled  by  competition  to  accept  freights 
whioh  must  to  a considerable  extent  be  un- 
remunerative  to  him,  and  it  can  oause  no  wonder, 
therefore,  to  hear  of  so  muoh  tonnage  of  steam- 
shipping being  laid  up  in  the  ports  of  Great 
Britain  solely  because  it  does  not  pay  the  owners 
to  accept  freights  at  the  low  rates  at  present 
prevailing.  This  result  has  been  the  direct  con- 
sequenoe  we  apprehend  of  the  cutting  of  the 
Suez  Canal.  We  are  all  well  aware  of 
the  position  the  P.  & O.  Company,  for  instanoe, 
found  itself  in  when  the  opening  of  that  highway 
let  through  a perfeot  flood  of  steamships  oonveying 
cargo  end  passengers  at  a low  rate.  Its  directors 
had  to  face  a competition  which  oarried  goods 
outwards  at  15s  or  even  less  per  ion  as  compared 
with  the  £4  or  £5  per  ton  it  was  then  receiving  for 
outward  freights.  Ruin  seemed  to  stare  our  great 
Steam  Company  in  the  face.  It  was  Sir  Thomas 
Sutherland  who  grftjped  the  situation  bnd  made 
arrangements  to  meet  it.  What  were  then,  re- 
latively to  modern  accessions  to  the  flset  of  the 
Company,  only  toy  boats,  were  rapidly  got  rid  of, 
and  replaoed  by  Goliaths  which  have  now  reached 
the  dimensions  of  those  seen  constantly  in  our 
harbour.  The  accommodation  afforded  by  these 
new  ships  killed  off  the  competition  in  the 
passeDger  trade  aud  deprived  private  owners  of  tbe 
