The price of this machine is £30, and being of very simple construction it costs little or nothing in repairs, except for the brushes, which last for about 180 hours when in constant work. These can, however, be replaced at a cost of £2 15s. per set, or the old stocks can be refilled with bass, at a more moderate figure. It is, of course, necessary to sweep the ridge of dust or mud which is left by the machine at the side of the street into heaps by hand labour, and to remove it by carts; other machines have been invented for cleansing streets, which by means of elevators, or other gear, profess to raise the mud or dust direct into the carts, which are to be attached at the back of the machine, but hitherto these machines have been found to be too cumbersome, costly, and complicated for the purpose, and they have not consequently found much favour with Sanitary Authorities.
Messrs. Smith & Sons also construct a patent road scraping machine, which is drawn by one horse, and which will, they say, scrape upwards of 10,000 square yards of road surface in an hour.
The strength and durability of the hand brooms purchased by an Urban Authority for the work of sweeping the streets is of some importance, as affecting the ultimate cost of the work, and some care and skill is required in their selection.
Bass brooms are better than birch brooms for this purpose, and the bass of which the brooms are made should be sufficiently stout and of regular thickness; it should be tough and elastic, not old, dry, and brittle, each knot should be of uniform size and be firmly set, and the number of knots in each broom head is also a matter of choice. A convenient and fair test of the soundness of a broom is to soak it for a few days in water before issuing it to the sweeper, and then note the time it will last. The handles of the brooms should be made of alder wood.
The mode of construction of streets, and the materials of which they are formed, makes a considerable difference in the amount of cleansing necessary, and upon the quantity of mud or dust that has to be removed from their surface. In making any investigations for the purpose of deciding what difference exists in the question of cleansing various forms and descriptions of pavements, climatic influence introduces a rather disturbing element, which may seriously affect any conclusions that may be drawn; it may, however, be taken for granted that a street, the surface of which is metalled on the macadam principle with stones of a soft or gritty character, will require more cleansing and be more costly to scavenge (under the same conditions of climate and traffic), than a street paved with the hardest granite setts or with blocks of wood, or with asphalte, and at the same time much care will have to be taken not to over sweep or over scrape a road with a macadamised surface, or much injury will be done to it.
Amongst the influences that disturb the results of any investigations made with respect to street 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.
The Superintendent of the Scavenging Department at Liverpool has made some observations and obtained some valuable information on these points, which he has detailed in a report he presented to the Health Committee of that borough in the year 1877, an abstract of which is as follows:—
GROSS COST FOR EACH TIME OF CLEANSING 10,000 YARDS SUPERFICIAL OF DIFFERENT DESCRIPTIONS OF ROADWAY IN THE BOROUGH OF LIVERPOOL.
| Street. | Description of pavement. | When paved. | Condition of repair of roadway. | Area of carriage- way. | Loads removed in one month. | Times swept in one month. | Gross cost per 10,000 yards superficial for each cleansing. | ||||
| Yds. supr. | £ | s. | d. | ||||||||
| Lord St. | { | Granite setts, asphalte joints | } | 1877 | Very good | 4,503 | 15 | 26 | 0 | 6 | 5½ |
| North John St. | Ditto | 1872 | Good | 3,287 | 17½ | 26 | 0 | 8 | 10½ | ||
| Tithebarn St. | { | Granite setts, ordinary joints | } | 1872 and 1874 | Bad | 5,150 | 38 | 26 | 0 | 11 | 2 |
| West Derby Rd. | { | Ditto, asphalte joints | } | 1876 | Very good | 11,980 | 35 | 13 | 0 | 9 | 4¾ |
| Great Howard St. | Ditto | 1877 | Good | 16,860 | 85 | 13 | 0 | 14 | 4½ | ||
| Great Homer St. | { | Ditto, ordinary joints | } | Not ascertainable | Moderate | 15,900 | 85 | 13 | 0 | 14 | 1 |
| Kensington St. | { | Macadam breasted with setts | } | Ditto | Good | 14,540 | 76 | 13 | 0 | 14 | 3¾ |
| Stanley Rd. | Ditto | Ditto | Bad | 16,534 | 186 | 13 | 1 | 8 | 9¼ | ||