20 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October i, 1905. 



"Our process requires the use of more power because the 

 slot in our carpet sweeper is much wider and the rubber hose 

 of a larger diameter. While from 8 to 20 horse- power is used, 

 according to the size of the plant, in the vacuum system, in 

 ours, which we call the inrush, from S to 40 is required. A 

 vacuum is like a rope, good to pull with, but no good to push 

 with. We do the pushing part with compressed air. That is, 

 we use it to dislodge the dust from the carpet and the floor 

 underneath, and employ the vacuum to remove it. Two lines of 

 hose are connected with the sweeper. One contains the com- 

 pressed air, and the other being attached to the vacuum ma- 

 chine serves as a conduit for removing the dust. 



" The effectiveness of the system is easily demonstrated. 

 One of our twelve inch sweepers in l}^ hours removed 42 pints 

 or 21 quarts of dust from 560 yards of carpet. It would require 

 14 men working with brooms to get this amount of dust out of 

 the carpet and when they were through nearly hall o( it would 

 be floating in the air. A 12 inch vacuum sweeper has a clean- 

 ing capacity of 400 yards of carpet an hour, or, in actual prac- 

 tice, from 10 to 15 large rooms. 



" It is e.xtremely ditllcult to remove the dust from the carved 

 ornaments of the decorations in some of New York's palaces. 

 It is a very expensive process, too. Whenever the ceiling and 

 walls of the parlor of the Vanderbilt house at Fifty-eighth 

 street and Fifth avenue were systematically dusted, it was for- 

 merly necessary to build a scafTold and have the dust carefully 

 removed by soft brushes, at an average cost of S300. When 

 we were called on to do the work we completed the task at a 

 total cost of $25. 



" Our process of cleaning is in use in the Chamber of Com- 

 merce, W. & J. Sloane's store, the Vanderbilt, Huntington, and 

 Sterns houses and several theaters, includmg the Academy of 

 Music." 



When the Hotel Astor was erected two years ago, the Gen- 

 eral Compressed Air House Cleaning Co., of St. Louis, installed 

 one of its plants in the building. This company owns the 

 Thurman patents, which are regarded by some engineers as 

 among the best for pneumatic cleaning yet taken out. Under 

 the system employed by the company compressed air is used 

 to lift the dust out of the carpet instead 

 of a vacuum. The piping of permanent 

 plants is from ^2 to i inch in diameter. and 

 the flexible rubber hose of a correspond- 

 ing size. The sweeper is T shaped and 

 much resembles that employed in the va- 

 cuum process. The dust instead of being 

 carried off through a pipe to the basement 

 is collected in receptacles on each floor 

 where the cleaning is being done. The 

 engineer and housekeeper of the Hotel 

 Astor express themselves as being much 

 pleased with the system. 



At the Hotel Victoria still another s\s- 

 tem is in use — that of the American Com- 

 pressed Air Cleaning Co., of Milwaukee. 

 Compressed air is delivered to the several 

 flDors of the hotel in steel pipes, wheie 

 connection is made with a rubber hose as 

 in all the other methods of pneumatic 

 cleaning. The sweeper is a nickel plated 

 box about 14 inches long, 10 inches wide, 

 and 5 inches deep. In the bottom is a very 

 narrow slit through which the compressed 

 air is driven into the carpet. The dust 

 being forced out rises into a hood spread 



over the top of the box and then falls into the box itself from 

 whence it is removed and placed in bags. As condensed air 

 naturally contains more moisture than ordinary air, and as it 

 would in that condition make the carpet damp and prevent the 

 dust from being forced out of it, it is first passed through sev- 

 eral large tanks and nearly all of the moisture removed, before 

 being used. In order that it may be made still dryer the air is 

 sometimes passed through a portable drying tank on the floor 

 where the work is being performed. A pressure of 85 pounds 

 is used. The engineer of the Victoria, Mr. G. McDoal, in- 

 formed me that although the hall carpets had been swept 

 every day for several months before the new cleaning appara- 

 tus was installed, nevertheless the first night the new system 

 was used, three ash cans filled with dust was removed from 

 them. 



A list of the buildings equipped with permanent apparatus 

 for cleaning by the various systems here described would fill 

 several columns of this paper, besides which it is to be consid- 

 ered that a larger number of buildings are regularly served by 

 the cleaning companies by means of portable apparatus. The 

 White House at Washington is equipped with a permanent 

 service, as are the residences of many wealthy citizens in 

 New York and other principal cities, together with some of 

 the largest hotels, banks, office buildings, public buildings, 

 churches, theaters, railroad terminals, and even steamships. 

 Nor is the use of these methods for cleaning confined to the 

 United States. The difTerent systems are coming into wide 

 use in Europe. For instance, in Buckingham Palace, the home 

 of King Edward, lias been established a complete vacuum ser- 

 vice which is in daily use. 



• * * 



At the second annual meeting of the British Vacuum Cleaner 

 Co., Limited, in London, in August, satisfactory reports were 

 presented in regard to progress made by the company in in- 

 troducing their system of cleaning, which is the same as used 

 by the Vacuum Cleaner Co. in the United States. A dividend 

 of 6 per cent, for the year was declared. The company hold 

 shares in a number of subsidiary companies, and at the meeting 

 referred to dividends were reported to have been declared dur- 



Lfc hLANT OF THE VACUUM CLEANER CO. 



