AN IMPROVED MODE AND APPARATUS FOR THE COLLECTING OP STREET MUD OR DIRT, AND FOR AN EXPEDITIOUS METHOD OF LIFTING SUCH MUD OR DIRT INTO SCAVENGERS' CARTS
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James McCarthy at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 30th
March 1875.
I, JAMES M CARTHY, of No. 40, Peckham Grove, Camberwell, in the
County of Surrey, Land Surveyor, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE AND APPARATUS FOR THE COLLECTING OP
STREET MUD OR DIRT, AND FOR AN EXPEDITIOUS METHOD OF LIFTING SUCH MUD OR
DIRT INTO SCAVENGERS' CARTS," to be as follows :—
'
I sink at intervals of, say, 16 feet from the existing grids receptacles
of cast iron, brick, stone, or concrete, as may be considered most
expedient, to be about 2' 4" x 1′ 10″ × 2′ 6″, into which is placed a
bucket of either wrought or cast iron or zinc of the following dimen-
sions:-
-2′ 0″ × 1′ 6″ × 2' 0"; the said bucket to be furnished with eyes
or handle for the purpose of being lifted out of the receptacle above
referred to, and the whole to be covered by a grid of cast iron of the
ordinary road pattern to be placed on hinges to enable it to be easily
and readily raised when the bucket is to be withdrawn; the receptable
to be provided with an invert drain on which is to be fitted, say, cast-iron
drain pipes leading to the existing street drain.

page_text: I propose to place my apparatus at a distance of not greater than, say,
16 feet from the existing grids, this distance being for the purpose of
allowing for the street refuse to be readily swept into the bucket without
the risk of any refuse being swept into the sewer.
The bucket will be perforated with very small holes of, say, 1/16" dia-
meter, through which the water will percolate into the invert drain
provided in the receptacle, and from thence will flow into the sewer. By
these means the refuse of the streets may be collected, & in wet
seasons an immense amount of labour will be saved by the draining off
of the water in the cartage; also by these means the street refuse may
be awaiting in the buckets the arrival of the scavengers' carts, thus
preventing the gutters being blocked by the mud or dirt as is the case
in the present system.
"
By my apparatus I bring into use the ordinary scavengers' cart now in
existence, with the addition of a light crane or lift furnished with a set
of "Wilson's blocks or a "small worm & wheel" lifting tackle,
worked from below by an endless rope or an apparatus with gib sheaves,
brackets, and stops gearing, fitted with loose handle, such crane to be
fixed either on the outside front of the cart or over the wheels as may be
thought most expedient, & furnished with hooks to fit into the eyes or
handle of the bucket herein-before referred to. Thus it will be seen that
the receptacles will be filled by the ordinary mode of sweeping; and on
the arrival of the scavengers' cart fitted with the crane or lift as above
described, the man in charge will by means of a small rod raise the grid,
fasten the hooks into the eyes or handle of the bucket, and by means of
the endless rope or winch handle raise the bucket from the receptacle
and empty the same into the cart, replace the bucket, close the grid, and
continue in like manner until the cart is filled, and as at present
arranged the contents of about five of the buckets will fill an ordinary
cart.