FUELS FROM WASTE.
Page 17
Page 18
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Some Account of the Paris System for the Collection of House Refuse.
IN HIS RECENT PAPER before the Institute of Cleansing Superintendents, Mr. J. A. Priestley, of Sheffield, had some very satisfactory things to say about the results obtained by his electric vehicles, which had been uniformly successful in showing an appreciable economy as against the cost of the collection of refuse by horsed vehicles. It will be recalled that a saving of some in 6d. a ton was in his case effected in respect of ashpit refuse, and a saving of about ad. a ton in respect of bin refuse. Even these figures hardly give a fair idea of the advantages of electric power over horsed traction in Sheffield, since
the motor vehicles have naturally been used over the longer distances where the cost of collection• by horses would have been much higher than the average. Perusal of Mr. Priestley's paper recalled to the writer a very interesting experience on the occasion of his visit to Paris before the war. For some years it has been his practice to make occasionally brief trips to the City of Light with the primary, or at least the avowed, object of studying traffic developments. Perhaps his good intentions were in some
degree prejudiced by the difficulties in the way of early rising inseparable from the acceptance of Parisian hospitality over night One thing, however, he always managed to do. By making a point of going across by a night boat, he arrived in Paris between Ave and six in the morning. He then packed his luggage, together with his other and more valuable belongings, into a firtere and started it off in -the direction of his hotel, living in the hope that the almost complete absence of traffic would make it possible even for the tYpical cab driver of Paris to per'form the journey in safety.
He then set outto walk about the streets and see whatever was to.be seen in the way of early morning operations. In this way, he got a good practical idea of the Paris Systein of househcild refuse collection as it was in the old days. The process was not ideally hygienic or grateful to the olfactory.. Sense. A certain amount of litter generally fell an the wake of all the big-wheeled horsed vehicles on to which the refuse was loaded. The work went on rather slowly, perhaps inipeded_to some extent by the old women
who picked over the refuse to find Anything of value that might have been thrown away. Afterwards, a gmeroits flushirg of the streets cleared up the bulk of the remnants. ,_ On his last trip to which reference has been made, the writer noticed that some kind of a change had taken place since hie previous visit. In some districts the old system was going on. In others, the whole of the work appeared to have been completed, everything was clean and quiet. ObvMusly a big improvement had been effected which had not as yet been applied to all the arrondissements. A telephone enquiry for M. Ventou-Declaux elicited the fact that our old friend, who has sinee been a victim of the rough weather conditions of the first winter of war, was even then not in the best of health. His assistant, M. Poulet, of ". Le Poids Lburd," was, however, very hospitably inclined. An appointment was arranged and the mystery was quickly elucidated.
There had been established in two large depots— the one at St. Ouen and the other at Ivry—two fleets each consisting of 50 large electric vehicles used solely for the collection of house refuse. A trip to St. Chien showed the whole system working like a clock. The cars at that depot were fitted with tipping bodies nearly 16 ft. long and over 6. ft. wide, having a capacity of nearly 16 cubic yards, which. corresponds to something over five tons of household refuse. The bodies were designed to tip to the rear, the operation being performed by a suitable system of hand gearing, which brought the forward end of the body up on two strong sheer legs working in runners. In this way, the bodies could be . tipped to something over 45 degrees from the horizontal, and the refuse tilted out into a trough along which it was carried by a first set of .conveyors, which delivered it to a second set, and so to the furnaces. Here itwas burnt under steam boilers, and tbe power thug brought into being led ultimately to the generation of electric' current, which was taken to the vehicle garage and served to charge the batteries during the day and to " boost "them up at intervals during the night.
In this way this big fleet of heavy vehicles relieved the householders of Paris of their rubbish, and from that rubbish supplied all the current required by the batteries and more that was used for other purposes. Thus the fuel for the whole fleet costa.nothing, or at all events very little.
Each night the lorries left their garage at about 10 o'clock for the districts in which their work "lay. Readers are no doubt aware that the Paris householders have to place their dustbins along the pavement edge over night. When fully loaded with the contents of the bins, the vehicles travelled back to the depot, delivered their loads to the -conveyors, and received a brief " boosting " charge while the men had their supper. Then they went out again for a second journey.
Without going into lengthy technical details, it may he mentioned that each vehicle had a battery rated at 88 Volts and -330 ampere hours, and weighing about • a ton. Current from the batteries fed two compound motors developing together about 15 h.p. and driving the front wheels of the vehicle. The depot Was admirably constructed and arranged. Everything was clean and in order, and the 'charging plants were well thought out and conveniently placed.
The writer has no knowledge as to how much further this development may have gone since his visit. Probably things have been more or less stationary,. though doubtless these one hundred vehicles still do their 25 miles a night each, working quietly while Paris sleeps and leaving the streets clean and pleasant before the morning sun gets a chance rat working upon the refuse and contaminating the atmosphere for the
ensuing day. THE TrUPPER.