Peter Lund Simmonds

“ The beautiful aniline dye, produced from the tar of the gas-works, is not more an example of the utilization of waste than beet-root sugar, obtained from what, a century ago, was a weed growing by the sea-side. Nature produces, abundantly and spontaneously, in many countries, vegetable substances (such, for instance, as the esparto-grass) , which were long allowed to run to waste. Important industrial uses have been found for many of them, and fortunes realized by numbers who have turned their attention toward rendering them articles of commerce. ”

“ Some 40,000,000 tons of valueless coal-dust, lying in the vicinity of the coal-mines and depots of Pennsylvania, have been thus gradually utilized. In some American factories they have found it cheaper and more advantageous to burn only coal-dust or pea coal. A furnace or grate bar has been specially devised for the purpose of burning this kind of fuel, and there is no doubt, with its increasing uses, but that other convenient devices will be supplied for making it of more practical benefit. The utilization of this waste in the coal-regions of the United States is now a decided success. ”

“ Australia and New Zealand can, in fact, export 700,000 tons of meat a year, or 2,000 tons a day, which is not much more than you want in England even now, without reducing even the present capital number of their sheep and cattle, and we are able to send on sheep to Smithfield with greater ease to-day than the Tweed farmers could one hundred years ago, when meat was selling at a penny a pound in Scotland against tenpence in London. ”

“ There is an important industry which has sprung up out of animal waste, in the utilization of purified tallow and other fats for food and domestic purposes. It was originated in France in 1869 by M. Mége, and was intended for the manufacture of artificial butter from fat, by extracting the oil at a low temperature, and converting this, by churning, into butter. It was first known as oleomargarine, then as margarine, and latterly as butterine. The manufacture of this product has spread extensively, and it is carried on in the United States on a very large scale. ”

“ Horses, although numerous in some countries, as in Russia and the River Plate states, have not been, commercially, very useful when dead. In South America mares are never broken to the saddle, and the carcasses are generally boiled down for their fat, the exports of mares' grease being considerable, while the hide is also useful. But, within the period now under our notice, horse-flesh has come largely into use on the Continent for human food. ”

“ In the utilizing of inferior or waste materials, and in the separating of tallow from the substances with which it is found in combination, machines are employed which are both ingenious and effective, and by their use much material that would otherwise be worse than useless is turned to good account. ”

“ It would have been impossible, in the limits of this paper, to refer in detail to more than a few of the principal examples of the successful use of refuse. But those enumerated will serve to show to how great an extent civilization is daily adding to the useful products of the world, both by economizing its resources and by calling forth new ones with the aid of chemistry. ”

“ I must now touch upon the utilization of mineral waste.
The utilizing of tin-plate cuttings and the recovery of the tin have become important and profitable industries. In the manufacture of tin-ware, it is said six per cent of the whole of the plates employed disappears in the form of scrap. Birmingham produces thirty tons per week. Mr. Beck, of that town, is said to have made a profit for many years of £100 a week by taking off the tin from the scrap by solution and precipitation. A very fair trade is done by parties who go about the tin-works buying up the tin-dust. ”

“ The flesh of domestic animals fit for food is almost a waste substance in many countries, since it can not be locally consumed nor profitably preserved. In the River Plate republics alone there are 80,000,000 sheep and 25,000,000 cattle to a population of 2,500,000. For years sheep were only valued there for their wool, and, when flayed, carcasses were left to rot, or, when dried in the sun, piled up in stacks for fuel, while later on they were boiled down for their tallow. ”

“ The cobs of Indian corn, which are now considered of little or no value, may yet share the same fate as many substances which, though formerly considered worthless, have become new mines of wealth, through the aid of chemistry. ”

“ In Europe, rabbits are not a waste substance, but are eagerly sought for as food, and even bred in large numbers; but their introduction into Australia and New Zealand has proved an unmitigated evil to the colonists. ”

“ The right to wash the tailings is often sold to the Chinese, who are always well satisfied with the result of their labors. The quantity of gold used in the arts, in interior and exterior decorations, in photography, electro-gilding, water-gilding, the ornamentation of china, etc., is very large, and the greater part is practically lost. Jewelers' sweepings from the floors of the workshops are carefully collected, and even the clothes of the workmen are generally saved and sent to the refiner. After a large gold coinage at the Royal Mint, there is always a great deficiency in waste and sweep. ”

