fig1 best illustrates the preferred embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention designated generally by the numeral 10 . in fig1 there can be seen a garbage disposal apparatus 10 which comprises generally a container 12 having lid portions 18 , 16 attached hingedly thereto with the lids being movable in a pivotal fashion to open and close the provided upper opening 20 to container 12 which allows the entry of garbage , refuse or the like into the inner space 22 portion of container 12 . container 12 provides within its inner space 22 and more specifically on the bottom portion thereof a continuous steam coil sparger 30 which sparger has an inlet 32 end portion provided with a valve 35 for controlling or valving the flow of steam into container 12 through sparger 30 , the inflow of steam being schematically illustrated by the arrow 36 in fig1 . sparger 30 can be , for example , in the form of a plurality of substantially parallel pipe members 37 ( 12 being preferred ) which are connected alternately at the end portions by elbow fittings 40 . the extreme end portion of sparger 30 from inlet 32 provides a cap 42 . it will be understood by one skilled in the art , that the flow of steam from inlet 32 will be generally toward cap 42 with steam between inlet 32 and cap 42 leaving sparger 30 through provided openings 45 ( see fig3 ). a pair of spacer support racks 50 , 51 are seen best in fig1 and 2 . support racks 50 , 51 are provided to space sparger 30 a distance d above the floor f of container 12 with a four to six inch spacing d being preferable . container 12 comprises generally a floor f portion and four sidewalls each being designated by the letter s . in fig3 there is seen a detail of a single sparger pipe 37 with discharge openings 45 being shown thereon . openings 45 could be , for example , equally spaced a distance of six inches apart with each consecutive opening 45 being placed at an orientation of forty - five degrees ( 45 °) downwardly with respect to the horizontal while alternating in forwardly and rearwardly disposed positions . thus , steam would be distributed to the left and to the right of each sparger pipe 37 to provide an even distribution of steam within the inner space 22 of container 12 . as schematically shown in fig2 water would preferably be added to inner space 22 above floor f of container 12 to a level ws which would submerge sparger 30 minutes before the introduction of steam at inlet 32 . this has been found to provide a method and apparatus for the quick and complete disinfection of any mass of garbage which is added to container 12 through opening 22 . a plurality of lifting eyes 61 - 64 can be provided for attaching container 12 to a crane or the like for elevating container 12 onto the deck of a vessel where a mass of garbage to be disinfected can be added thereto . the container of the present invention thus provides an easily movable container apparatus 10 which can be lifted onto the vessel , with the garbage or refuse product thereafter added and the container sealed on the vessel by appropriate authorities . container 12 could be , for example , welded steel construction while sparger could be in the form of a continuous sparger comprised of a plurality of pipe sections , each being preferably of extra heavy thickness steel pipe or the like . because many varying and different embodiments may be made within the scope of the inventive concept herein taught , and because many modifications may be made in the embodiments herein detailed in accordance with the descriptive requirement of the law , it is to be understood that the details herein are to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense .
a method and apparatus for the steam disinfection of refuse , particularly garbage received , under quarantine , from marine vessels . the apparatus is a closable chamber having a steam sparger supported above the bottom thereof , which sparger is covered by water placed in the bottom of the chamber during use thereof .