Litter (vehicle)

“ The Chicago Commission in its investigation declares that the quantity and volume of dirt attributed to horse drawn vehicle traffic is the most important source of street dirt. The loss of sand and coal and crushed stone, hay, manure and other loose material from poorly constructed vehicles or overloaded vehicles adds greatly to the quantity of street dirt to be removed. ”

“ The soft, dry soil crumbles away, the light dust is stirred up by every passing vehicle, leaving deep ruts, so that the same road is often on different levels, and a car runs along at a sharp angle, with one wheel poised on the edge of a rut, and the other in a hollow. ”

“ Should a party traveling with pack animals, and without ambulances or wagons, have one of its members wounded or taken so sick as to be unable to walk or ride on horseback, a litter may be constructed by taking two poles about twenty feet in length, uniting them by two sticks three feet long lashed across the centre at six feet apart, and stretching a piece of stout canvas, a blanket, or hide between them to form the bed. ”

“ Of course some of the less-used country roads would be well-nigh impassable.
It was while crossing one of these roads, on a hard macadam highway, that the girls and boys saw, stuck in the mud of the poorer path, a peddler's wagon. The bony horse was doing its best to move the vehicle, which had sunk down in a hole, one wheel being imbedded in the mud to the hub.
"Why, it's that hair-tonic man!" exclaimed Mollie, as she slowed down to avoid a rut in the road.
"No, his wagon is all painted with gaudy signs," said Betty. "That's a boy driving that wagon. Why—why!" ”

“ If a pit does not exist, such an arrangement can be made to take its place, by raising the car to a convenient height above the floor.
A zinc tray about four feet long and about six inches narrower than the track of the car should be put under each vehicle to catch the drip, and for placing dirty waste in. In this manner cleanliness is cultivated. Wedges are also required for placing before and behind the wheels of a car when it is desired to keep them immovable. ”

“ The rope was soon fast to the wagon and backed-up auto.
"Go ahead slowly," cautioned Will. "We don't know what will give way first, the horse or the wagon. Take it easy, Mollie."
Slowly the auto started. There came a strain on the rope. There was a creaking to the old vehicle, and then it slowly began to emerge from the mud. The old horse, who had almost gone to sleep, roused up at this strange activity, and was literally forced to stir out of his tracks. In a few seconds the wagon was on the firm road, the auto having pulled it in a diagonal direction from the mud-hole. ”

“ As motors increased in number and speed and bulk, they continued to become more and more of a nuisance to the cyclists and pedestrians and horse-drawn vehicles still forming the majority of road-users. Clouds of dust whitened the hedges, and choked the inhabitants of all houses anywhere near a main highway. ”

“ The rest of the highways were either paved with cobblestones or left in their primitive dirt, which became nearly impassable in very wet weather for mud, and in very dry weather for dust. It was not uncommon for a heavy vehicle like a fire-engine to get stalled when it most needed to hurry, and to avoid this contingency the engines sometimes ran over the sidewalk. ”

“ Every time the road was swept or scraped, the sand would go with the rest, and then we should be ‘as we were,’ until more was put down. A better measure would be to keep the roadway clean by the use of revolving brushes worked on the end of a cart, into which the dirt should be carried by the brushes. ”

“ The Alpine litter is sometimes like a cushioned box made fast between the middles of two long poles, and sometimes it is a chair with a back to it and a support for the feet. It is carried by relays of strong porters. The motion is easier than that of any other conveyance. We met a few men and a great many ladies in litters; it seemed to me that most of the ladies looked pale and nauseated; their general aspect gave me the idea that they were patiently enduring a horrible suffering. As a rule, they looked at their laps, and left the scenery to take care of itself. ”

“ Not only must horse stables be cared for, but chicken yards, piggeries, and garbage receptacles as well. In cities, with better methods of disposal of garbage and with the lessening of the number of horses and horse stables consequent upon electric street railways, bicycles, and automobiles, the time may come, and before very long, when window screens may be discarded. ”

