View report page

12
is a subject, therefore, to which, during the past year, I have devoted much time and
attention, taking every opportunity which presented itself of visiting the works in Belle
Isle, and elsewhere, and making myself, as far as practicable, acquainted with the necessities
and difficulties of each case. In effecting this, I have, in the majority of instances, met
with no obstacle on the part of the proprietors of the establishments, to whom I have always
been ready to impart any information I might possess, and to give my opinion, whenever
desired, upon any proposed plan of amendment. In the following account I shall confine
myself to the trades which are carried on at Belle Isle, and to the methods which have been
adopted to obviate the annoyance to which the neighbourhood has so long been subjected.
30. I.—The manufacture of Varnish, of Enamel Black, and of various kinds of Japan, together
with the boiling of Linseed Oil, is one of the businesses carried on the most extensively in
this locality. The effluvia consisting of volatile principles from the melting of gums, &c,,
employed, and of an acrid vapour given off from the boiling oil, are of a very penetrating
and diffusive character, and have hitherto been permitted to pass freely into the atmosphere.
At the present time, of about 10 manufactories of this kind, in seven, more or less
effectual means were in operation at the close of the year for arresting the escape of the
vapour. In the remainder, I could take no steps to enforce similar improvements, as
work was not ascertained to have been in progress, on any occasion that the Inspector or
myself were present. Two principal methods of abating this nuisance are in action. The
one method consists in the condensation of the vapours by a very ingenious contrivance
patented by Mr. J. S. C. Heywood, * one of the Belle Isle manufacturers. It is most
complete and effectual in its action, the only objection to its use being the hand-labour
requisite where there is no steam engine upon the premises, and the consequent temptation
occasionally to neglect its employment. The other is self-acting, and consists in the
combustion of the vapours given off. I confess that I am not at present satisfied with the
result of the employment of this contrivance, which has the additional disadvantage of rendering
the contents of the pot liable to ignition.')"
31. II.—Manufacture of Blood Manure.—There were two large establishments for this
manufacture at Belle Isle. At the present time there is but one. The principal cause of
the offensive effluvia was the admixture with the blood (sometimes putrid) of oil of vitriol;
the mixture was often made in the open air, and the vapour given off at an elevated
temperature rose to a considerable height into the atmosphere, and was wafted to long
distances. Since the proprietors of these works were convicted and fined in June last,
there has been up to the close of the year, little ground for complaint.
32. III.—Fat and Stuff Melting.—The offensive nature of this process varies with the substances
employed. The melting down of good and finely-chopped butcher's fat is the least
offensive; the principal nuisance which arises at Belle Isle from this source occurs at the houses
where kitchen stuff and grease of other kinds are melted. I have required each fat-melter in
Belle Isle to carry the vapours from his boiler into the ash-pit of the fire place, and thus,
during the period of melting, the vapours are consumed. There is still, however, one part of
the process unremedied, and I believe it is that which occasionally gives rise to complaints
from the neighbourhood. It is the removal and pressing of the graves:—it cannot be
believed that the nuisance thus arising is incapable of being obviated.
33. IV.—Boiling-Houses.—Three of these are attached to knackeries, and in each instance,
a similar contrivance to that adopted by the fat-melters has been put in force for the consumption
of the offensive vapours. Still the steam arising from the hot horseflesh was considered a
nuisance, and in each establishment it is now required that the flesh shall be immersed into a
tank of cold water immediately it is removed from the boilers. A fourth boiling house is of a
rather different character, and has been the cause of much trouble during the year, the
proprietor having been three times summoned to the Police Court, upon my certificate,
under the Nuisances' Removal Act. At this house, situated in the Brandon Road,
condemned meat is received from the Markets in the City, and in the summer, when much
meat became putrid, the effluvia from the boilers was of the most disgusting description.
* (No. 452.—1856.)
† A superior method of this kind was patented by Messrs. East and Mills (No. 397—1855).