Rouen's Interesting Dust and Watering Wagons.
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While Paris is deliberating anti hesitating, several of the more important French provincial cities have been acting energetically in the matter of the collection of house refuse and of street sweeping and watering with the aid of motor vehicles.
Rouen is conspicuous by reason of its progressive work in this direction. The municipality has concluded that it is altogether oldfashioned to collect the household refuse bins by means of slow-moving horse-drawn vehicles. In conjunction with the firm of SautterHark et Cie, of Paris, they have evolved an interesting system of garbage collection by means of a fleet of eight motor vehicles, these eight being sufficient for the needs of the whole city.
The Method in France.
It may be explained that the French method of dealing with household refuse is for each apartment house to be provided with a common bin for refuse, this bin
being placed on the side walk in the early morning and emptied into the scavengers' cart. As the bins are found at intervals of 10 or 15 yards, it was a dicult matter, on account of the slow speed necessary, to have them .emptied into a motor truck. The city of Paris has experienced this difficulty, and has sought to overcome it by the use of electric chassis.
Street-corner Depots.
By the Rouen method the motor trucks are provided with eight bins, carried in two rows on a special body, with special provision for lifting them on to or off the truck without manual labour. During the night the truck distributes these empty bins, each one with a capacity of about 280 cubic feet, at various predetermined spots in the city. They are then received by a labourer, put on a wheelbarrow, and a house-to-house visitation made in order to collect the refuse. The household bins in his district having been emptied, the labourer
deposits his big hopper on the edge of the footpath at an appointed position. This work has been carried on during the night all over the city, and at various street corners bins are waiting to be collected and carried away to the city furnaces. Obviously, in order to obtain economical results, these bins must be collected and unloaded with the least possible delay and with a minimum of manual labour.
An Undertype Model.
As can be seen from the illustrations, the truck has its motor in front under the driver's feet, has a drive to the rear wheels through side chains, and carries a special type of body with a big rear overhang. On the body are two rows of stout wood and metal bins— eight in all—each one being capable of being seized by overhead gearing, lifted up, swung outboard, lowered and deposited on the pavement. For unloading, the four bins on one side can be handled together, and for loading they can
tither be lifted up together or ugly.
It. must be admitted that at first. sight the arrangement appears to be very complicated for the rough work of house-refuse collection. In reality, however, the actual operation has been simplified to such an extent that the vehicle can be placed in the hands of an ordinary driver, who can undertake all operations singlehanded with the exception of hooking on. It is usual to carry two men, but the presence of the second one is not absolutely n ecessa ry.
ri. lie loading and discharging mechanism, consisting of two steel columns, united bY a fixed cross girder and a movable transverse member to which the bins are attached by chains, obtains its movement. primarily from the gearbox, and the control is tlmingh the usual change-speed lever, there being six gear positions: four for ahead speeds, one reverse, and one for the discharger. The truck can load and unload to both left and right, and the distance at which the bins can be set from the edge of the footpath is variable within a certain measure.
At the destructor station the corporation has provided a travelling electric crane specially designed to handle the bins, empty them, and place them in position for hoisting on the trnek. The staff is thus reduced to one crane man and an attendant, these two being capable of emptying the bins as fast as they arrive.
Composite Duties.
In addition to their garbagecollection work, the vehicles are designed for street watering and washing. The whole of the rear of the vehicle is occupied by two shallow water tanks having a capacity of about 580 gallons. The tanks are a permanent fixture and the bins are carried above them. They have had to be made separate in order to provide for the driving mechanism of the crane, but as theyare united by a. pipe there is only one discharge and one flier. The sprinklers are to left and right of the vehicle, just behind the steering wheels ; they can water a street 50 ft.. in width, and are provided with semi-circular shutters, with the control brought up to the driver's right-hand, thus allowing him to shut off entirely or open to any extent., practically instantaneously. The. pump may be driven either when the vehicle is in motion or stationary. The vehicle is also designed to give assistance in ease or fire and to be used for pumping out flooded buildings.
' Steel Tires for Rouen Roads.
As the vehicles are designed to run with steel-shod wheels—rubber being considered too expensive for this class of work—everything has been made particularly robust. Aluminium has been abandoned almost entirely, the crank chamber and gearbox being of bronze and the differential housing of cast steel. The motor is a. four-cylinder model of 105 mm. by 150 mm. bore and stroke with its cylinders in pairs, valves on one side, and lubrication under pressure to all parts, including the gudgeon pins. Normally benzol is the fuel employed, though of course the motor can be run on petrol if desired. The entire mechanism—motor and gearbox—is carried on a. substantial sub-frame secured to the transverse frame members. There is a universal joint between clutch and gearbox and the differential is carried in a separate housing on the countershaft.
The city of Rouen has now had about six-months experience with these vehicles and has entirely abolished the use of horses in connection with garbage collecting, street watering and street washing. The work is done more quickly, there is a considerable diminution in the staffs employed, and the new method promises to be decidedly more economical than the old.