“ The sudden rounding of a sharp corner has caused many a car to turn turtle; likewise suddenly turning a car from a rutted track will sometimes cause the driver to lose control and the car to go into the ditch. If there is snow, ice, loose earth or mud on the roadway or pavement, skidding, which may result in a broken wheel or more disastrously, is quite likely to take place. ”

“ The streets being very muddy, he resolved to do the genteel in the way of assisting her out of the vehicle; made his exit; put one foot six inches into a mud-hole, and the other on the edge of the curb-stone; lifted the lady to the sidewalk in safety, at the expense of bursting off two suspender-buttons, and his vest-buckle, a slip down causing his nose to fall against the tire, his knees into the mud, his shoulder against the stage-steps, and caving in his hat. ”

“ The dirt is [Pg 97] always to be found in the roadway, and the water, which comes in rain, snow, and frost, softens it; horses and wagons and narrow wheel tires knead it and mix it, and it soon gets into so bad a condition that a fairly loaded wagon cannot be hauled through it. ”

“ The city is now experimenting with motor apparatus designed for dustless and odorless collection of all kinds of refuse.
In a few cities one type of wagon is used for ashes and another type for rubbish. One new type of wagon has the body swung low on running gear, with dumping edges three feet, six inches above the pavement, and is pivoted at one end to facilitate dumping. It holds nine cubic yards and is divided by cross partitions into compartments, one for ashes and the other for garbage. ”

“ Carts rattling over the brick pavement, electric cars passing at frequent intervals and incessantly sounding their gongs to warn the careless people out of their way, diminutive venders shouting out the nature and superior quality of their wares—all this, with the inevitable clouds of dust which swept over and enveloped everything, made up the life and activity of the street. ”

“ For the purpose of giving more aid to the surface-water in cleansing the streets, and at the same time for keeping the footways and houses drier and more free from mud, I should propose (at least as an experiment) a different structure of the carriage-way, viz., to make it incline to a centre kennel, instead of to two side ones. At present, in many places, the centre of the carriage-way is elevated above the level of the shop doors, and at the same time we often find the footway but three inches higher than the kennel ”

“ It may be a shock perhaps to some minds, but I must confess I do not see what is to prevent the process of elimination that is beginning now with the heavy vans spreading until it covers all horse traffic, and with the disappearance of horse hoofs and the necessary filth of horses, the road surface may be made a very different thing from what it is at present, better drained and admirably adapted for the soft-tyred hackney vehicles and the torrent of cyclists. ”

“ While the motor vehicle gradually diminished the problem of sanitation, it was beginning to show some of its own disadvantages. Mud in the rainy periods and dust in dry continued to plague the traveler through the close of the 19th century and well into the 20th, and the automobile seemed to only exasperate this problem. ”

“ The dirt that covers the streets as they are now paved does not come entirely from above or from any external source, but is forced upward from beneath the pavements by the impact of the trucks, carts, carriages, and horses' hoofs, in the ordinary traffic of the city. ”

“ If loose earth is dumped into the middle of the road and consolidated by traffic, the action of the narrow-tired wheels cuts it or rolls it into uneven ruts and ridges, which hold water, and ultimately results, if in the winter season, in a sticky, muddy surface, or if it be in dry weather, in covering the surface with several inches of dust. If, however, the surface be prepared with a road machine and properly rolled with a heavy roller, it can usually be made sufficiently firm and smooth to sustain the traffic without rutting, and resist the penetrating action of the water. ”

“ Doubtless the best way to keep an earth road, or any road, for that matter, in repair is by the use of wide tires on all wagons carrying heavy burdens. Water and narrow tires aid each other in destroying streets, macadam, gravel, and earth roads. Narrow tires are also among the most destructive agents to the fields, pastures, and meadows of farms, while on the other hand wide tires are road-makers; they roll and harden the surface, and every loaded wagon becomes in effect a road roller. Nothing so much tends to the improving of a road as the continued rolling of its surface. ”

