Waste products and undeveloped substances : a synopsis of progress made in their economic utilisation during the last quarter of a century at home and abroad / by P.L. Simmonds.

Date:
1873
    AND UNDEY ELOPED SUBSTANCES. The Archduke Eegnier, the President of the Imperial Com- mission of the Vienna International Exhibition for 1873, in a circular issued, inviting the display of Waste Materials and their products, makes some observations which deserve quoting:—" The consumption of soap and paper, the quantity of letters exchanged, the extension of public libraries, and the use made of them, &c., are often taken as a measure of the actual degree of civilization of a nation. An extensive and refined use made of the waste materials of industry and housekeeping might be considered with equal right as the measure of the degree of industrial development and capability. It Avould also scarcely be possible to find in the processes of Manufacture and in Agriculture an instance which shows to the same extent the really cireative force of Science, and the characteristic tendency of a nation to economise, as well as its endeavour to keep, like nature, all within the circle of reproduction. Side by side with the increase and growth of wants, we see the quantity of useful material augment in a twofold manner. This is accomplished partly by making use of substances formerly useless, because their qualities were unknown; but still more by the use made of substances which, formerly considered as used up, appeared to be of no value, and were often incommodious and in many cases troublesome. In order to prove, only by a few actual cases, the assertion made, that the use of waste materials increases, and that thus difficulties are removed, and the wealth of the nation at the same time increases, it is only necessary to li
    take for an example the quantities of waste materials of soda factories, which, were formerly a real nuisance. Now- adays, a great part of the sulphur contained in them is extracted, and the remainder, containing chalk and gypsum, is employed as valuable material for agi-iculture. The acid manganese solutions of chloride of lime factories have become restored to use by means of an ingenious chemical process. The scorife of metals produced by blast-furnaces is now used in glass-making, and becomes, by a simple physical process—called basalting—a substance useful in the construction of buildings and paving streets. Coal-tar and wood-tar play, in our time, an important part. It is sufficient to call to mind the beautiful aniline colours, without speaking of a host of substances which have become useful, like benzine, paraffin, creosote, carbolic acid, pyro- catechic acid, &c. Injurious and even poisonous gases which escape during the process of smelting (sulphuric acid, arsenic, zinc vapours, &(;.) have not only been rendered innocuous hy contrivances to condense and absorb them, but have also been usefully applied. Cotton seed, which was formerly utterly useless, acquired an increased im- "Dortance from the moment when the means of making oil from it was discovered. So also with soap-lees from laundries, for we now know how to obtain fat-acids from them. Before the International Exhibition of London, in the year 1851, the glycerine in the process of stearic acid candle manufacture, and the ammonia from coal-gas, were lost altogether ; since then the}^ have both become im- portant objects of commerce. AVooUen rags, which were formerly only used for the production of Prussian blue and inferior paper, and for the most part were thrown •on the waste-heap, have now become raw materials, as well as silk and cotton refuse, for re-use in textile industry, and thus render respectable clothing material accessible even to persons of very moderate means. The distillers' wash, produced in molasses distilleries, and Avhich was formerly thrown away, has become just as useful for the reproduction of potash obtained from it, and now forms the base of many valuable alkaline salts ; blood has become useful for the production of albumen; cork-cutters' refuse for the manufacture of floor-cloth; old horse-shoe nails and other scrap iron for the fabrication of the soft and malle-
    able iron for English fowli ng-pieces ; and so on "witL saw- dust and leather refuse, &c. How enlarged we find the quantity of useful matevials, and the means of satisfying our requirements, in a reti'ospective view of the last ten or twenty years only ! It suffices to single out, from the host of substances, the value of which has been thus in- creased, one much despised material, viz., human excre- ments. Without contradiction, these are considered as some of the most disgusting wastes ; nevertheless, China and Japan mainly owe their flourishing agriculture to the extensive use made of them, and one of the greatest chemists of our time. Baron Liebig, has acknowledged that they contain the means of restoring to the soil of Europe its power of production, a power which will soon be exhausted otherwise. Considering this, is it not one of the greatest absurdities to spend millions in getting rid of a substance which would, if we made proper use of it, make us by several millions richer ? Who can deny that the increas- ing use of wastes, the development thus made of new and abundant resources, and the facilitated removal of so much which annoj^ed us, proves beyond all doubt the great influence which Science exercises upon life, and obliges even a superficial observer to remark the gradual development of intelligence and pi'osperity. Who can deny that, when one observes the use made of waste materials, during a certain given space of time, a