CHAPTER V 



SUMMARY OF EUROPEAN METHODS OF STREET CLEANING 



IN considering the methods by which streets are 

 cleaned, it is necessary to remember that street refuse 

 is divisible into two general classes. 



In the first class are (a) comparatively large, sepa- 

 rate and scattered articles and (6) more or less large 

 accumulations of small particles. In the first class are 

 newspapers, fruit skins, horse droppings, refuse from 

 overflowing and overturned garbage barrels and similar 

 matter. In the second class is dirt which is in such a 

 finely divided condition that the individual particles of 

 which it is composed are scarcely visible, if visible at 

 all. At one time this dirt is dust and at another mud, 

 according to the amount of moisture which it contains. 



It is obvious that unless promptly removed the dirt 

 included in the first class becomes scattered and pul- 

 verized and takes the form of the refuse in the second 

 group. It is highly important, therefore, in protecting 

 streets against unnecessary soiling to remove the large 

 particles as soon as practical after they appear upon the 

 pavement. Better still, they should be kept off the 

 pavements. In European cities pains are generally 

 taken to remove the coarse litter promptly, but the idea 

 of preventing the needless littering of streets with large 

 objects is not everywhere insisted upon as rigorously as 



it should be. 



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