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London County Council.
Report on Dust Destructors by the Medical Officer and the Engineer.
Spring Gardens, S.W.
10th May, 1893.
Prepared in accordance with the following instruction of the Public Health and Housing
Committee—
"Medical Officer and Engineer instructed to make a thorough inquiry into the whole
"subject of dust destructors."
In order to comply with the instruction of the committee, we thought it desirable to obtain full
particulars with regard to the present mode of dust disposal by the various vestries and district boards of
works, as well as from those provincial towns in which dust destructors have been employed. We also
thought it desirable to ascertain by personal inspection some of the details relating to dust destructors
of the four principal types in use, and for that purpose delegated our assistants, Mr. Santo Crimp,
M.Inst.C.E., and Dr. W. H. Hamer, to visit Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Oldham, Bradford, and
Leeds, as well as some of those depots in London where destructors are in use.
The information received in response to circulars sent out by us has been tabulated and forms
Appendix I. of this report. Dealing first with the subject as it affects the metropolis, it has been
calculated from the data referred to, that the quantity of dust collected yearly by the various authorities
amounts on an average of several districts to about 260 tons per 1,000 of the population, the actual
quantities varying, however, rather widely in different districts.

It will be observed on referring to Appendix II. that dust destructors of the modern type were
first used in 1876, and that since that date there has been a steady increase in the number built year by
year, and that towns, such as Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds, have either increased the number in
use, or are now doing so, which proves that in these cases the destructor is recognised as the most
suitable appliance for the treatment of the ash-bin refuse. By its operations the matter collected is
generally reduced to about one-third its original weight and to about one-fourth its original bulk.
The organic and combustible matters are burnt, and the residue consists of ash and clinker free from
matters which can become offensive, and which are, if the destructor is properly used, purified from
possible sources of contagion.
Before describing the different types of destructors we may briefly consider the reasons
which have led to their adoption. Up to within a comparatively recent period it was
a common practice for adventurous builders and others to excavate gravel and sand upon the site
of proposed dwellings, and to allow the excavation to be filled in with the refuse collected from
ashbins and other sources; roads were also formed with layers of this material, but happily these
practices, at variance with a proper observance of the laws of health, are now looked upon with great
disfavour, or are prohibited altogether. Brickfields again, were in operation in the midst of what is now
suburban London, and facilities for dust disposal were not difficult to procure, but these brickfields
have for the most part been closed, and hence, public authorities find it more difficult as time goes on
to dispose of their refuse matters, which are produced in increasing quantities with the growth of
population. In the Metropolis itself, your committee is aware that dust destructors are being slowly
but surely adopted, as the best means of solving a difficult problem.
It is not necessary to trouble your committee with a history of the evolution of the destructor;
refuse has been burnt in furnaces of rude construction for a long period of time, and there have been
No.100 .—Price 6d. Sold by Steel and Jones, Spring Gardens, S.W. 6786