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remarks detrimental to other makers, I feel bound to say that I consider the destructor provided by
the Horsfall Syndicate is in all respects fitted to satisfactorily supply the requirements of this
Borough. It has the forced draught, which is found to be of great advantage, and up to the end of
last year, when I made enquiry, I found that none of the Horsfall destructors had been replaced by
those of other firms. This company will also guarantee with their complete plant that no dust,
smoke or smell shall escape from the cells of the destructor. Lord Kelvin and Professor Burr,
of Glasgow University, with others, report very highly upon this destructor. Under these
circumstances I do not think I can add anything further with advantage to the points of
importance mentioned in the above report.
June 7th, 1899. HENRY MACAULAY, Borough Surveyor.
REPORT OF MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH.
REFUSE DESTRUCTORS.
I have visited Refuse Destructors at Devonport, Torquay, Leyton, Shoreditch, Hampstead,
Tooting, Hornsey, Rath, Bristol, Cambridge, and Sheffield.
With the exception of Devonport these destructors are very similar in construction. The
refuse is tipped on the top of the furnaces from the carts, and worked down into the chambers
by the workmen as the different furnaces require feeding. This causes the accumulation of a
mass of refuse which may be highly objectionable. To obviate this Boulnois and Brophy
carriers have been adopted in some places in connection with the Manlove-Alliott destructors.
The refuse is tipped into these carriers, which are divided into compartments each containing one
charge for the furnaces, which is discharged by a simple mechanism, and a large amount of
nuisance caused by the disturbance and moving of the refuse is avoided. An improved method of
charging the furnaces is being devised at Tooting (Beaman and Deas). Should this prove successful,
as appears probable, this form of destructor will be one of the most cleanly. These destructors work
with a forced draught, and I should add that the work must be very trying to the men employed.
Nuisance may arise from the cooling of the clinker. This is in some places done by pouring
water over it whilst hot, evolving clouds of steam. In some of Manlove's destructors a cooling
chamber has been devised, which is a great improvement. In the Beaman and Deas the clinker
when withdrawn from the furnace is cooled by water, and the draught carries the
steam up through the furnaces, so that all nuisance is avoided. In most cases there is considerable
nuisance from dust, but this may be avoided by careful arrangement of the buildings. At Tooting*
Cambridge and Torquay, considerable expense has been incurred in inclosing the works and by
arranging fans for extracting the foul air and dust, and conveying it into the chimney shaft. At
Bath it was found that great complaints were made by persons living in the higher parts of the
town, that dust from the top of the chimney was deposited in their neighbourhoods. This is a
contingency it will be desirable to guard against in the choice of a site for a destructor, and it
may be mentioned that the nearest high ground to Down Hall meadows is over one mile away,
and that with the south-west winds any dust would be carried to places devoid of houses. It is
contended by those who devise or manage destructors that no dust is given off from the chimney
shaft, but I believe that the complaint usually arises when there is residential property on high
ground within a mile of the shaft. The destructor at Devonport (Willoughby Syndicate) is a new
departure, and has many advantages over the others I have seen. It occupies a very small space
of ground. The refuse is tipped on to a perfectly smooth turn table, where there is no place for
it to lodge and accumulate. This turn table is readily moved, so that the load is brought opposite
the charging hole, into which it is shovelled by the attendant. In this charging hole a steam ram
works which presses the refuse into the furnace. This furnace consists of a steel tube on a
slight incline that is constantly revolving. It is lined with fire brick, and is fed with coke at a
cost of 6d. a day. The heat passes over a tubular boiler that works all the machinery and gives
plenty of steam to spare. The temperature in the tube is over 2000°, and the one cell is capable of
dealing with 50 tons of refuse a day. The clinker falls into a pit from the lower part of the tube
as it revolves, when it is cooled, and is then elevated into a sifter and discharged in two heaps, fine
and coarse. This is the best clinker that I have seen, and is said to have a good market value.
There is absence of nuisance from accumulation of refuse, from dust, and from cooling in this
machine, and I hope the Committee will consider its advantages carefully before finally deciding
on the pattern to be adopted by the Corporation.
With regard to the other machines, Beaman and Deas, Manlove, Horsfall, and Warner, there
appears to be little choice as far as avoidance of nuisance is concerned, this being more a matter of|the
arrangement of the buildings, the methods of working, and the auxiliaries, all of which add to
the cost, which in no case should be more than some sum between 1s. 6d. and 2s. per ton of refuse,
inclusive of buildings and cost of working. I should, however, place them as above in order of
merit as regards the requirements of this town.
H. BEALE COLLINS.
June, 1899.