26 OCTOBER 1945, Page 13

THE ELECTRICAL FUTURE

Si,—In your issue of October 19th, D. M. Vaughan asks for a house or flat—with some means of electrically consuming its own refuse. When I was in the United States in 1943 I had the pleasure of being a frequent visitor to a fine old Southern home in North Carolina, which had been recently fitted with an all-electric kitchen. The waste pipe of the sink was approximately 3 inches in diameter an.l in the pipe, below the sink, was fitted a mincing machine driven by a high-speed electric motor. Every type of soft kitchen waste was disposed of by stuffing it down the waste pipe and starting the motor with a half-turn clockwise of the waste plug. Having been ground up, the waste was simply flushed away by turning on the tap for a moment. Only a few seconds were necessary for the grinding up of each batch of waste. I do not remember whether this excellent contrivance could deal with bones ; but water-melon skins and the shells of crabs were very quickly disposed of. As this device was made by an American company which has an English branch, it is not too much to hope that soon we may find it on the market over here.— Yours faithfully, DEREK R. SCORER. " Heatherland," Maybury, Woking.