The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-07-22
STREET-SWEEPING MACHINES.
How They Work and what They Cost
Attempts at Improvements.

Attempts at Improvements.
To the average citizen the street,
sweeping machine is an object of aver
sion and the cause of more or less pro-
family. 1t comes swis hing along just
as ne is going out for the evening and
kicks up cloud of dust which settles
on mis- new silk hat and fills his eyes
and mouth with the sediment of city
life and traffic. The sweeping machine,
however, is the result of good deal of
careful designing and inventing, and
luckless inventors are all the time
spending their time and money in the
effort to get up new and improved ma
chimes.
The standard sweeping machine is the
simplest form that can be gotten up;
for simplicity is a necessity to which all
other theoretical advantages have
yielded. A two-horse sweeper costs the
city four hundred and fifty dollars 1t
has a large pair of wheels behind and a
small swivelled truck in front. Under
the rear wheels is hung the cylindrical
broom. which is about ten feet long,
and which, when new, is about three
feet in diameter. The brooms are used,
however, until they are worn down to
less than half that diameter. They are
made of a material called bass or of rat
tan. Sometimes bass and rattan are
mixed. Especially good results are
claimed for the combination as the stiff
rattan digs out the mud while the finer
bass sweeps away the dust
The broom is hung at an angle of
sixty degrees To the line of travel of the
sweeper, which inclnes il thirty de-
grecs to the main axle. A countershaft
takes the motion from the revolving
axle, though bevel gearing and a
sprockct chain runs down from the
countershaft to the broom. The gear
ing is usually SO proportional that the
broom makes three revolutions to one
revolu ton of the rear wheels of the
sweeper, and in the opposite direction.
The broom can be lifted up and thrown
out of gear by the driver when the
machine is not sweeping
The dirt is tumbled over and over by
the broom, which gradually works to
the right-hand side and leaves it there
in a windrow. The two-horse machine
sweeps a swath about eight feet wide.
Twenty miles is considered a good
nights work for one machine and pair
of horses. AS the machine must travel
back and forth from four to six timesto
sweep street, it can sweep completely
only from three to five miles of streets
in night. In Washington they use
large four'horse sweepers, because they
can be handled to advantage in the
broad avenues of the capital 1t would
be too much bother turning them
around in New York narrow thorough
fares.
With the arrangement of brooms de-
scribed each particle of dust is swept
diagonally across the street and if it is
on the extreme left it will be carried
about forty feet forward in order to get
1t eight feet across to the window
where it is dropped. As the joints of
the pavement run straight across at
right angles, it is evidently desirable
that the broom should sweep along
these joints. Not only would the
joints then be cleaned out but the dirt
would be swept directly to the windrow
instead of being tuInbled over and over
while the machine is travelling forty
feet. One engineer recently built a ma
chine that did sweep exactly at right
angles across the street. but it ran hard
and took more horses to pull it and the
mechanism wasn't quite SO simple as
that of the old machine.
Another object of much inventing is
the construction of a good pickup"
machine-one that picks up and carries
off its own sweepings instead of leaving
them in a windrow. Some have been
built that worked fairly well on a
smooth asphalt pavement, but they are
likely to get out of order and work i'm
perfectly-while "a rough pavement
knocks them out completely.
DIR. Smith, formerly health officer of
New York, has spent over a thousand
dollars on pickup machine which he
had on exhibition at the last American
institute fair 1t had the ordinary form
OF broom, but instead of dropping the
windrows of dirt in the streets it de-
posted it on belt which carried the
dirt up and dropped it into box. This
picked up about three fourths of the
dirt, but the other quarter was left in
the shape of a little windrow of stuff
that was thrown beyond the belt. So
the problem is still unsolved in any en-
tirely practical and satisfactory man
ner.-N. y. Tribune