Street cleaner

“ In the underground streets and the wide arcades lined with shops, curling colored streamers rustle under the feet of night workers hurrying home to their rooms. Automatic street cleaners snuffle at plastic cups and empty bottles strewn outside of vending bars and recreation halls—snuffle like some curious animal, suck, devour and move on, their fat wheels whispering on the pavement. ”

“ The study disclosed that some sweepers are more efficient than others, 10due to the stroke of the broom which they make. The practise of hitting a broom on the pavement is not necessary on dry pavements and very seldom on wet pavements. Effective and practical street cleaning can be obtained by bringing the brush down forcibly at the beginning of each stroke, thus reducing the work at least 15 per cent. The time schedules disclosed that time lost by street cleaners in dodging horses and automobiles where traffic is dense is unappreciable and does not exceed 8 per cent. ”

“ Put garbage and rubbish in covered fly-tight receptacles. Such refuse breeds flies and insects which are dangerous because they spread disease. Cleanliness is cheaper than sickness.
Spare the birds. They destroy worms and insects, thus preserving the flowers and trees and helping to make the city beautiful.
QUESTIONS
Do you think that the doing of these things would be of help to the street cleaners of your own city? ”

“ EQUIPMENT OF STREET CLEANERS
Don’t Sweep Rubbish into the Street.
A large city street-cleaning department uses:
Sprinkling wagons, flushing machines, machine brooms, dirt wagons and carts, rubbish wagons, tightly-built ash wagons, covered garbage wagons.
The workmen needed are: drivers, collectors and cleaners.
All employees should be required to wear uniforms and numbered badges.
Each “blockman” is usually provided with the following:
A bag carrier, bags, scraper, broom, sprinkler, fire-hydrant key, shovel, tools.
QUESTIONS
All sweepings are placed in dust-proof bags. ”

“ The Work of the Department of Street Cleaning.—In any city a menace to the health of its citizens exists in the refuse and garbage. The city streets, when dirty, contain countless millions of germs which have come from decaying material, or from people ill with disease. In most large cities a department of street cleaning not only cares for the removal of dust from the streets, but also has the removal of garbage, ashes, and other waste as a part of its work. The disposal of solid wastes is a tremendous task. ”

“ All desire clean streets, and an appeal to the common sense and public spirit of the people will be successful. A plain and simple circular from an official source should be placed in the hands of each householder and storekeeper, and of each family in tenement-houses, to the effect that every particle of dust, dirt, ashes, garbage, and refuse should be placed in the garbage receptacles, and that the sidewalk should not be swept into the street, but the dust and paper thereon should be carefully gathered and placed in the garbage receptacles of the stores or houses. ”

“ In fact, the reckless way in which house and street cleaning are handled is really appalling. Dusting should always be done with a damp cloth, and carpets cleaned by a closed sweeper well filled with wet tea leaves. The street-cleaning problem is simply a question of water supply. ”

“ You are aware that one inconvenience of the existing mode of street cleansing, independently of the great expense, is the length of time during which the wet refuse remains to the public annoyance on the surface, until removed by the slow process of sweeping and cartage?—Yes; and the men would appear to delay for the purpose of the dirt being removed, by being washed by rain into the sewers. ”

“ Nevertheless, it should be possible in the smaller cities at least to interest farmers and gardeners in the use of this material to a greater extent than is now common and to dispose thus of the sweepings at a price that would reduce the cost of disposal otherwise. The use of street refuse for filling low ground or reclaiming areas of shallow water and marshes has not been so seriously considered as it should be.
In some cities the street dirt is used as a fill between sidewalks and curb or in low alleys and vacant lots which are adjacent to the streets cleaned. ”

“ The quantity of street dirt collected from the pavements in market places illustrates an instance where pavements become unavoidably littered.”
Gustave H. Hanna, when head of the Cleveland Street Cleaning Department, expressed the belief that nothing encourages carefulness on the part of the public so much as efficient and careful cleaning. He argued that a man does 7not hesitate to throw paper or rubbish into a foul street, but thinks twice if the street is clean. If there is a waste box at hand with a printed suggestion on the outside, Mr. Hanna thinks he is apt to use the box. ”

“ If the streets are kept damp and clean, then the air above them is cool and fresh and pure.
How does the city get rid of all the dirt and waste? From every house there are two kinds of waste. Some is taken away in pipes from the sink and bathroom out into pipes that run under the street, and these carry it away from the city to some stream or deep water that takes it entirely away from the town. ”

“ The Milwaukee Bureau of Municipal Research, in its investigation of street cleaning in that city, says the contention of some is that flushing is detrimental to pavement as it removes grout, but such has not been proven in Milwaukee. The one fact that remains uncontradicted is that they clean the streets of every particle of débris and leave the thoroughfares in a sanitary condition ”

“ New York, from its insular position, from its large foreign-born population, from the crowded condition of a considerable part of its people in tenement-bouses, and from its peculiar street and block construction, whereby it is necessary to remove ashes, garbage, and house refuse through a front entrance to carts in the public street, affords an example of the worst possible conditions for street cleanliness. ”

“ Enforced cleanliness, and the progress of sanitary works in cities, are followed by an enhanced vitality and elasticity of mind still more than by longevity of the inhabitants. Among sanitary works, improved pavements are classed along with sewerage, water-closets, and water-supply under pressure; since it is a prime condition of public hygiene that every street and alley should drain as promptly and thoroughly as the houses erected on it. ”

