Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-21
Chief Bigelow's Bright Plan to COL
lect Both Toll and Dust From
Street Railway Tracks.
ELECTRIC SWEEPERS WILL BE USED
The Power Which Lights Will Be Trained
to Cleanse Pittsburgs Thor.
oughfares.
BROOMS on ALL MIDNIGHT COACHES.
speesi Machines Are to Be Constructed for Cleaning the
Cutters

department is about permanently settled by
the latest and one of the most brilliant idea.
ever evolved from Chief Bigelow's brain.
Electricity will be made to clean the
streets.
The disposal of daily accumulations ot
dust and refuse caused by the enormous
travel over the streets of Pittsburg has be-
come one of the most vexing questions to
the Department OF Public Works. Every
night gangs of men so to work at
o'clock, and remain at work until
that hour IN the morning, gather
ing up the dust and dirt carried
into the city from no one knows where. Oh
course, on many of the streets, work cannot
be commenced until the street car lin: stops
running. 1t is now barely possible to have
the rubbish cleared up by daybreak, when
the travel again commences, because SO
many of the streets are crowded by passen-
ger railways.
Deposits of Dirt Delaying the Duquesne.
The Duquesne Traction Company which
covers nearly all the now unoccupied streets
in the central part of the city, will commence
operations about February 15-or possibly
sooner, if there is thaw. The road is largely
being held back now by the fact
that the graveland sand put there by
the new paving is frozen fast to the rails,
and to clear the tracks of these
frozen bsrnacles would require great deal
of time and an enormous expenditure of
money. 1t is therefore considered cheaper
to wait and allow nature to perform this
work.
However, this road and the Birmingham
Traction road, when opened, will prevent
the work of streets sweeping being COM
nenced on any of the downtown streets un-
til after midnight. A double force will
then be required to get the great thorough
fares in shape for travel each day. This
means an additional expense.
1t is the desire of the city to own all the
horses used in this department of the city
work. While the teams are sufficient
for each gang at present, the
to do the same work in half the time. Con-
sequently, each team will only need to do
half days work, while the cost of mainte-
nance will be the same as when the horses
worked the full night.
An Idea of the Present Expense.
The teams hired at present cost IS each,
exclusive of the wages of the drivers. Each
gang of street cleaners at present costs the
city SIS night, and there are over a dozen
such gangs in different parts of the city
The total cost each year for cleaning up the
city dust is away beyond what most Pitts
burgers imagine.
As every item this year has to be shaved to
the lowest limit in the expenses Of the Public
Works Department, in order to have more
money for needed improvements, the dust
item has TO be cut down with the rest
The necessity of economy and some more
rapid method of collecting the dust caused
consultation yesterday afternson between
several of the bosses of the street cleaning
department and Chief Bigelow, at the lat
ter's office. After a long discussion it was
decided that the only solution of the
problem was to make electricity do the
work.
From being the winged Mercury, carry
ing messages from continent to continent, to
common, ordinary street sweeper and dus.
collector, was an awful fall for electricity.
but so Chief Bigelow has decided, and the
life current of the trolley wire must bend to
his will. Thus the same power which, by its
brilliancy, reveals the existence of f lth on
feet its removal.
Now that almost every street in the city is
being covered with a network OF trolley
wires, the idea is to use them to furnish
power to run the sweepers.
Sweepers to Be Attached to Street Cars.
The fist part OF the plan is to have the
last car each day on each line run a sweeper
on the rear. This will clear off the tracks
of the road and leave the dust in the center,
piled up in regular "Windrows" For
sweeping along the sides, Chief Bigelow in
tends to nave constructed sweepers that will
be run BY a motor similar to those employed
on street cars.
The present idea, although still some
what embryonic, is about as follows: The
sveepers will be made very much like an
ordinary traction engine, except that elec-
tricity from the street car wires will be used
rs a motive power. The current will be
brought down by means of a trolley pole,
with an elbow instead of the ordinary
straight bar now used, where the
cars run directly under the wires
The pole can be so balanced as
to easily hold the trolley in place on
the wire. The distance from these wires to
the curb is not so great, in anv case as to
prevent this method of introducing the cur
rent into motors from being practicable. The
arrangement Tor guiding the machine will
be much the same as used in the traction en-
gines, and will consist of chains which wrap
around a movable front axle, and will be
operated by an ordinary brake wheel.
Reduction in the Cost of Sweeping.
OF course, this will only collect the dust,
aud it will have to be carted away in the
ordinary way. but the cost, however, OF col
lecting the dust will be much reduced, for
the reason that only sufficient current will
be needed in the wires TO operate the
machines, and the heavy voltage kept up
while the cars are running can be reduced.
Another feature in favor OF the plan is that
the speed can be regulated to as fast or as
slow as is wanted.
Behind the entire plan, however, is
another hidden scheme. 1t is we'll known
that Controller Morrow has for some time
been collecting data on street railway
taxation, with a view of levying tribute on
all the great passenger railway corporations
in the city. In view of the favor with
which the plan has already been received,
it is expected the ordinance authorizing the
tax will be passed by Councils,
a part of Chief Bigelow's plan is, there
fore, to have the street railway companies
furnish the power needed to clean the
streets, as part of the payment of the tax.
Bv this means the work will not only be
done better and in less time than at present,
but also at scarcely any cost to the city.