MAKING REFUSE-COLLECTION HYGIENIC.
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Another Dust-avoiding, Refuse-collecting Wagon. A Stage Farther Towards the Cleanliness which is Demanded by the Public.
ilk TORE and more attention is being 1.V.Lpaid to the absolute need for better means of collecting and transporting house refuse from the points of collection to the tip. Public objection to the open dustcart is rapidly growing, and cleansing superintendents are not quietening, this public objection by trying to effect refuse collection in the early hours of the morning when the public are not about. Without a very big fleet of vehicles this is not actually possible ; moreover, the cost of a large fleet which only works a few hours a day and is idle for the remainder of it would be extravagant.
The difficulty, however, is easily overcome by using the entirely enclosed vehicle with, if possible, some means of intake by which the contents of the bin cannot come into contact with the open air. This is a refinement, however, that adds enormously to cost and may not always be considered necessary.
Quite apart from the desirability of not exposing the refuse to the air so that it can escape, or so that dust may not rise on agitation of the contents by vibration or by wind, there is a considerable advantage in protecting the contents of the refuse-collecting wagon from the rain. Moistness in the refuse increases difficulties at the destructor. There are, however, many other tipablc materials which it is advisable to keep dry, not merely because the presence of moisture may or may not be desirable, but because the addition of moisture to g load of this sort upsets all calculations mid vitiates records, the weighing operations, etc. A load of sand received
• dry and delivered wet, for example, could easily be made to weigh twice its proper weight on the receiver's weighlag machine, and an occurrence of this kind always involves trouble and argument.
Germany has done more than any other country to devise vehicles in which the scattering of dust is avoided, but, as a rule, the German appliances involve the need for special refuse receptacles or bins. Bins are invariably provided by the householder, but if a special bin is to be called for, the corporation or municipality would have to provide it, and the result in capital expenditure, if, for example, the whole of the London .boroughs were equipped with this type of apparatus, would be an outlay of f2,000,000 sterling for bins alone, in addition to which there would necessarily be a heavy annual charge for replacements and maintenance.
Special bins, again, tend to be very heavy and, in general practice, the present lightweight bin is moderately satisfactory. We think, however, it should, if possible, be corrugated for a part of its length so as to prevent it becoming oval under the handling of the dustman, for ovality means that the lid can never close the bin. , All this is a prelude to a description of a new refuse-collecting vehicle which
is being marketed. by Bagley, Mills All Co. of 124, Victoria Street, London, The body is cylindrical, is supported on rollers and is designed to be constantly rotated by means of an electric motor and rolling gear. The bin, 'which may be of any size, weight or shape, is placed on a small frictionless conveyer and run into the body. As the body rotates, the contents are emptied from the bin into a chute, andthen fixed but flexible spiral guide plates drive . the material to the forward end of the body. This facilitates trimming of the load and does it without the need in the body, for any mechanical members which are subject to friction, so that there is nothing to be affected by dust or corrosive material.
For unloading, the tank Is rotated to the opposite direction, when the bells drives the material to the rear.
A second form of the same type of vehicle is arranged to tip endwise to the rear, the material then being discharged through the doorway, and should it happen that it is not convenient to tip the body the helix itself will discharge the contents.
One advantage that we see about this arrangement is that by dispensing with tipping a lower level to the body and a greater overhang of the rear axle is possible.
We illustrate the two types of vehicle which are being made by Bagley, Mills and Co., Ltd.