“ Even as I am writing a transformation is being worked in some of the filthiest streets on the East Side by a combination of new asphalt pavements with a greatly improved street cleaning service that promises great things. Some of the worst streets have within a few weeks become as clean as I have not seen them in twenty years, and as they probably never were since they were made. The unwonted brightness of the surroundings is already visibly reflected in the persons and dress of the tenants, notably the children. ”

“ If there were only the dirt which comes from the use of the streets, the paid cleaners could easily remove it. [Pg 163] Most of the dirt, however, comes because people do not think or care. One little piece of paper, a banana peel, an apple core—how trifling they seem! Yet, suppose each boy and girl of thousands of boys and girls should forget, and should throw something into the street, how littered the streets would be! ”

“ Street-cleaning in cities has for its aim the removal of dust, mud, snow, filth, and household refuse. As regards the latter, which ought to be thrown directly into the carts, municipal regulations in Paris continually conflict with a corporation very jealous of its privileges; I refer to that of the rag-pickers, who conduct a business represented by nearly 7,000 persons, collecting with their hooks material worth 4,000,000 francs ($800,000) a year, and feeding the manufactories of paper, pasteboard, lampblack, etc. ”

“ A student of the problem of street-cleaning has only to make the above observations to learn the primary cause of dirty streets in New York, and that, without a thorough reform in this particular, relief is well-nigh hopeless. This simple solution of the problem is only the application to the streets of the familiar rules which govern every well-regulated household. Can a house be clean if the members of the family throw waste paper and other refuse on the floors, and ignore the wastebasket and the cuspidore ”

“ As they volunteered to show the wisdom of better disposal of rubbish and of street flushing and oiling, so women are volunteering to educate the people to desire permanent cleanliness. The inherited instincts of the cleanly housekeeper thus become a valuable municipal asset.
In Philadelphia, Mrs. Edith Pearce, a club woman, is a city inspector of street cleaning. ”

“ But the more fortunate towns are not entirely exempt from the difficulties and embarrassments which have for a long period surrounded this subject in New York; and, although they may be interested in a less degree in the solution of this great sanitary and social problem, it will be observed that the history of street-cleaning in New York during the past twenty-five years is not uninstructive, and that the improved methods necessary in the metropolis are more or less applicable to all large American cities. ”

“ Give your banana-peels to a horse. Horses like them. Orange-peels, peanut-shells, newspapers and other rubbish must not be thrown in the street. Keep yours and throw them in the receptacle placed at street corners for that purpose. You should sprinkle your sidewalk before sweeping. Don’t raise the dust, as it breeds disease. It is against the law to throw rubbish from the windows to the street. ”

“ The value of a process of street-cleansing is proportioned to the rapidity with which it is performed, but at present it is usually delayed until the sun or the air has done a large portion of the work by the evaporation of the moisture, commonly however to the deterioration of the air of the town and the health, and also to the deterioration of the value of the refuse. ”

“ There is nothing so conducive to unsanitary conditions and so disfiguring to a beautiful street as glimpses and often broad views of alleys and back yards that have become dump piles and garbage receivers. ”

“ Street Cleaning Methods Four methods are used in American cities for street cleaning, hand sweeping, machine sweeping, flushing by machine and hose and squeegeeing.
All experts advocate the sweeping of streets by hand, commonly called the patrol system. The implements used in patrol cleaning are broom, pan scraper, squeegees, can carrier and cans. ”

“ City streets must be maintained by the city government. If a person is injured by the failure of the government to keep sidewalks [Pg 126] in repair he has a right to sue the government for damages. The municipal government, on the other hand, may require property-owners to keep their sidewalks in good condition.
Street-cleaning: Since many thousands of children have no playground but the street, the condition in which city streets are kept is of great importance to their health and general welfare. Disease germs are heavy and are most numerous near the ground. ”

“ The great movements for betterment—water supply, street cleaning, tenement laws, etc.—are carried out by community agreement with a common tax outlay.
The clean city means streets of clean houses. The clean house in the midst of a dirty city may be the match to start a fire of cleansing.
Probably medical inspection in the public school is as good an example as may be given of helpfulness to the community. No quicker means of influencing both home and community life may be found, for in five years it might revolutionize the whole. ”

“ Disposal of Street Refuse In most cities the final disposal of sweepings and waste collected from the streets is a troublesome problem, and the cost is no small item in the expenses of the street cleaning department. The majority dispose of the sweepings on city dumps. ”

“ It not only lays the dust, but it washes the surface of the streets, and it most effectually scours out the gutters and at the same time flushes the sewers, which at the season that watering is necessary is also of great importance to any town. By this process a delightful freshness is given to the air, and the appearance of the cool and limpid water rushing along on each side of the street acts favorably upon the inhabitants. ”

“ The streets, cross-walks, and sidewalks shall be kept clean, clear, and free for the passage of carts, wagons, carriages and street or steam railway cars, or pedestrians, unless otherwise authorized by special permission in writing from the Engineer. ”

“ Amongst the influences that disturb the results of any investigations made with respect to street [53] cleansing, that of the amount and character of the traffic over it must not be lost sight of, and the state of repair and gradient of the street are both of considerable importance in affecting the results, the practice too, of bringing out the house refuse into the streets in improper receptacles pending the arrival of the scavengers' cart, must also cause a varying amount of refuse to be swept from its surface, depending upon the habits of the persons living in the street. ”

“ An investigation conducted by the United States Bureau of Census indicated that the unit cost of street cleaning in cities having less than 300,000 inhabitants is less than that in cities having over 300,000. ”