Garbage
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Garbage. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
DISPOSAL OF. The question of the proper disposal of garbage and refuse has been one of the most important problems of municipal life. In the United States, the term garbage is used to designate kitchen waste of animal or vegetable origin, incident to the preparation and serving of food. Aside from household wastes, there are various classes of trade and manufacturing refuse, such as paper, rags, and shavings. It is the custom to keep organic and inorganic wastes in separate receptacles. Ashes are the chief inorganic substances, but no practical method has been found for their use, except as a filling. Garbage collection in large cities is undertaken by the city. A relatively small number of cities and towns have adopted thoroughly modern sanitary methods of garbage and refuse disposal. The first garbage furnaces used to incinerate garbage, were installed in Great Britain. The first furnace in the United States built for a city was in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1887. Furnaces are of various types. Most of them are constructed upon English models. The sorting of refuse has come to be highly specialized in some cities of the United States. The first city to install a well equipped refuse sorting plant was Boston. In sorting, the refuse is brought to a station, dumped and shoveled into an inclined conveyor from which are sorted the various grades of paper, rags, and other kinds of merchantable refuse. The remainder is dumped automatically into a furnace and burned. There are refuse sorting plants at Buffalo, Pittsburgh, New York, and other cities. Garbage reduction is intended to recover grease and fertilizing material from animal and vegetable waste, while at the same time sanitary means are afforded for final disposal. The equipment required is somewhat elaborate, and includes tanks, dryers, grinding mills, and other apparatus. Many cities have municipal reduction plants. These include Cleveland, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Buffalo, N. Y.; New York City; and other cities. Following the World War the utilization of garbage by feeding to hogs increased rapidly in the United States. The cities of Ba Baltimore, Newark, Buffalo, and St. Louis changed from reduction to hog feeding, in 1919. In many other cities this method was used in disposing of garbage.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
kitchen and table refuse. The word is of unknown origin, meaning at first the entrails of fowls. The term has been extended to include all vegetable and animal refuse, such as bones, potato parings, scraps from the table, etc. Ashes are not properly garbage. The pigpen and the chickencoop take care of kitchen waste in farming communities, but in the larger towns the solution of the garbage problem is difficult. The housekeepers of New York City are required to place this refuse in cans. It is collected daily, loaded on scows, and sent off to an establishment where it is sorted and disposed of, the first step being to subject it to hot steam to kill all germs. The plant is calculated to care for 4,000,000 pounds of garbage daily. It has been found that American cities produce about one pound daily per inhabitant; European cities about half as much. Paris, such is the skill and economy of French housekeepers, has scarce any garbage. The new garbage cans distributed through Central Park in New York are constructed of concrete, and made to appear like a tree stump or section of a tree trunk. The opening into which the rubbish is thrust is on one side near the top. The idea of such garbage cans is the same as that which caused a Frenchman of artistic temperament to have the concrete chimney of a private electric plant on his beautiful estate disguised as a tall tree trunk. Such cans do not mar the natural beauty of a park as do the ordinary galvanized tin garbage cans.--Technical World.