No Stagnation in Cleansing Appliances
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Says Ashley Taylor, A.M.I.R.T.E.
Advances in Design Keep Pace With Users' Demands :Labour Shortage Creates Need for Greater Mechanization
WITH the ideas of municipal officers as a constant stimulant, manufacturers of cleansing vehicles and appliances continue to develop their already productive field. Last week at Scarborough the demonstration at the Institute of Public Cleansing's annual conference provided several surprises. Two of them on Wednesday constituted a response to the remarks of the Mayor, CHI-. E. M. Bird. who welcomed the members the previous morning.
The Mayor had referred to Scarborough's litter problem which, as described in The Commercial Motor on June 10, necessitates an early-morning clean-up daily throughout the year. He thought that holiday-makers tended to forget the written and unwritten laws that they obeyed at home.
There were two candidates for consideration in this connection. One of these was the prototype BedfordLacrc suction-sweeper which is intended for the speedy clearance of litter and leaves.
N Bedford A4SS chassis is employed, the sweeping equipment being driven by the vehicle engine through a power take-off and a Lacre gearbox. The vertical front gutter brush is of 22 in. diameter and has 8-in, spring wire bristles. Behind is a curved main brush, with African bass or calabar bristles, mounted on five stocks.
Spring-balanced and fully floating, the brushes give constant surface contact. An intake is located directly in front of the main brush, from which a suction fan lifts the sweepings into the 4-cu.-yd. tipping body by means of air-flow. Sprinkler nozzles are served by a 200-gal. water taik..
A midget mechanical suction sweeper for industrial plants, bus stations and depots, footpaths and public places generally, was presented by Johnston Bros. (Contractors), Ltd., in the form of the Sweep-pup. Actuated by a small J.A.P. air-cooled petrol engine, this machine has a pair of vertical brushes with refillable stocks at the front and a vane impeller that lifts the sweepings up a chute, depositing them in a fabric bag which is detachable for emptying. Sweeping width is 30 in.
A popular appliance for dealing with litter, the Lewin Universal sweepercollector was on show. It has either petrol or electric drive!
Much attention was attracted by the Liverpool Corporation's barrier loader with retractable wheel-arches, the first description of which appeared in The Commercial Motor on June 10. Glover, Webb and Liversidge, Ltd., also applied the design, under licence from Liverpool Corporation and their assistant city engineer (mechanical), in the Lodek special side-loader.
To deal with restricted spaces, the Dennis side-loader, conservatively rated at 6-7 cu, yd., offered a short-wheelbase forward-control chassis, chamfered cab with good vision; rubber mudguards, and a commendable freedom from external projections.
Choice among the pedestrian-controlled machines has been extended by the enterprising Harborough Construction Co., Ltd., with the introduction of an articulated 6-cu.-yd. 35-ewt.capacity design, with tricycle forecarriage. This company also produce a conventionally driven electric for cleansing duties.
Keen discussion was provoked by the paper on public cleansing costing, presented by Mr. John Ruscoe, Bradford city treasurer, on the Tuesday and reported in this journal last week. Mr. Alan Barton, director of public cleansing for Manchester, spoke of difficulties that existed in establishing precise costs of their work. Recent investigations had shown that men were walking 1020 miles on refuse collection in Manchester and lifting anything up to 3 tons during a day. For emptying bins in the city the prime cost was between 4d. and 6d. each.
• Mr. J. Ames, cleansing, transport and salvage officer, Chislehurst, averred that the value of the Ministry's annual costing return lay in the fact that its existence caused those concerned with refuse collection to examine costings for themselves.
.Mr. Ruscoe put the situation in a nutshell when, in the course of his summing-up, he observed that people wanted to find from recorded costs the efficiency of different methods, but because of those different methods it would always be difficult to achieve truly comparable figures.
A prevalent illusion that rural districts had not altered for the past century or so had been dispelled by Mr. Pvliles's paper, said Mr. J. Marriott, chairman of the general council of the Sanitary Inspectors' Association.
In public cleansing, the rural areas • were now getting similar services to those of urban districts, but the problems were complicated by their being spread over a wider radius.
Mr. Marriott wished that the returns zould be extended to rural-districts with population over 20,000. He contended that the rural districts should favour the larger design of vehicle to keep down costs and at the same time avoid multiplication of disposal sites. So far as his district (Wetherhy) was concerned. the day of the I0-12-cu.-yd. side-loader was finished.
Mr. A. Denton Ogden. vice-president of the Royal Sanitary Institute. calculated that some councils' costs forcesspool emptying were greater than would be the loan charges on a sewer. which seems to be a point for watchfulness by vehicle makers.
How Keighley. which includes an c 10
extensive rural area, saves double running to points in the unservcd localities, was described by Mr. R. Dickson. director of cleansing, who is responsible for the emptying of 550-600 pail closets weekly. The first third of a Chelsea-type side-loader has been fitted with a nightsoil tank which is insulated from the rest of the body. The rear two-thirds is employed for refuse, with a stout sack at the back for salvage. The sealed tank does not interfere with tipping.
By this system a great reduction in mileage and vehicle use is secured compared with separate journeys for pails and refuse. Mr. Dickson thought the rural authorities would have to continue employing small vehicles because of restricted entrances.
Pail Closet Work
Objections arc sometimes raised by
employees to pail closet work. Au answer provided by Mr. T. Wilson, chief sanitary inspector. Rothwell. Yorks. was to carry the buckets to a point near the vehicle and to clear them with the aid of the equipment on a cesspool-gully machine.
In his response to the discussion, Mr. F. J. Miles, Eton. said that recently they had purchased 18-20-cu.-yd. packers but would have to maintain some small machines because of the access difficulty that had been mentioned. Universal sewers might he an ultimate objective but cesspool emptiers ensured sanitary conditions in the meantime. With the labour supply getting more difficult, public cleansing authorities had to be prepared to put more money into the transport side.
Labour problems loomed large later on when there were discussions on the address by Mr. A. E. Higginson, Dagenham. The average age of refuse collection staffs was said to be increasing and Chesterfield quoted a figure of 46 years. These facts reinforce suggestions regarding the value of greater mechanization, possibly coupled with the employment of alloy bins. Mr. W. H. Price, cleansing superintendent of East Ham, reported satisfactory trials with aluminium bins that were 10 lb. lighter than the conventional types.
Lack of proper liaison between chassis manufacturers and bodybuilders, which resulted in increasing difficulty in maintenance, came in for some criticism, it being said that cases occurred of bodies shrouding what were at the outset easily accessible chassis points. Setting up of a panel for the two manufacturing sides of the industry. together with representatives of the cleansing officers, was suggested by Mr. J. M. Riches, superintendent at Willesden.
Long carries that reduced the collection rate on modern low-density housing estates to only a half or a third of that in closely built districts were the subject of comment on several occasions. This feature simply had to be faced, said Mr, S. M. Foster, Tunbridge Wells' cleansing superintendent.