MODERN METHODS OF STREET CLEANING - 1909 - FOREWORD THE increasing interest taken in the matter of clean streets and the absence of any treatise which may serve as a guide to right principles and practices in this branch of sanitation has tempted me -to bring t,ogether some of my notes on this subject. These notes are based not only on my own experi- ence, although I have been called upon to clean cities under peculiarly difficult circumstances, but more par- ticularly upon studies which I made during a three months visit to Europe in 1907, partly for an advisory commission on street cleaning for New York appointed by RIayor McClellan. While in Europe opportunities were afforded me to discuss the question of clean streets with many officials and I took part in the delibera- tions of the committee on street hygiene of the Inter- national Congress for Hygiene and Demography which met in Berlin. bluch of the statistical information contained in these pages has been kindly supplied by officials with whom I have come in contact, and to whom I aln indebted for many favors. About twenty large cities were seen, including London, Paris, and Berlin. I had already visited most of these cities, once eight years before and once earlier. By way of comparison I have added to the account of foreign methods of street cleaning a chapter on the work of the New York Street Cleaning Department, this chapter being in substance a paper prepared by me for the Association of Cleansing Superintendents of Great Britain and Ireland which met in London in 1908. It was once my hope that a study of street cleaning methods in different citiei would enable me to deduce some principles of general application, especially as to efficiency and cost, but the nature of the work and the character of the information available does not admit of many precise deductions of this kind. Numberless condition6 of pavement, of traffic and of weather, not to mention differefit sanitary standards, make it im- possible to treat this subject in the severely analytical method common in engineering discussions. XEW YORK, June, 1909 G. A. SOPER CONTENTS CHAPTER I .................... PAGB THE USE AND ABUSE OF CITY STREETS.. 1 Origin of City Streets Uses of City Streets City Dust Streets as Receptacles for Refuse The Main Sources of Street Dirt Reasons for Extravagance. and Tnefficiency in Street Cleaning. CHAPTER I1 FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES APPLICABLE TO STREET CLEANING. . 15 The Aim of Sanitation Sgnitary Ordinances and the Police Duty of Magistrates Necessity of Cooperation in Preventive Work Cooperation with Householders Preventable and Unavoidable Littering Public Receptacles for Refuse. CHAPTER I11 ............................. THE CLEANING OF PAVEMENTS. 21 Physical Properties of Street Dirt Chemical and Microbic Ingredients of Street Dirt Methods of Street Cleaning Pavements General Methods of Street Sweeping The Use of Water in Cleansing Pavements Comparative Cost of Different Methods of Street Cleaning in New York Cleansing with Rubber Scrapers Sprinkling. CHAPTER IV ................................ THE DISPOSAL Theory of Economical Utilization Value of City Wastes The Management of Dumps Composition and Disposi ion of Refuse, Rubbish, and Garbage Private Recep acles Wagons and Length of Haul Garbage Reduction Use OF REFUSE. 29 CONTENTS PAD of City Wastes as Fertilizer Burning as a Means of Final Disposal Sea Dumping Utilization of Ashes and Clinker The Handling of Dust and Dirt. CHAPTER V SUAMRY OF EUROPEAN ETHO HODS OF STREET CLEANING.. ....... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.