Evening star., 1902-04-18
FOR CLEANING STREETS
UTILITY OF NEW METHOD TO BE
DEMONSTRATED.
Washing Process Substitutes. for
Broom Work - Experiment to Be
Witnessed by District Officials.

demonstration Of a new system oil
cleaning streets will be given tomorrow az !
teruoon at the corner OF 10th and L streets
at o'clock for the benefit OF the District
Commissioners, the superintendent Of street,
cleaning and members OF the House sub
committee on appropriations The demon
stration Will be conducted by a street.
cleansing and sprinkling machine company
of St. Louis with which Mr.. Warner Slut
Ter. the superintendent Of street cleaning
has been in communication FOR several
weeks past. The new system has been in
use in st. Louis for more than year past.
and is claimed to be the twentieth century,
idea Of cleaning streets. Mr.. Sutlers at
tention was called to it by an article I'm the
Worlds Fair Bulletin, issued at St Louis
In the interest OF the forthcoming Louisi-
ana purchase exposition. IL is nothing
more nor less than an absolute washing oil
the street. instead of the usual sweeping.
Machines employed resemble the ClISto-
mary barrel tank street sprinl1lers
BY means OF compressed air the
water is forced from these wagons
at pressure OF more than eighty
pounds. The nozzle is near the level Of the
street and pointed toward the curb. The
machines form procession. one closely
following the other. the trailers being ar
ranged nearer and nearer the curb. and
thus force dust and dirt to the gutter. In|
most cases three of the machines will covert
the ordinary street. In wider thorough
fares more machines would necessarily be
employed TO force all the filth TO the gutter
where gang Of hand men would be en-
ployed in throwing II into carts and haul
ing it away.
Claim of Reduced Expense.
The seemingly remarkable feature OF the
new system is the claim that the cost OF
cleaning is reduced from one-half to two
thirds. II is not believed that this per-
centage OF reduction would hold good in
Washington, however as street cleaning ha 81
been shown to cost less here than I'm any
city in the country. 1t is stated that the
contractor for machine cleaning here has
expressed his desire to adopt the new sys-
tenn If he is satisfied with the demonstra-
tion tomorrow afternoon. This wnuld mean|
that the streets = the residence section
now swept from eJlce to twice a week by
ma chine. would be often washed under
the new system could not be employed a
a substitute for the hand cleaning which,
now goes on throughout the day down.
town, but could be employed on the bUsi-
ness streets once or twice a week at night.
In the summer especially II would be adj
vantageous to wash the street occasionally
TO remove the gummy substance which ac-
cumulates on the asphalt in dry and hot
weather. Mr.. Stutler recently wrote to Ed
ward NJ. Becker, the superintendent of
street cleaning In St Louis, In regard to
the new system, and has received a reply
in which ii was stated the revolving broom
sweeper was abandoned in that city one
year ago in favor of the new street wash
ing machine. the work now being done att
one-third less cost Mr. Becker says a crew
consists of five "scrubbers." as the ma
chimes are known IN st. Louis, the water
and pressure is thrown to the right and the
dirt IS swept in the cutters. -Four labOrers
pile the dirt up and they are followed by
three carts. One crew can clean five miles
of asphalt streets in eight hours.
The Commissioners will be present at the
demonstration tomorrow afternoon and
members Of the House subcommittee on
appropriations have been invited to witness
II. The commissioner OF street cleaning in
Baltimore is also expected to be on hand.