“ There are now 137 shoddy-factories, principally situated in the Yorkshire district, which employ over 5,000 persons, 3,000 of whom are females. About 40,000 tons of woolen rags are annually torn into shoddy in England alone, and the quantity made in the United States must be almost equal. No accurate data can be found of the European use of these articles, but an immense quantity of both shoddy and mungo is now made and exported from the Continent, principally to England, and it is probable that the whole of the world's annual consumption is over £7,000,000 in value. ”

“ These, and the strippings and waste in carding, are now classed immediately after pure wool, and command relatively high prices. There are many who may be disposed to regard the shoddy manufacture as a business to be despised, but the political economist discovers in it a most important source of wealth—wealth resulting from the application of skilled labor to the utilization of material once worthless, but now contributing no mean sums annually to the wealth of nations. ”

“ In America, they are also endeavoring to utilize the immense quantities of pulp remaining from the corn after the extraction of the starch. This pulp, which is at present a waste product, consists wholly of cellulose or woody fiber, and would, it is considered, be an excellent material for making the commoner grades of paper, suitable for wrapping and newspaper purposes.
The present sources of the supply of potash are rapidly failing; every year the area of the supply becomes smaller, and the product, in consequence of this and the increased demand, becomes more and more expensive. ”

“ Anything tending to the utilization of what is now waste is of value, when we consider that the amount of anthracite coal sent to market represents but about four fifths of the quantity that is actually raised from the earth, the balance being piled up in unsightly heaps. ”

“ Cocoa is not so largely consumed in this country as on the Continent. But the cocoa shells or husks which are separated from the nibs after sifting are imported here to the extent often of 500 tons annually, paying a duty of 2s. a hundred-weight, against 9s. 4d. a hundredweight charged on cocoa and chocolate. These shells or husks form about twelve per cent of the weight of the beans. In the manufacture of the finer chocolates they are always separated, and hence accumulate in large quantities in France and Spain. ”

“ The published statistics of the Society for Promoting the Use of Horse-flesh show that, since its foundation in July, 1860, 100,080 horses, 6,690 donkeys, and 395 mules had been sold in Paris alone for food, up to the end of 1881, furnishing 67,809,460 pounds of meat. Horse-flesh is sold at half the price of beef. ”

“ Latterly it has been found that leather-waste cuttings, etc., when steamed with certain waste liquors, produce a valuable material in the shape of a new black, which is destined to have a variety of important uses, such as in the manufacture of printing-inks, dark pigments, covering substances, and notably for the manufacture of blacking. ”

“ The innovation has gained ground rapidly in most of the principal towns of France, and the public sale of horse-flesh for human food is now general in Austria, Prussia, Bohemia, Saxony, Hanover, Switzerland, Belgium, and Sweden. ”

“ About twenty years ago there was not a single rabbit in Australia, save, perhaps, a few domesticated pets. Since their introduction they have become a perfect pest, and the difficulty is to exterminate and keep them down by poison, dogs, etc. ”

“ In that climate the rabbit breeds nearly every month in the year. But even supposing that a pair of rabbits do not breed oftener than in England, which is seven times a year, and that they only bring eight young at a time, they would multiply in the course of four years to 1,250,000. ”

“ These, which were formerly only used in the East for making a kind of drab or coffee-colored silk, have now been made to take dyes, and are profitably employed in the silk manufacture in England. The waste of the wild cocoons in China and Japan is made into felt for hats, and enters into the manufacture of paper. ”

“ In England, the hundreds of horses which die in the metropolis are sent, with other carcasses, to special firms, which utilize every part commercially. The skin is removed, and the bones are taken out with great expedition ”

“ Old corks are collected, and cleaned with hydrochloric acid and hot water, so as to be used again. The Paris sewers are provided with gratings, and the corks thus collected are recut, and used again. All cork cuttings are useful for filling life-buoys, belts, jackets, and even beds. ”