My South Dakota farm relatives had some later models of the originals and while they were efficient they didn't have the appeal or kitchen presence desired. I am referring here to garbage disposals.
On the farms, the pigs were effective but without much charm (the odor was also unfortunate). So, it remained for John W. Hammes to invent a more popular alternative.
Hammes was an architect in Racine, Wis., who invented an electric garbage disposal in 1927. It took him about 11 years to develop it to the commercial level -- perhaps the pigs' lobby kept throwing up distractions.
Hammes' new company was named InSinkErator.
In the 1930s and 1940s, many municipalities had regulations prohibiting the discharge of food waste into the city sewer system. The folks at InSinkErator recognized this as a major impediment to the sale of their product so they spent considerable effort and time in convincing localities to rescind the prohibitions. For many years garbage disposals were illegal in New York City. It wasn't until 1997 that the ban was rescinded.
As of three years ago, about 50 percent of U.S. homes had garbage disposals compared to only 6 percent in the United Kingdom. In Canada, the units are known as "garburators."
The basic principal is simple. The electrically powered device uses a combination of blades to shred food into pieces small enough (two millimeters) to pass through the plumbing system. The blades will also do a number on silverware or spatulas that wander too close to the drain.
Household waste consists of 10 to 20 percent scraps. If these were burned in waste-to-energy facilities the high water content doesn't generate energy. If buried in landfills the scraps decompose and create methane gas -- a nasty component of greenhouse gas.
Modern wastewater treatment plants handle the garbage disposal output handily. So, although little pigs can be cute, they rapidly outgrow kitchen pet size making garbage disposals a more effective alternative in today's homes.
Note: A "Popular Mechanics" article in 1935 offered "Kitchen Grinder for Waste Displaces Garbage Pail" but the magazine was not available for review in my references.
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- "H" is the most popular first letter of U.S. Presidents' surnames, Harrison, Hayes, Harrison, Harding and Hoover. "S" is the most common letter at the beginning of English words, but no president's surname begins with that letter.
- Les Dawson uttered a funny for those of us mathematically inclined, "There is a remote tribe that worships the number zero. Is nothing sacred?"
- About one-fourth of the drivers in the world drive on the left side of the road (some of them sadly in the U.S.)
Jim Willard, a Loveland resident since 1967, retired from Hewlett-Packard after 33 years to focus on less trivial things. He calls Twoey, his bichon frisé-Maltese dog, vice president of research for his column.