WHAT BIRMINGHAM IS DOING.
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By the .courtesy. of Mr. Herbert H. Humphries, the City Engineer and Surveyor of Birmingham, we were given facilities for going fully into the question of the employment Of power-driven vehicles by the Mechanical and Salvage Departments. We were received by Mr. A. V. Blake, Superintendent of the Mechanical Department, who went, out of his way to do all in his power to give us the information required.. The Mechanical Department employ a Considerable number of steam-driven vehicles. These include one Sentinel vacuum gulley emptier, three Aveling: and Forter lorries for the transport of clinker, stone, etc., one Foden wagon, four Yorkshire wagons, two Aveling tractorS,•sixteen-Aveling and Porter road rollers. There ,. are also • five: Fens on order. As regards petrol. vehicles;', there are two Leeee road sweepers, one Barford and Perkins roller, and an: old Daimler touring-car chassis which has been converted into a road sweeper by• the addition of another. sprocket on the off-side sprocket shaft, which, through the medium, of a' chain, cross shaft and .bevel gears, drives the brush. The pneumatic tyres at the back of the Daimler -have. also been eplaced by solids. There are also three interesting .Pioneer sweeping and loading machines ;:which aretowed, behind the steamers. Each of these machines has a brush and is fitted with a worm conveyer and a small elevator which loads, the mud into the towing wagon.
The Corporation also employs trailer tar sprayers. With these trailers the tar pump is driven off the rear road wheels and the tar is heated from the tractor boiler. They•are usually hauled by the steam rollers or tractors.
The Mechanical Department is very inefficiently equipped 'for overhauling and repairs, as, until recently, this work was done by outside concerns. Now, however, it is the intention of the 'superintendent to increase considerably the area of the repair shop, rearrange it entirely and fit it with modern machine tools. He hopes shortly to be able to cope with ail the necessary repairs and overhauls.
The different vehicles are allocated between 20 depots; which • are situated tat various points within the .area covered' by the COrporation. This area is something like„.70 square miles .in extent. As an, example-, or. the work:..clope by the steam v.F.agPlqs'e. eleria$. aeperiod of 66 days, made 252 journeys, during which it travelled loaded .a distance of 565 miles and conveyed material amounting to a total quantity of 1,476 teliar''' These figures must not be' taken as. an average of the steamer's capabilities, but merely as work performed by a single example s,elecced at. random.
We then interviewed Mr. H. Cook, of the Salvage Department, of which Mr. J. Jackson is the Superintendent. The term "Salvage Department" is the recently-adopted name for the refuse-disposal department. In this department most of the work has, hitherto, been performed by horses, but it now has two electrie vehicles in operation—one a two-ton. Orwell and the other a two-ton Edison. The Orwell has replaced two horses which were previously employed on dust collection, but it is doing approximately double the mileage, as the department has taken advantage of its extra speed to convey the waste to a destructor instead of placing it on a tip .; close to the depot. 'This' vehicle tides three journeys per day, each approximately 6i miles in length. The two-ton Edison was doing ruiscella.neons salvage work until quite recently, but it has now replaeed four horses. Its work consists of collecting the oldfashioned •exereta pans, of which there.gre some 300
in the area. Its average mileage is j over • eight per journey, of which it does three per .day. The department has 25 Edisons on order ; these will all be used for dry refuse collection.
For heavy work the department employs. three Yorkshire stea.mers, all four-tormers. They are used for the removal of clinker from the destructors and for the conveyance of road-making material. Their mileage is apprDximately 20 per day for each vehicle. The Salvage Department is perfectly satisfied with steam vehicles for general work, but it is convince.d that electrics are ideal for house-to-house collection. Up to the present the Orwell has run four months, and no complaints have been received as to the regularity of its dust collection. The Superintendent is making elaborate plans to render the collection of dust more efficient when the ntw vehicles are brought into service. Each vehicle will have allotted to it a certain area. On the Monday it will commence collection at the furthest point in its area from the destructor, and day by day will work nearer the depot. Its area is mapped out so that it will finish at its depot on the Saturday. Any arrears which may be left will then occur close to the depot and will be c011ected by a spare depot vehicle which will 'always be kept in readiness to deal with miscellaneous work of this 'description.
There are nine district depots, and each will be provided with its charging plant ; this plant will obtain its power from boilers healed by the incinerator& The Corporation will thus be independent of outside power; arid-their own powerwill be obtained very cheaply.
As regards the work performed in Birmingham, it is interesting to note that the domestic refuse colleieted in the city exceeds 200,000 tons per year. Though a little out of the scope of this article, it may be of interest to state what the Corporation are doing to secure economy from the refuse. Tin cans, etc., are stripped of their coating of tin and the iron is pressed into billets for melting.. Waste paper is sorted and sold, manure is made from the refuse of the meat and fish markets. Grease from waste meat is used for lubricating purposes. Clinker is used for road making and in the manufacture of concrete and paying flags.