Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
CBD, I never imagined the incinerators being sold like that. I pictured them in Sears. Were they sold in vacant lots like christmas trees?
kinda kidding...kinda not. 
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ER: I believe they were sold at stores that carried things like brick, tile, cement and gravel. Basically building supplies stores that had an outdoor yard. The ones we see in the photo are floor samples...so to speak.
The incinerator would arrive at your home like a kit and the installer would strap the pieces together with metal straps...very similar to packaging today.
I recall the heavy wire spark stopper at the top. It could get so hot it would glow red-orange.
You always had to have matches handy....
During that era all LA had for trash pickup was a nasty stinky garbage truck that would creep around and sling your wet leftovers into the box. Everything else had to be burned in your backyard incinerator. Can you imagine millions of these things belching smoke?
By 1957 people voted them down. They had to go. It was well known that they were a major cause of smog.
Here is a lady getting a ticket for her still operating incinerator.
They were banned Sept, 1957 in Los Angeles County and elsewhere.
Right - Steel strapping tools with reel of strapping steel.