“ When automobiles became more common on the county's thoroughfares, they increased the problem of dust, deeply worn grooves and splashing muddy water. At the same time they pointed up the necessity for improvement. The early solid tire vehicles could barely operate in the thick red Virginia mud, thus greatly retarding transportation of produce and milk. "If you had three drops of rain on the road, [the tires] started spinning and you couldn't go anywhere much without chains," recollected one early farmer. "Every truck carried a set of tire chains in the event it rained. ”

“ Yet vehicles do, it appears venture along these paths, and even arrive at their destination. You may also meet flocks of sheep and oxen on them, and families of pigs engaged in breakfasting on a sheep that has been relieved of its skin. In less than an hour its bones, picked clean, are scattered along the way, where in process of time they will contribute precious phosphates to the soil. Naturally, on such a "road," the automobile does not yearn to travel; rather does it prefer the green smoothness of the immense prairie. Here there are no police regulations to annoy the motorist. ”

“ After those three last days of Holy Week, when from one end of Seville to the other we never met wagon, carriage, or beast of burden, it came like a surprise to find the streets crowded with all sorts of interesting vehicles. The heavy traffic is carried in big, picturesque carts drawn by bulls, oxen, donkeys, and mules. ”

“ A litter then I decided I would have.
It is, I should think, the very earliest form of human conveyance. It consists of two long poles laid about as far apart as the shafts of an ordinary cart, in the middle is hung a coarse-meshed rope net, and over that a tilt of matting—the sort of stuff we see tea-chests covered with in this country. Into the net is tumbled all one's small impedimenta—clothes-bags, kettles, anything that will not conveniently go on mule-back ”

“ The mule-litter is a goodly-sized palanquin, not quite long enough for lying at full length, but high enough to allow the passenger to sit erect. There is a box or false flooring in the bottom, to accommodate baggage in small parcels that can be easily stowed. A good litter has the sides stuffed to save the occupant from bruises; and with plenty of straw and a couple of pillows, he generally finds himself quite comfortable. The body is fastened to two strong and flexible poles that extend fore and aft far enough to serve as shafts for a couple of mules. ”

“ Another method adopted by a few cities is to use wagons for collection and tractors for hauling. The horse drawn wagons when filled are taken from a common meeting place to the disposal site by a tractor which draws them as a trailer. The horses are hitched to empty wagons and continue collecting.
R. T. Dana has compiled statistics which will interest those who contemplate using motor trucks. He says for hauling ashes, street pavement, etc., it is cheaper to use horses if the haul is less than one mile. If motor power is used for a haul of a quarter of a mile the loss is 1.8 per cent. ”

“ There is much contrariety of opinion relative to the propriety of permitting horses to stand during the day on litter; and there are cogent arguments for and against it. Litter entices horses to lie down during the day, which relieves fatigue, and is favourable to the recovery of over-strained limbs: it also prevents an uneven or hurtful pressure on the feet when it is cobble-paved. On the other hand, gross feeding horses are apt to eat their litter, which is not desirable. ”

“ The hardest work which the men do is acting as bearer to their master’s hammock or litter, and, as the roads often lie through uncleared forests, and are very rough and rocky, they have a fatiguing task. These litters are very convenient, and are covered with a roof to shield the occupant from the sun. They are rather unwieldy, and sometimes as many as twenty or thirty men are attached to each litter, some bearing the poles on their shoulders, and others dragging it by ropes, while the whole proceedings are directed by a superintendent. ”

“ As we near London Bridge, the dirt of the vast highway gains upon us; but, it must be confessed, its general picturesqueness is thereby immeasurably increased. Dirt, after all, is always so near akin to picturesqueness. The mud-banks and the mud become more constant, the bustle and hum of the great city are everywhere evident. Barges are moored under the tall warehouses; workmen stand in the storing-places above, hauling up the goods from the boats with ropes and pulleys; it is a scene of ceaseless activity, an activity too, which increases as you descend the stream. ”