new picture of civilization unfolds itself?" It is one of the most important duties of manufacturing industry to find useful applications for waste materials. Dirt has been happily defined as only " matter in a wrong place;" and the object of this work is to show the useful appliances of some of the most common objects. On this subject Dr. Lyon Playf lir, in one of his lectures, says:— " Chemistry, like a prudent housewife, economises every scrap. The clippings oi the tiavelling tinker are mixed with the parings of horses' hoofs from the smithy, or the cast-off woollen garments of the poorest inhabitants of a sister isle, and soon afterwards, in the form of dyes of brightest blue, grace the dress of courtly dames. The main ingredient of the ink with which I now write was possibly once part of the broken hoop of an old beer-barrel. The bones of dead animals yield the chief constituent of B 2
    lucifer-matches. The dregs of port-wine, carefully rejected by the port-wine drinker in decanting his favourite beve- rage, are taken by him in the morning as Seidlitz powders to remove the etiects of his debauch. The offal of the streets, and the washings of coal-gas, reappear carefully preserved in the lady's smelling-bottle, or are used by her to flavour blancmanges for her friends. This economy of the chemistry of art is only in imitation of what we observe in the chemistry of nature. Animals live and die; their dead bodies, passing into putridity, escape into the atmo- sphere, M'hence plants again mould them into forms of organic life; and these plants, actually consisting of a past generation of ancestors, form our present food." One of the greatest benefits that Science can confer on man is the rendering useful those substances which, being the refuse ot manufactures, are either got rid of at a great expense, or, being allowed to decompose, produce disease and death. A large number of substances are now used in various waj-s winch were formerly regarded as offal, and cast awary; but a great number still invite the ingenuity of men of science to find for them useful applications. It may be truly said that thexe is scarcely any manufac- ture in which there does not remain, in the form of residue or waste, something which, though not suited for that special manufacture, has still a considerable economic value. And this may generally be usefullj' employed in some way or other. This is one of the characteristic and salient points of modern enterprise, not only to allow nothing to be wasted, but to recover and utilise with profit the residues from former workings. Ihe diminution in price which results from utilising matters otherwise wasted, may easily be conceived. In this respect extenl^ive works and factories are in a better position than small ones, in consequence of the larger quantity of residues at their command, and which necessitate special machinery for working up or utilising. In great industrial centres, too, the waste pro- ducts of a large number of works may be easily collected. The utilisation of waste matters is a subject of much importance, to which too little attention is still paid by the inhabitants of many towns and cities. There is an immense variety of substances even now allowed to be wasted which are capable of b eing profitably conveited to
    use in the arts and manufactures. Modern science has pointed out the uses of many substances which were for- merly regarded as offal, and thrown away; and the result is, that in England and on the Continent scarcely anything is entirely wasted. Eefuse animal substances are particu- larly capable of being converted to useful purposes. The thought of collecting and utilising waste is making extended progress even in the United States, where raw materials are more plentiful and the population is less dense and urgent in its economising requirements; the residues are there beginning to be systematically and extensively worked up. The ' Commercial Biilleiin' of Boston states :— " The collection and utilising of old material has become a very important business feature in all onr large cities and manufacturing centres. But little need be lost. Scarcely a single staple article for use or ornament can be named that, having served its leading purpose, is not again put to service, either in a new and distinct form, or compounded with other matter. And this economising and working up the odds and ends, the refuse of our shops and homes, has assumed its present great importance only within the past fifteen years, and more especially during and since the war of the Eebellion. " The collection, sorting, and distribution of old material have settled into a regular system. Mills and manufac- turers have, of late years, turned attention to the pro- duction of specialities, and, as a consequence, are calling for particular and carefully-selected stocks. This policy has driven the dealers in ' old junk' into a regular routine for the sale and delivery of their stulf; and, while the market is constantly affected by supply and demand, the stock is all worked off into the hands of large dealers, who, in turn, re-sort and classify according to the specialities desired, and then stand ready to job off their grades and sorts in large amounts to the manufacturer. It is safe to say that at least seven-eighths of all the old material bought and sold in New England only reach the manu- facturer through the hands of about eight different dealers in this city. There was a time when the tin-peddler, roughly sorting his stock, sold it direct to the mill, when the petty junk-dealer took his little bag of stuff and weighed it out to the manufacturer; but we have changed